Why cassava farmers may abandon the crop that once promised wealth

In Nigeria’s fertile cassava belt, farmers like Malafiya Esson are grappling with a troubling reality: their crop, once seen as a goldmine, is now yielding little more than heartbreak.

Cassava, a staple crop with growing industrial demand in recent years, is facing a brutal market downturn, triggered not by drought or pestilence, but by a dramatic decline in local offtake.

The root of the crisis? A surge in starch imports and waning interest from Nigeria’s industrial processors, who once formed the backbone of the cassava value chain.

“I spent so much on my farm,” Esson, who owns a one-hectare cassava field in Doma, Nasarawa State, told Daily Trust “Now buyers are offering me less than what I put in. I can’t sell at that loss.”
Just five months ago, a pick-up van loaded with cassava could fetch between N170,000 and N210,000. Today, that same load sells for as little as N80,000. Some projections are even grimmer, with prices expected to plunge further to N50,000 in some regions. Farmers like Esson, caught in the middle, are forced to choose between distress sales to garri processors, who pay even less, or letting their harvest rot.

The price crash is more than a market fluctuation; it’s the symptom of a deeper dysfunction in the cassava value chain.

Why the market collapsed
According to Kehinde Lawrence, Programme Manager of the Industrial Cassava Stakeholders’ Association of Nigeria (ICSAN) who spoke to Daily Trust, the crisis began when industrial buyers, particularly in the pharmaceutical and food sectors, abandoned local cassava starch for cheaper, imported alternatives.

“Processors who invested billions in machinery and partnerships with farmers are now shutting down,” Lawrence said. “Some of them took bank loans to support farmers. Now they can’t sell their output, and the banks are knocking.”
ICSAN points fingers at a government decision to license 80 pharmaceutical firms to import starch-based substrates, such as corn starch, duty-free. This has essentially drowned out local producers.
“The multinationals and even the local manufacturers filled their warehouses with imported starch,” one processor lamented via WhatsApp. “We cried out to PVAC and NAFDAC, but nothing changed.”
It’s a classic supply chain domino effect: industrial processors lose buyers, so they stop purchasing cassava from farmers. With limited buyers, farmers turn to smaller-scale garri processors who cannot pay a fair price. Eventually, the farmers stop planting.

“The people who have the capacity to process at scale aren’t buying,” Lawrence explained. “So the offtake from farms drops. Farmers are left stranded.”
This breakdown has especially hit hard in regions like Kogi and Nasarawa, where cassava farming had surged in recent years due to industrial demand. Austin Benedict, a farmer in Awo Adaba, Kogi State, held off selling his cassava in January, hoping for a better price. He now regrets that decision.
“It went from N170,000 per tricycle load to N130,000,” he said. “I should have sold earlier. Now I’m stuck.”

A missing policy backbone
The cassava sector’s turmoil is exacerbated by a glaring policy vacuum. Despite cassava being one of Nigeria’s most critical crops used in food, industry, and even biofuel, there is currently no national cassava policy in place.
“We raised this with the Minister of State for Industry,” Lawrence said. “He’s now working with a department in the ministry to come up with a framework before the end of the year. But we need the President and the National Assembly to back it with urgency.”
Stakeholders argue that a well-articulated cassava policy could prioritize local sourcing mandates, protect local processors from unfair competition, and stabilize prices for farmers.

What needs to happen
ICSAN is calling for immediate government intervention: enforcement of executive orders on local procurement, tighter controls on starch imports, and targeted support for cassava processors and farmers.
“Two weeks ago, the President asked all ministries to stop procuring foreign-made items when local alternatives exist,” Lawrence noted. “This should apply here too. We have processors who can produce food-grade starch and sorbitol at high quality. Why are we importing?”

In the meantime, farmers like Esson are left with dwindling hope and a ticking clock. If prices don’t rebound soon, many may abandon cassava altogether.
“If this continues,” he said quietly, “we’ll just stop planting. It’s not worth it anymore.”