Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has officially endorsed FIIRO’s 20% cassava bread and re-branded it “Cassy-Bread… powered by FIIRO”. This development took place during the Hon. Minister’s working visit to the Institute on Thursday, February 6, 2014. He expressed his satisfaction with the pioneering role of Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) in Research and Development into High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) inclusion in bread and confectioneries. Dr. Adesina also acknowledged the support FIIRO has been giving in promoting the inclusion of HQCF in bread and its active role in transferring the technology to master bakers across the country.
The Director General of FIIRO, Dr. Gloria Elemo seized the opportunity to fully brief the Honourable Minister on the breakthroughs of FIIRO in Research and Development that have made far reaching impact on the brewing industry with the replacement of Barley malt with sorghum malt; Development of Weaning food (Soy-ogi), Palm wine production and preservation, Kunu production and preservation, Instant Pounded Yam Flour production, Edible mushroom cultivation and spawn production, etc. She further gave an insight into the activities of the Institute in the area of post-harvest loss reduction through its developed agro-processing technologies for most of Nigeria’s food crops and agro-commodities. Dr. Elemo also acknowledged the directive of the Hon. Minister for the Institute to be engaged in the training of 5,000 Master Bakers under the Cassava Bread Fund.
Dr. Adesina encouraged the Management of the Institute to extend the transfer of the technology of HQCF inclusion in bread to tertiary institutions in the country and also train those that have established their own bakeries on cassava bread production. He also charged the Institute to scale-up its Sorbitol and Glucose R&D Technologies in order to further maximize the Cassava Value Chain. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture through the Agricultural Research Council will give financial support.
The Hon. Minister further restated the commitment of the Federal Government to the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) as a means for creating more jobs, reducing food import bill and ensuring food security for the country. He opined that FIIRO is one of such organizations that his Ministry will be leveraging upon to drive the ATA to its logical conclusion.