Govt urged to encourage use of cassava flour

Agogo (Ash), Nov. 28, GNA - A student researcher has urged the Government to make it a policy for companies producing flour to add 10 per cent of cassava flour to every bag of flour produced. Madam Martha Ashami Armah of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), who made the suggestion, said the system was operating well in Nigeria and could be introduced in Ghana to cut down on the huge foreign exchange used for the importation of wheat.

She said the money that would accrue from reduction in the importation of wheat used in the production of flour could be used to help farmers and other areas of the economy.

Madam Armah was speaking at a workshop on the use of cassava flour for the preparation of bread and pastries at Agogo in the Asante-Akim North district at the weekend.

It was a collaborative effort of the district office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the district assembly with support from All Afra, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and Member of Parliament (MP) for the area and Nana Batafo Akyeampong Nti II, Konongohene.

Fifty participants drawn from bakers groups and youth associations from Patriensa and Agogo attended the workshop. They were taken through the methodology used in measuring the right quantity of cassava and wheat flour in the preparation of pastries.

Madam Armah advised the participants not to let the time and resources put into the programme become a waste but should endeavour to put into practice skills they had acquired at the workshop. Mr George Frimpong, Asante-Akim North District Chief Executive, asked the participants to make it a priority to put into practice the cassava flour innovation.

He pledged to give the participants one million cedis loan each as a start up capital upon which they could build to be self-supporting but said they should do well to pay back the money for others to benefit from it.