By Ijeoma Olorunfemi

The Nigerian Natural Medicines Development Agency (NNMDA), has called on stakeholders in the cassava production value chain to collaborate in their Pharmaceutical Grade Starch project.

Its Director-General, Prof. Martins Emeje, made the call at their Consultative Stakeholders Engagement on the Development of Traditional Medicine in Nigeria webinar.

The meeting focused on “Unlocking Nigeria’s Potential: Natural Medicine, Cassava Cultivation and Pharmaceutical-Grade Starch Production for Health, Wealth Creation, Student, Youth and Women Empowerment-The NNMDA Approach.’’

Emeje recalled the project was approved by the National Assembly following an outcry by the agency to develop homegrown cassava starch fit for medicinal purposes.

“It is a shame that Nigeria, as the largest producer of cassava in the world, will be importing pharmaceutical excipients such as pharmaceutical grade starch to make drugs in Nigeria.

“Instead of rushing into the laboratory, we created a sustainability spectrum and came up with the name- Cassava Value Chain Initiative.

“We want to have a seamless synergy and connection with everybody in cassava value chain cultivation and anything relating to cassava production, including those in academia.

“We want to have a database of everyone into cassava production, location, services rendered, products you supply, so we can do proper geo-allocation of our initiative and decide where you can make an impact on the value chain.’’

He further said that cassava planting for food differed from cassava for medicine, stressing the need to have specialists cultivating cassava for medicinal purposes.

“Those we will take in this area are not going to be planting cassava for starch, for food, but your job will be for our project, we will designate you as the centre for excellent farming in cassava for medicinal use.

“Some of you will be cultivating specifically for us to get the starch that we will convert to pharmaceutical grade, the rest will be left for us to research in our laboratories across the country,’’ he said.

Emeje said they were not deterred in spite of few players in cassava production but would bridge the gap to ensure that cassava for pharmaceutical use was produced locally.

The director-general said the Federal Government had the objective to achieve what was right, which was stopping the importation of pharmaceutical excipients and reactive ingredients.

“We will galvanise people already in the system to achieve this goal and we are not going to reinvent the wheel,’’ he said.

He said they were engaging in a community-based approach to address cassava production for medicinal use, with evidence to discourage resistance in the system.

Emeje recalled that they had stakeholders’ engagement with youths in the past week and would engage the National Association of Nigerian Students, and policymakers, among others.

He said reports on the outcome of the engagements would be collated, and experts deployed to the field to bridge existing gaps in the value chain. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Oluwafunke Ishola