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Nigeria Spends N1tr On Wheat Import Yearly. Here’s How This LAUTECH Researcher Is Changing That
By Okike Samuel
For centuries, all over the world, man has come to depend greatly on Cereals as a reliable and healthy source of food. Not only do they have a myriad industrial applications in brewing, baking, textile, and so on, research has also proven that their nutritional value to be indispensable. Consumption of cereals is known to reduce risk of cancer, lower risk of multi morbidity, prevent constipation and colon disorders, and even maintain blood sugar levels.
Nigeria is no exception in the large-scale consumption of cereals, with many local food processing industries depending majorly on wheat-based flours for production. However, a recent presentation of decades-long research by Prof. Isaac Adeyemi, a Professor of Food Science and Technology at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has shown that there are a number of healthier and more economical alternatives to wheat flours.
On average, Nigeria spends up to N1 trillion on wheat and rice every year, according to a 2016 report by the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, but Prof. Adeyemi’s research into Composite flour technology — which involves the mixture of non-wheat flours with or without additional wheat flours — indicates that by making use of alternative cereals like maize, rice, sorghum, and millet, and even roots and tubers, developing countries like Nigeria can reduce wheat import bills and also stimulate local production.
To paint a picture of the historical importance of Composite flour technology, Prof. Adeyemi quoted the following verse from the Holy Bible:
“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side.”
During his inaugural Lecture titled ‘My world of Cereals,’ Prof. Adeyemi, one of LAUTECH’s four pioneer Professors in 1990, outlined his contributions to the study of Composite flour technology which was championed internationally by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For example, working with non-wheat flours such as cocoyam flour, maize flour, amaranth flour, and cassava flour, Prof. Adeyemi experimented on the production of Biscuits and Cakes. Results from the experiments showed that products made with up to 60 percent cocoyam flour substitution were of standard quality and generally acceptable by evaluation panels. Precisely, 70 percent of the panelists found the “cocoyam biscuit” acceptable. Also, 50 percent of the panelists indicated that they would buy the “cocoyam biscuit” if offered for sale.
Prof. Adeyemi also conducted experiments on the manufacture of Wafers from non-wheat flours, Maissa — a baseline composite flour for ‘Nigerian Bread’ comprising of maize flour, cassava starch and less than 20 percent of wheat flour –, and Wheatless bread made from cassava and maize flours, all of which showed no significant difference in quality and taste, and showed promising responses from their acceptability tests.
So far, considerable strides have been made by the federal government in the adoption of these locally made alternatives to imported wheat flours, however, the efforts still appear infinitesimal to some.
According to Prof. Adeyemi who was a recipient of the Nigerian Federal Government Scholarship Award in 1974 for his Ph.D. in Food Science in University of Leeds, England, and is also a member of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and National Composite Flour Committee, past administrations including those of Shehu Shagari which sponsored the FAO team on Composite flour to Nigeria, Buhari and Babangida which enforced non-wheat flour in bread making, and Olusegun Obasanjo which open doors for investment into cassava cultivation and processing, have gotten the ball rolling. Their efforts have “ resulted in the incorporation of cassava flour at 10 percent in most, if not not all, commercial flours produced in Nigeria,” stated Prof. Adeyemi.
However, he concluded by stating that there is still much to be done, both by public and private sectors, for the current momentum to be sustained.