AGRIBUSINESS: How cassava beer in Mozambique transformed a poor man’s crop into a cash crop.

AGRIBUSINESS: How cassava beer in Mozambique transformed a poor man’s crop into a cash crop.Mozambique is among the key players at the forefront of the growing buzz around cassava, having found a way to farm and process the plant on a large scale.

AGRIBUSINESS: How cassava beer in Mozambique transformed a poor man’s crop into a cash crop. Mozambique’s Impala Beer is made from cassava, a root vegetable that grows in tropical areas.There’s a quiet cassava revolution in Africa as organisations and governments realise the plant’s impact on empowering smallholder farmers and developing rural communities. AGRIBUSINESS: How cassava beer in Mozambique transformed a poor man’s crop into a cash crop. At the heart of this development is the Dutch Agriculture Development and Trading Company (DADTCO). The company has developed a mobile processing factory that is able to process the crop into cake and starch flour. AGRIBUSINESS: How cassava beer in Mozambique transformed a poor man’s crop into a cash crop.Not only has DADTCO’s invention changed the perception around cassava and the way the crop is grown and processed, it has helped empower smallholder farmers, whom the company buys cassava from. This breakthrough technology, they say, “bridges the gap between smallholder farmers and large food companies.” At the beginning of the initiative, farmers used to sell an average of 1.5 tonnes of cassava roots per year, but now the number has more than tripled. This indicates the benefits of a steady market for those who grow the tropical plant.