Review of the utilization of waste biomaterial resources of selected food crops: rice, cassava, cocoa, sorghum and oil palm
Résumé
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nigeria) in its Minna 2011 Staff Retreat, unveiled an Agricultural Transformational Agenda in which rice, cassava, cocoa, oil palm, and sorghum were identified as target commodity value chain with which to drive the nation’s economy. One of the transformational policies in view of this development is thefinancing of value chains for the processing of these target crops. However, alongthe value chain, Rice husks, Cassava peels, Cocoa pods, Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB), and Sorghum bagasse, each in millions of metric tons per annum are either inefficiently used, underutilized, or totally wasted. In this paper therefore, the authorpresents a review of simple processing techniques to convert these biomaterials (wastes) into value added products (materials) and sustainable energy sources. Furthermore, the economic cost and environmental benefits of the effective biomaterial utilization of these waste resources is drawn-out.