The Nigerian Natural Medicines Development Agency (NNMDA), on Friday, called on stakeholders in the cassava production value chain to collaborate in their pharmaceutical-grade starch project.

NNMDA’s director-general, Martins Emeje, made the call at their Consultative Stakeholders Engagement on the Development of Traditional Medicine in Nigeria webinar.

Mr Emeje stated that the National Assembly approved the project following an outcry by the agency to develop homegrown cassava starch that is suitable for medicinal purposes.

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

Mr Emeje said they were not deterred despite 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 aimed to achieve what was right: 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.

Mr Emeje noted that stakeholders engaged 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)