IITA fabricates bigger cassava peelers

16.03.2008

THE presidential cassava initiative, cassava processing industry, and cassava market generally, will receive another boost when the new industrial cassava peelers, just fabricated by the international institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), are launched and commercialised.

The peelers, which comes in three sizes, are already on display at IITA headquarters, Ibadan. The biggest peels about 10 tonnes of cassava daily in less than 10 minutes, displacing 20 men’s labour, the medium size peels five tonnes daily within 10 minutes, neutralising 10 men’s labour, while the smallest machine peels 3.5 tonnes.

The three machines are operated by one person, the main tasks being the loading and off loading them after the peeling from the machine cavity.

All fine masterpieces and efficient, they are also unique in the ease with which they remove brown and white outercoats of cassava, while maintaining the same flesh loss margin of between 12-22% as in manual peeling.

Their peelers’versatility lie in the ability to peel ,not only cassava ,but other tubers of different shapes and sizes, and washes them simultaneously . The three are powered by electric motor, petrol or diesel engine.