Obong (R) and Ronald Kikambi (L) of Ngetta ZARDI show how the chipper works. Photo by Bill Oketch

Cassava chips are one of life’s simple pleasures. They are one of the simplest recipes you can do with the cassava root. The chips can be a great supplement to tea either at home or office.

Every traveller that has passed by River Kafu has a great reminder of unmissable roasted cassava. And fresh cassava is only the start.

A lot of families, especially in northern Uganda have recipes used with dried cassava flour. Cassava, is also, one of the plants cultivated to brew Ngule beer and moga-moga, a local gin in northern Uganda. If you like cassava for its many uses, the cassava chipper machine should be an essential product on your farm.

It can slice a cassava up in a matter of seconds and your chips can dry in less than two hours, instead of days. Thinner cassava pieces dry faster, and at low moisture content levels of 13 per cent, linamarase is inactivated, and cyanogen glucoside break down ceases.

According to Samson Obong, an agronomist at Ngetta Zonal Agricultural Research Development Institute (Ngetta ZARDI) in Lira District, the cassava chipper’s portability makes it priceless.

It remains a perfect tool for transforming your cassava into flour that can be sold at competitive prices on the market. Its sibling is a miller that can enable the farmer make his/her own flour on the farm. T

he petrol run machine costs about Shs4m. It is mechanical, so you do not have to worry about parts breaking down over time and if they do, they are available at Tonnet on Gayaza Road. If you take proper care of the vital parts that chip the cassava, the chipper is a tool you can hand to your children.

The cutter has durable stainless steel blades. Just mount it on a flat surface anywhere in your garden, and start making chips from washed cassava. Once you have finished, you can just throw them on polythene, tarpaulin or any other dark coloured material for quick drying.

Ultimately, the cassava chipper machine, which was developed by NARO technology can do no wrong. After all, who does not enjoy adding value to their produce before it is sold on the market?

Viable Traditionally, cassava is processed into chips by peeling, cutting into chunks and drying on the floor or by the roadside. It is estimated that more than 80 per cent of fresh cassava roots produced in Uganda are processed this way, indicating a market size of about one million metric tonnes.

Since wheat prices are being pushed up by the day, if quality is improved, dried cassava can be a viable partial raw material substitute for wheat in current major food items that include chapattis, mandazis, doughnuts, bhaghia, cakes, in addition to bread and biscuit baking among others.

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