Effectiveness of Nigeria Policy on Substitution of Wheat for Cassava Flour in Bakery Products: Empirical Evidence from Enugu State, Nigeria

The study assessed the effectiveness of Nigerian policy on cassava flour inclusion in bakery products.. It was conducted in Enugu State in 2010 and repeated in 2017. Data were collected using structured questionnaire from 60 households and 60 bakers in both years. They were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results show that in 2010 only 3.3% of the bakers used cassava flour in baking, while 97.5% were using cassava flour in 2017. Some of the reasons for none use of cassava flour were ignorance, acceptability and quality of the products. Acceptability of cassava flour made products among consumers has grown from 1.7 in 2010 to as high as 46.7% in 2017, depending on the product. Some of the constraints faced by the bakers in the substitution of wheat for cassava flour include/technical know-how, low acceptability of cassava made products among consumers, high cost of non-cassava inputs, high cost and low supply of cassava flour and policy inconsistency. It is therefore suggested that there is a need to stabilize cassava and cassava flour production in the country to meet the demand for high quality cassava flour and provide a sustainable framework for the implementation of the policy to avoid the cases of policy inconsistencies as has been witnessed so far in the implementation of the policy.