Madam Affiong Robert looks over 70 but she is actually under 60 years of age. The grandmother of three from Ikono Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State has lived in Okoyong, a historical community of Cross River State since she was in her 20s.
She has engaged in farming activities since then, including being hired at small fees to weed farms, and cultivate or harvest cassava, even as she too owns her own farms and hires colleagues to help out sometimes.
Farmers, entrepreneurs, tech developers explore annual Agric Show to address challenges
Agric minister seeks collaboration on agroecology
Perhaps, due to tiresome manual work on farms on a daily basis, year in and year out, Madam Robert has become bony, sickly, and aged. She would not allow her picture to be taken despite pleas, arguing that she is not the head of the women cassava sellers and that her portrait could offend the eyes.
“Our women have refused to come together so that we can unite for a common front. They argue that each of them has farms, so they do not see any reason to come together. So we do not have leaders.
“What we do is that every Friday, once it is the turn of the Okoyong Usang community, we converge on this junction market with quantities of our processed cassava. We are very many. As you can see, we usually spread along this road. Each one of us has the right to sell. But the prices for our processed cassava per bag fluctuate between N11,000 and N12,000 on average as against N8,000 before now.
Read more: https://dailytrust.com/cross-river-cassava-processors-groan-despite-efforts-to-modernise-output
