Planting material
Clean, appropriate and productive varieties matched to farmer and market needs.
THE ANCHOR CROP
Cassava already has national scale.
Sierra Leone’s 2024 agricultural survey reports about 2.86 million tonnes of cassava. The opportunity is stronger productivity, reliable supply, better markets and more value captured inside Sierra Leone.
304,226cassava-growing holdings2024 national survey
262,326 haplanted area2024 national survey
242,380 haharvested area2024 national survey
11.8 t/haaverage yieldharvested-area basis
BASELINE NOTE
Use the right denominator.
The survey reports 2,855,435.8 tonnes of cassava production. Its 11.8 t/ha yield aligns with the 242,380 ha harvested area, not the larger planted-area figure.
See sources and methodology →CASSAVA WITHIN THE SYSTEM
Focus this page on the crop.
The full land-to-market chain is shown on the homepage. Here, Vitel focuses on the crop-specific levers that determine whether cassava production is reliable and commercially useful.
See the full value chain →PRODUCTION DISCIPLINE
Grow a repeatable system, not just a crop.
Vitel’s production system focuses on planting material, agronomy, crop timing, measured yields, harvest planning and cost control.
The goal is reliable production for real market demand.
WHERE VALUE CAN MOVE
Six levers worth measuring.
Agronomy
Practical field management that improves stand establishment and crop performance.
Harvest timing
Coordinate maturity, labor, transport and buyers so roots move quickly after harvest.
Aggregation
Combine supply where useful to improve reliability and reduce fragmented transactions.
Processing
Convert roots into products when demand, quality, conversion rates and margins support it.
Data
Measure cost, yield, losses, buyer, price and payment instead of managing by anecdote.
VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS
Processing is a portfolio of hypotheses.
Gari is the first processing hypothesis.
Gari
A deeply established cassava product in Sierra Leone. Vitel will validate root supply, processing yield, quality, packaging, demand and unit economics before capital decisions.
High-quality cassava flour
Potential food and industrial market pathway requiring buyer specifications, consistent quality and dependable processing.
Starch
Potential higher-value industrial route with more demanding technology, quality and scale requirements.
Feed & dried products
Potential routes for chips, dried cassava and feed inputs where buyer demand and safe processing can be demonstrated.
CIRCULAR VALUE
Use more of what the crop produces.
Vitel will explore useful cassava by-products only where they are safe, legal and commercially sound. Historical TEU work informs that interest; no current waste-to-energy project is claimed.
MARKET FIRST