I am Chimeremeze Emeh, a cassava farmer and processor from Abia State in Eastern Nigeria. Cassava is not just a crop to me — it is the life I was born into and the world I still live in today.
My journey with cassava did not start in a classroom or a research institute. It started in the farm, as a child, working side by side with my parents under the sun in our village in Abia State.
Before I was old enough to fully understand what I was doing, I was already doing it, preparing the land, selecting the healthiest cassava stems for planting, cutting them to the correct sizes, and planting them the right way into the soil.
These were not lessons taught with textbooks. They were lessons taught with hands, soil, and seasons.
Farming cassava is not a plant-and-wait process. Between planting and harvest, we weeded the farm two to three times to protect the crop and ensure the roots developed well.
Every stage of that process, from the first day of land preparation to the final day of harvest, I experienced firsthand, repeatedly, across years of active farming in Abia State, Eastern Nigeria.
But my experience does not stop at the farm gate. After harvest comes processing, and I have spent years doing that too. I have processed raw cassava roots into garri, fufu, cassava flour, and starch using traditional local methods passed down through my family and community.
I know what each product looks like at every stage of production. I know what separates well-processed starch from poorly processed starch.
I know the texture, the smell, the consistency, and the effort that goes into each finished product. This is knowledge that only comes from doing, not from reading.
Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, and Abia State sits within the Eastern zone where cassava farming and processing are deeply woven into daily life, local food systems, and community livelihoods.
That is the environment where my expertise was built, refined, and continues to grow.
Today, I use that lifetime of firsthand experience to create practical, honest, and trustworthy content about cassava and tapioca for readers around the world.
Whether you are a home cook exploring gluten-free baking with tapioca flour, a food manufacturer researching cassava starch applications, or simply someone curious about where tapioca comes from and how it is made, everything I write is grounded in real experience from the farm to the processing floor.
I was born in cassava. I grew up in cassava. I still live in cassava. And every article on this website reflects that.
Have a question about cassava farming, processing, or tapioca applications? Feel free to reach out through the Contact page.