In 2016, at an exhibition in the University of Nigeria Nsukka, I came across some kinda off-white coloured flour packaged in a jar the producer labeled AYB flour.
Well, it made me curious and what I found out afterwards surprised me as well
AYB which is an acronym for African Yam Bean is a legume I am very familiar with. Well, I knew it as “Ahima” which is what we call it in my hometown. When I was a child, my father particularly loved “Ahima” and would make us eat it either boiled or roasted during our Christmas visits to Ohafia. I did not really care for the boiled “Ahima”, but I enjoyed the roasted snack.
I also remember my father growing the plant at the backyard of our house in Umuahia. He did not plant them every year though.
It always surprised me that this pulse was not as common as cowpea. I never saw them in Umuahia or any other place. As a child I concluded that the crop and its products only existed in Ohafia and nowhere else. I thought maybe it had a cultural significance to the ohafia people alone.
I was wrong. The Ohafia people do not have any particular attachment to African Yam Bean. It is actually grown in various parts of west Africa. The only problem is not many people are interested in growing this crop and so it has become under-utilized and neglected.
So many reasons could have led to it being an orphan crop, perhaps difficulty in the cultivation, poor yield, problems related to consumption or just general lack of interest in their development.
This crop however should not be in the forgotten list anymore. It can thrive in extreme conditions, is resistant to several crop pests, replenishes the soil it is grown in with nitrogen and is an important source of protein with a protein content of 29%, definitely higher than most edible pulses.
agwithEzinne 