You may have eaten the famous okpa. A delicious pudding, much like moi moi made from Bambara nut rather than cowpea. Would you be surprised if I told you that the only ingredients in Okpa are the bambara nut flour, palm oil, salt and water? Bambara nut is so rich in taste that no other condiment or flavor enhancer is needed like you would find in many Nigerian dishes.
Apart from Okpa, I have also eaten boiled and roasted bambara nut as snack.
You may ask, “if Bambara nut is consumed in Nigeria as okpa or as a boiled and roasted snack, then how is it a neglected crop?
Well it is.
Considering that is has a higher protein content than the widely cultivated cowpea and soybean, bamabara nut is not as widely eaten in Nigeria or West Africa as a whole. Also, improved agronomic techniques do not exist for bamabra nut production.
A quick interview I had with some bamabara nut growers shows that these farmers cultivate Bambara using traditional methods and harvest 1-2 pods per plant stand. This is by all standards a low yield. I myself have conducted some trials and found that this crop has the potential to do better.
agwithEzinne 