agwithEzinne

Do you really need soybean inoculants?

Did you use inoculant on your soybean?

I get this question a lot and I quite understand. Inoculant is cheaper than chemical fertilizer. Add some of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil and they do a great job of providing your soybean plants with some nitrogen they require.

But, did I use it? No

This is why.

Whenever I begin my farm planning, my goal is still get optimum yield with as little resources as possible. If I don’t absolutely need a particular input, I don’t use it.

Now here are some situations when you really need inoculant:

If you have not planted soybean for more than 3 years on your land the population of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria may just be too low. Use inoculant.
If your soil pH is less than 5.8 or greater than 8, the population of the bacteria may be low because they do not fare well under these conditions.
If your field was inundated in water or held pockets of standing water for a long period of time, by all means use soybean inoculant.
Sandy soils with low organic matter, in extremely dry areas are definitely candidates for inoculation.

If you do not have any of the above problems but choose to use inoculant, that’s still alright. Maybe you get 2% increase in yield. Now the ball is in your court. If you can justify the cost of innoculant by this 2% increase, so be it.

Oil palm production in Nigeria: a step-by step guide

I received lots of requests for a guide on oil palm cultivation in Nigeria, so I have made this guide. It’s a step-by-step guide as straight to the point as can be.

Here we go;

I need you to know that this is not a small-scale investment. If you’re going to start an oil palm production, you better start it big.
Land: oil palm is a permanent crop so you either buy your own land or take up a long term lease. Emphasis on long term. I would say about 10ha and above. Oil palm grows best in deep, well drained, medium textured, non-gravelly and non-lateritic soil.
Seed: use the Tenera Extension Work Seeds (EWS). Tenera is a much favoured variety these days compared to Dura and Pisifera because it is characterized by a balanced percentage of oil and kernel. EWS are sprouted seeds and are recommended in order to prevent planting the seed upside down. Take care not to damage the radicle or plumule.
Seed purchase: The Extension Work Seeds (EWS) can be obtained from Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) in Benin, Edo State.
Nursery: oil palm seeds are not planted directly in the field. The seeds are first raised in a nursery before the seedlings are transferred to the main field.
First, you need to know that the nursery site should be located where it can be easily accessed all year round; the reason for this is to reduce transportation time and distance between the nursery and the planting site. The best site for an oil palm nursery is one with a flat well drained plane surface.
Fill black polythene bags to the top with well-structured top soil, preferably sandy loam or loam. The soil is made firm by watering for at least a week before planting.
Start your nursery by mid-April and end in June when the rains have become regular.
The sprouted EWSs should be sown directly into the polyethylene bags at the depth of 2.5cm. Immediately after sowing, the bags should be mulched with partially shredded palm bunch, palm fronds or dry grass.
You may arrange polyethylene bags in square formations of 45 x 45cm spacing, this spacing allows for about 40,000 seedlings per hectare.
Transplanting: The seedlings should be 10 – 12 months when they are transplanted.
Transplanting of the oil palm seedlings begin as soon as the rains become regular between April and June and is completed at least 2 months before the rains cease.
A very common method for transplanting oil palm seedlings from the nursery to the main field is the Ball-of-Earth method. This method involves transplanting the seedling while leaving the soil around the root.
A 9m x 9m x 9m triangular planting space will give a minimum of 142 oil palm stands per hectare; and if you notice any missing oil palm stands after a while, replanting can be carried out on the second year.
Soil fertility management: oil palm has a nutrient requirement, but ensure to apply these nutrients based on a soil test. You may likely need NPK Mg in the ratio 12:12:17:2 applied at the rate of 14g per seedling at two and eight months after planting, but if your soil is highly fertile, then you will need less.
Water management: it’s easy, water should be available all year. When you eventually start, call me to discuss all about irrigation scheduling.
Weed Management: get rid of the weeds simple.
Pests and diseases: always be on the lookout. Regular crop monitoring and field inspections are very important because early observation of pest and disease outbreak is important in reducing damage.
Harvest: It may take about 4 years for Tenera to yield its first fruits. Consider inter-cropping the oil palm with an annual crop such as cassava during the first 3 years, that way you can make some money while you wait for your oil palm trees to reach maturity.
Still on harvest: To ensure a high quality produce always harvest the ripe fruit bunches early when they are still fresh.

Truth be told, this guide does not incorporate every single knowledge you need for a successful oil palm production in Nigeria. This is only a lite version but it covers the basics and gives you an idea what to really except.

Rich in iron

There are a lot of food rich in iron, but that is usually not the point when you talk about infant food.

Can the baby digest it? Is the nutrient in the available form for the baby to utilize?

Those are the actual questions to ask.

Have you never wondered why various baby formula are fortified with iron when there are several food sources out there naturally rich in the same iron.

There are several of them alright, the only problem is that they don’t suit your little one yet.

What are in those baby formulas anyway? Cow milk, vegetable oil, maybe some wheat flour. Yes, and iron fortification, we can’t leave that out. Iron is very important to a growing infant, if they don’t get enough their body cannot produce red blood cells and their brain won’t develop properly.

What if there was a formula made from a food material that naturally contains all the nutrients a baby needs? There would be no need for fortification. Baby food would be cheap too.

Well, as you think about it, think malted finger millet. Rich in calcium and iron, also in other nutrients; delicious, just the right consistency for a baby food and easily digestible.

Finger millet, the underutilized malt grain

Barley is the world’s premier beer grain. True, but did you know that the next “malt power” after barley is our very own finger millet?

In case you don’t know what malt or malting means, this is the very thing that gives every malt drink, including beer its rich taste. Grains are steeped in water and allowed to germinate, in the process some enzymes are activated which readily convert starch to sugar, specifically maltose. As you have already gathered, this is a super power barley possesses. Other grains such as sorghum and even maize can do this to an extent. That’s why you see sorghum alongside barley listed as ingredients on cans of malt drink.

Today, I want to introduce to you another malt power. Finger millet is an underutilized crop of Africa which is equally a great raw material for making beverages. The amylase in its grains readily converts starch to sugar and it does this better than most grains. Only barley surpasses it.

Why this crop remains underutilized is beyond me.

The food you were trained not to eat

Have you ever thought deeply about the food we eat in Nigeria? I think about it every day. It is very limited. You don’t know it until you have had this discussion with your mother, or sister or whoever you share the kitchen with.

It usually begins with something like this, “Ezinne, what are we going to eat this night?”, that would be my mum.

Every single time I’m asked this question, I begin a complex mental analysis of the menu the past few days. Eventually, I come up with nothing and my mum would say, “why don’t you cook beans?”

To that I will probably respond, “mummy we ate it on Sunday morning”.

“How about rice?”

“We ate it yesterday.”

“Ok, boil some yam.”

“Mummy, we can’t eat yam everyday nah, that was what we had for breakfast.”

“Is there still soup in the fridge? Prepare eba, that’s what we will have for dinner.”

“Haba mummy, we eat soup and eba every afternoon, I don’t think anybody would want it for dinner.”

“Then what do we eat?”

The above conversion with my mother almost every night made me realize that our diet is truly limited. We basically run out of food ideas before the end of the week and begin the cycle all over again – bread, rice, cowpea, yam, spaghetti, soup and eba.

If you think about it, our meals in Nigeria primarily come from rice, cowpea, wheat, cassava, maize and maybe yam. I bet just like me, you are tired of eating the same thing over and over again.

What if I told you, you could diversify your diet? Not with foreign food, not junks, not even processed food. I am talking about crop species native to Africa, grown in Africa, eaten whole, highly nutritious, maybe even cheaper.

Have you ever heard of acha, African yam bean, finger millet, guinea millet, breadfruit, balanite, baobab, butterfruit, marula? These are few among thousands of food crops native to Africa but are currently underutilized, neglected, unknown and lost. Experts say several factors led to their being underutilized but one reason that doesn’t sit quite well with me is the fact that some Africans came to associate them as food for the poor as soon as they were introduced to wheat and Asian rice.

Well I believe, these underutilized crops of Africa should no longer remain hidden. Let us embrace them, improve them and work our culinary creativity on them. They could just be our hope for food security, nutrition improvement and rural prosperity in a region that is said to have millions of hungry and undernourished people by the year 2050.

Fun fact: Did you know that African Yam Bean contains 29% crude protein compared to cowpea (black eyed beans) which contains 25%.

Does the world really need acha rice?

Well it goes by many names, but in Nigeria we call it Acha. To you, it may be Fonio, or hungry rice. Small-seeded grains, high dietary fiber, gluten-free, low glycemic index and rich in amino acids not found in your usual cereals. I would say it has everything going for it. So stupid of me to ask if the world really needs it. Off course the world needs this.

We have a weird way of showing it though; because this West-African crop is currently under-utilized and neglected.

In addition to all that, Fonio also has the potential to boost food security, improve nutrition and foster sustainable use of land. This crop can grow and produce yield even in the poorest of soils where other cultivated cereals dare not grow. It is also fast growing, maturing in 6-8weeks. Rice has got nothing on it. When other cereals are still on the fields chilling, Fonio is at the finishing line already and set to start the race all over again. It’s called hungry rice, duh! it just won’t let you go hungry any time of the year.

The problem is, not much work has been done to improve fonio for higher productivity and less-laborious postharvest processing. Researchers have neglected it and producers have simply looked the other way.

Fonio has a lot of potentials and if given the opportunity can play a huge role in food security. Maybe it could even become a cheaper raw material for some of the products we have going in the food industry – talk about a cheaper alternative for semolina, low-glycemic and gluten-free baking flour, a raw material for making couscous or beer and how about some hot breakfast cereals? Did I also mention that the grains can be popped?

Acacia has so many economic uses if only you took notice

Acacia is a genus comprising of several small and medium tree species. Although hundreds of these species are indigenous to Australia, Africa also has its own fair share.

In fact, acacia trees are recognizable landmarks in Africa.

Ever heard of gum Arabica? You know, the edible natural gum often seen oozing out of some tree bark? Yes, that one. It is a product of various species of the acacia tree.

What many people don’t know however, is that acacia has much more economic uses than it appears, especially in the food industry.

The aboriginal people of Australia have been known to depend hugely on acacia seeds for food. These seeds otherwise known as wattle seeds are roasted and ground into some kind of edible flour that serves several purposes including serving as a gluten-free baking flour, a substitute for coffee and a flavouring agent because of its chocolate-coffee-hazelnut flavor profile.

Species such as A. victoriae, A. murrayana and A. colei are currently being studied as candidates for commercialization in Australia. I believe the same should be done in Africa. This plant is hardy and can thrive under poor environmental condition; its seeds have high nutritional content and low glycemic index. It definitely has the potential to contribute to food security in Africa if we give it a chance.

Bambara nut, a neglected crop

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.

What the hell are “under-utilized crops” anyway?

The name says it all. If a crop specie is under-utilized, it simply means that the crop and its products are not used to their full potential. Other terms also used to describe these crops are “neglected”, “forgotten” and “under-exploited”. Different crop species end up on this “forgotten list” for various reasons. It may be due to unrecognized nutritional value of the species, poor consumer awareness, genetic erosion of their genepools, lack of technical information on them and lack of interest by mainstream agricultural researchers and producers.

The truth however is that these under-utilized crop species have the potential to contribute to food security. Many of them already show the potential for climate change adaptation, dietary diversification, nutritional improvement and other environmental services.

It is my opinion that great effort must be made to study and develop these under-utilized crop species. They may just be crops of the future when the human race suffers from population explosion and adverse climate change.

Ever heard of the African Yam Bean?

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.