A 48-year-old Extension Officer, Mrs. Patricia Sackeyfio, of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) at Mpraeso in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region has produced flour from tiger nut, following a six month intensive research into the crop at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the internet and other research centres.
Mrs. Sackeyfio, who is now pursuing a diploma course in extension services at the Kwadaso Agricultural College in Kumasi, has been able to process the flour into composite cake, milk, custard, doughnut, biscuit, bread, bread rolls, fancy rolls, savory pie and many others.
This was made known at an exhibition of pastries prepared from the tiger nut flour at Mpraeso last week.
According to the research officer, she realised the problems farmers of the crop were facing at Kwahu Aduamoa and other areas in the district and decided to undertake a Sassakawa Global 2000 supervised enterprise project, in collaboration with Cape Coast University, to research into the crop to add value to it to enhance its patronage with the ultimate aim of alleviating poverty among the growers.
She said, edible oil, cream and soap could be obtained from the crop while its leaves could also be processed into mat and, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, the District Assembly and other appropriate authorities for assistance to establish a cottage industry to process the crop for both local consumption and export.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Raymond Osafo Djan, called on the country's scientists and research institutions to process some of the country's agricultural products to add value to them for export to earn more foreign exchange for the country.
He said, for the past years, the country's primary products, such as cocoa, timber, gold, bauxite, manganese and many others, were exported in their raw state at lower prices, while the countries exported to, processed them to add value and sold them back to us at very high prices.
The DCE commended the district directorate of MOFA for its achievement by adding value to the tiger nut, which for a long time had been sold in its raw state in the Kwahu area.
He advised the farmers of the crop in the area to take advantage of the exhibition and study the processing programme to add value to it to alleviate poverty among themselves.
In an address read on his behalf, the district director of MOFA, Mr. Samuel Kofi Larbi, said it is the government's responsibility to assist farmers and other small-scale industries to process agriculture products by adding value to them to preserve them from going waste.
He further advised women cultivators of the crop to put the processing procedures into practice to enable them to put what they produced into effective use.
The queenmother of Aduamoa, Nana Kumwaa Sarponmaa, commended Mrs. Sackeyfio for involving the women in the town in the processing programme and gave assurance to make effective use of the programme to enhance their living standard.
