Mr. Samuel Abrah, a 63-year old retired driver, has started distilling edible oil from nuts of a tropical almond brand known as ‘abrofo nkatie’ in Twi.
He has also designed a machine to crush and extract the oil, which could be used to manufacture soap for industrial use.
The oil could be processed into jam and milk, while the husk could also be processed into animal feed and fertilizer and its leaves could also be used for tea.
Mr. Abrah, who is also the President of the Tropical Almond Growers Association of Ghana (TRAGA), disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting for farmers, chiefs and assembly members and local entrepreneurs under the theme “tropical almond an unexpected economic tree in Ghana” at Abetifi on Tuesday.
The forum was sponsored by the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC), with support from DANIDA, USAID and the European Union (EU) to deliberate on the benefits of growing almond crops.
He said the tropical almond crop could be grown in all parts of the country and had economic, health and environmental benefits, whiles the extracted oil had the potential for springing up industries for export, thereby creating employment to alleviate poverty.
Mr. Abrah appealed for technical and financial support to increase cultivation of the crop for it to become one of the leading non- traditional export commodities in the country.
Professor Kwaku Tanoh Debrah, of the Food and Nutrition Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, said every part of the almond tree was useful and when given the necessary attention would be an alternative cash crop to cocoa and timber.
He said the plant originated from South East Asia and could be found throughout the tropics of the world with many uses such as curing diseases.
Professor Debrah said the tropical almond contains an amount of phosphorous, calcium, carbohydrate, crude fat, magnesium, iron, sodium manganese and other vitamins for the human body.
The Kwahu South District Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr. John Nketiah Gyemfi, advised farmers in the Kwahu area to cultivate the crop on a large scale to serve as afforestation and timber species to protect the environment.**
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