Tiger-nuts: Untapped non-traditional export crop

Ghana’s trade imbalance continues to widen up with massive imports as against limited export trade.  

The situation is a pivotal contributory factor to the craze for major international trading currencies, translating into the perennially depreciating cedi. 
 

Export earnings in the country are heavily dependent on cocoa and a few largely unprocessed commodities. In 2013, the non-traditional exports earnings were estimated at US$2.4billion; and government has targetted generating about US$5billion from the sector by 2019. 

 

Stakeholders in the export sector have been exploring available opportunities, especially in agriculture, to factor into the country’s export commodities net so as to bridge the huge trade disparity and position Ghana as an export-driven economy. 

There is a large variety of agricultural crops cultivated here in the country with enormous economic usefulness, but they are yet to catch the attention of necessary institutions for the needed support to unearth their full-scale potentials.  One such crop is tiger nuts, which are locally known as ‘atadwe’.

Tiger-nuts (Cyperusesculentus var. sativus) are from an emergent grass-like plant belonging to the sedge family; it is found to be a cosmopolitan perennial crop of the same genus as the papyrus plant that is common in seasonally flooded wetlands. 

It is widely distributed in the temperature zones within South Europe as its probable origin, and has become naturalised in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. 

The plant is one of the earliest domesticated crops, and in fact was found in vases for use in embalming bodies of the Egyptian Pharaohs. In Nigeria, it is available in fresh, semi-dried form in the markets where it is sold locally and consumed even uncooked -- as being done in Ghana. 

Many Ghanaians, especially men, primarily consume uncooked Atadwe as a sexual stimulant -- but tiger-nuts are under-utilsed due to lack of information on their potentials. 

Many countries across the globe have researched a lot about tiger-nuts, and they are really making economic and health gains out of it -- particularly in the pharmaceutical and agro-processing industries. 

Classical examples are: in China, tiger-nut milk is used as a liver tonic; drunk to heal serious stomach pain; to promote normal menstruation; and to heal mouth and gum ulcers. The black species of the tiger nut is also known in China as an excellent medicine for breast-lumps and cancer among others. 

Tiger-nut oil, per its edible and stable oil qualities, is said to be superior oil that compares favourably with olive oil in some advanced countries like Spain. Researchers say atadwe oil has a high oleic acid and low polyunsaturated fatty acid, enough to cover daily minimum needs for an adult and so is excellent for the skin, thereby making it a preferred choice chiefly for salad making. 

On the flip-side, Ghana’s economic and health achievement from tiger-nuts is almost equivalent to nothing.  Tiger-nuts are one of the traditionally cultivated crops at Buoyem, a farming community near Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region. According to the farmers, they are yet to see any significant economic impact on their lives though since time immemorial they have been growing atadwe -- as a result of the country’s inability to add value to the crop and explore its economic viability. 

Tiger-nuts are largely consumed for their aphrodisiac value while some few distilling companies have tried to produce alcoholic beverages from it; but only God knows how the atadwe wines have thrived on the Ghanaian market, let alone for export.  

B&FT has gathered that the principal buyers of tiger-nuts are street vendors and a few distillers from Konogo in the Ashanti Region, and they [buyers] have monopolised price control irrespective of the general market indicators outlook. Because of the non-competitive nature of the crop’s trade, farmers are hugely marginalised. 

Nana Agyei Ameyaw, a farmer, told B&FT that more farmers in the tiger-nuts hub town of Buoyem have shunned its cultivation for other relatively economic viable crops such maize and cassava for gari-processing. Tiger-nuts farmers have lost interest in the trade due its inability to change their economic fortunes, he said.

Nana Ameyew, like all tiger-nuts farmers at Buoyem, want government and allied agricultural development partners to whip up their interest in itsproduction in order to make it one of the leading non-traditional cash crops in the country. “If we can’t make tiger-nuts one of the leading export crops in the immediate future, we should be able to add value to it. This will help diversify and open-up the agro-processing base in the country.” Source: B&FT