Agri BusinessAgri NationalNATIONAL NEWSPOLITICS (Platform)

Almond tree ‘Abrofo nkatie’ can save Ghana – Agric researcher

World Agricultural Oil Extraction researcher, Professor Tano-Debrah says Tropical Almond tree (terminalia catappa) known locally as Abrofo Nkatie (Twi) or Gugianbaturi (Hausa) has the economic potential to save Ghana.

Professor Tano Debrah of the University of Ghana Department of Nutrition and Food Science is a PHD holder from Hiroshima and also a Marie-Curie Fellow.

He said that the Almond tree can produce fruit within 2 and half years and can grow anywhere, as it needs hardly any water.

He also said the tree harvests three times a year with a very good yield for the land used.

Most importantly, though, he said, the oil which can be extracted cheaply and easily has a very high value of ten to twelve thousand US dollars per ton on the international market, whilst cocoa has never exceeded three thousand six hundred dollars a ton for the last three hundred years and oil palm is about one thousand dollars per ton.

Professor Tano Debrah revealed this when the Presidential Candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, led a delegation to interact with the Professor at the University of Ghana, Legon.

At the recent IEA evening encounter, the CPP Presidential Candidate, referred to the potential use of the tropical almond tree for generating billions of dollars for Ghana as well as it being a potential job creation vehicle for the growing number of unemployed in the country.

“California earns billions of dollars a year from the almond tree he said”.

Professor Tano-Debrah further gave details of the uses of the Almond tree, not limiting it to health uses (pharmaceuticals), environmental uses (afforestation-carbon sequestration and food uses (oil, animal feed etc).

He also stated that Nana Kwesi Abura, an almond tree expert had invented an advanced processing machine.

Beyond the derivatives from Almond tree the CPP Flagbearer also expressed delight that the Department was already involved in niche economic activities including nicely processed iced kenkey milk.

“These are the sorts of activities we shall upscale as it represents self-determination in practice” he said.

Also part of the delegation was the Chairman and Leader Professor E. N. Delle, First Vice Chairman, Hajia Ham Datu Haruna, Second Vice Chairman Susan Adu- Amankwa and National Campaign Coordinator Rashid Alao.

Source: GBC

Related Articles

2 Comments

  1. after reading about almonds when i googled the crop, i am getting interested in its cultivation and would like to get more information about it.
    i hope to get from you some more information.
    thanks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
Close