Enhancing Income through Cocoyam Production , Processing and Consumption Patterns In Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State , Nigeria

The study was conducted to investigate the production, processing and consumption patterns/ forms of cocoyam among farmers in Dunukofia local Government Area in Anmabra State, Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 60 male and female respondents for the study. Data were collected with the use of pre-tested questionnaires. The data were analyzed using percentage, mean scores, personal observation and focus group discussions. Results showed that majority of the respondents (77%) were females while (25%) of the respondents had no formal education. The result also showed that out of six local species grown, three were the most prominent. They include Ede ofe, Edebuji and Indian coco. Cocoyam is one of the major crops grown in the study area, and that Edeofe ranked the highest grown specie out of the three major grown species. Akanoke was the least grown among the six species in the study area. The production patterns were that majority (78%) of the respondents use their backyard or compound farm for cocoyam production. The result also showed that about (80%) of the respondents intercrop cocoyam with other crops. The cocoyam can be processed and consumed as a soup thickener, fufu, mgbogu, roasted achicha and boiled in the study area. The study recommended that government should encourage genetic improvement researches on cocoyam especially on non -scratchy species/types, introduce improved production and processing techniques, pharmacological medicinal and industrial uses should be encouraged in all ecologically suitable areas.


INTRODUCTION
Cocoyam (colocasia spp) is one the major root tubers produced in large quantities in Nigeria.Nigeria is the greatest producer of cocoyam in the world.She produces 40% of the world output followed by Ghana which produces 31% Onwueme (1978).Roots and tubers have been identified among the most important group of staple food in the tropical world (Osagie, 1988).In spite of increased reliance on several foods especially in the food crisis ridden sub -Saharan African, root and tuber still play a very important role as basic diets and source of income in many African countries (Nyiira, 1994).FAO (1998) estimated annual production in developing countries to be about 5.7 million tones, in West Africa, East African, the Caribbean, South America, India and South East Asia, one or more of the tropical root crops features as major food items in the diet of the people and in some of these regions they constitute the major food (Onwueme and Sinha, 1991).Hahn (1994) observed that there will be more acute food deficit in the future unless the productivity of root and tuber crops is increased by at least three percent per annum.He further noted that root crops are capable of efficient production of low.cost calories under marginal soil conditions.The yield of cocoyam per hectare varies from place to place.Yields as high as 15-20 tones per hectare have been recorded (Onweme 1978).They are the most important food crops in Africa in terms of hectare, distribution and consumption.There has been increased interest in root and tuber production due to increasing population, drought and scarcity of foreign exchange to import grains and flour into most African countries (Hahn, 1994).In spite of the various food crop production programmes embarked upon by the Federal government of Nigeria, there has been growing concern about the capability of Nigerian agriculture to satisfy the food requirement of a fast growing population (IITA, 1996), and to provide enough raw materials for the agro-based industries.Emphasis should be placed on production of root and tuber crops like cocoyam, which has the potentials of alleviating poverty by improving the income earning capacity and food security of farmers in Nigeria.Despite the increasing importance of root crops such as cocoyam, yields still remain low in most countries (Osagie, 1998).All these necessitated the need to undertake this study to describe the production, processing and consumption patterns of cocoyam in Dunukofia Local Government Area.Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the cocoyam farmers, identified commonly grown cocoyam cultivar/species and determined cocoyam production, processing and consumption patterns in the study area.

METHODOLOGY
The study was carried out in Dunukofia local Government Areas (LGA) of Anambra State.The LGA consists of six communities and they include Ukpo (Head Quarter), Nawgu, Umunnachi Umudioka, Ukwulu and Ifitedunu.The local Government Area has a total population of 96, 517 (NPC, 2006).It has two distinct seasons of dry and rainy periods.The average annual rainfall is between 1800mm and 240mm.The rainfall is distributed through March to November.The climate of the area is comparatively good with a mean temperature of 30 0C during the hottest period of February to April and 21 0C during the cold period of December (Anambra State Blue Print (ASBP) 2008).Some crops commonly grown in the area include; yam, cocoyam, cassava, maize, tomatoes, plantation, banana, vegetables etc.They also engage in other occupations such as civil service, trading, artisanship etc. Dunukofia was purposively chosen because cocoyam is produced in large quantities in the various communities that constitute the Local Government Area; there is high concentration of food marketing in the towns and high consumption rate of the crop in the area.
A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed to select respondents for the study.Stage i involved selection of the six towns in the LGAs.Stage ii, was the random selection of six rural villages from the selected towns.Stage iii was the random selection of ten cocoyam farmers from each of the six villages to arrive at 60 respondents used for the study.
Data for the study were collected form primary and secondary sources.Primary data were collected with a set of pre-tested questionnaires administered to the respondents.The primary data were collected on socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, level of education, household size and commonly grown species, processing and consumption patterns in the study area.Secondary sources of data were obtained from journal articles, books conference proceedings, institutional publications to complement the primary data.Descriptive statistical methods such as frequency counts, means and percentages were used to achieve objectives i, ii and iii.

Socio-economic profile of respondents
The socio-economic characteristics of the respondents examined were gender, age, marital status, level of education and household size.The distribution of the respondents according to these characteristics is shown in Table I.The result indicated that majority (76%) were females implying that women are more involved in cocoyam production.This result corroborates the findings of Scott, Best, Rosegrant and Bokanga (2000), and Adisa and Okunade (2011).The result also showed that 47% of them were within age range of 41-50years.This implied that the respondents are within the age of active productive activities.Majority (81.7%) of the respondents were literate,.indicating that literacy would facilitate the adoption of appropriate agricultural technologies and skills to the farming population.This agrees with the findings of Agbannu and Atoma (2010) that level of education influences participation in agricultural productive activities, adoption, transfer and application of innovations.Majority (66.7%) of the respondents had household size of between 5-8 persons.This indicates that family labour was readily available to the respondents.

Commonly grown species
Table2: percentage distribution of commonly grown cocoyam cultivars in three selected communities Tables 3 revealed that about 75.3% of the respondents used back yard or compound farm for cocoyam production.While only 16.7% of respondents combined the use of both distant and compound (back yard) farm as shown in Table 3.About 5% of the respondents used only distant farms.This implied that backyard or compound farms are mostly used by the respondents.The cocoyam farmers believed that compound and backyard farms are richer in organic manure.Cocoyam requires a lot of manure for the formation and production of large corms and cornel.This also implied that cocoyam production in the study area is yet to be carried out on a commercial level.Table 3 also revealed that majority 80% of the respondents intercrop cocoyam with other crops.The study also revealed that cocoyam can be conveniently intercropped with cassava, maize, yam and plantain/banana.This implied that cocoyam can thrive and perform well in all farms where these crops are grown.The number of the respondents with one plot outnumbered those with two plots of cocoyam.This implied that a good number of the respondents were not interested in cocoyam production as they indicated in other roots and tuber crops because of the decline in cocoyam production.This implied that there is need to create extensive awareness on the emerging economic prospects on cocoyam production.It is also evident from Table 3, that majority 63.3% cultivate cocoyam between May and June, 33% cultivate July and August while only 3.1% cultivate cocoyam around March -April.This corroborates the study by Onwueme and Sinha, (1991), that cocoyam require enough moisture, therefore May ,June and July is recommended as best period for cultivation.4 showed that majority (75%) of the respondent's process cocoyam using various methods such as traditional, mechanized and others.Among the processing methods traditional or local equipments ranked highest, 95% of the respondents confirmed using traditional methods for cocoyam processing.Majority (67%) consumed cocoyam in a local processed form called Uri as soup thickner.The popular Onugbu and Ora soup is prepared with cocoyam.These soups are special delicacy for occasions.About 51% of the respondents' cocoyam in cooked forms.While 47% of the respondents consume cocoyam as fufu, 6.7% preferred the roasted ones.Table 4 also revealed that about 13.3% of the respondents consume cocoyam twice a week while about 30% and 40% of them consume cocoyam once or twice a week.This implied that cocoyam is a major staple food in the area and its production potentials should be harnessed by research institutions and government.

Implications for sustainable food security
The study revealed that cocoyam is a major food and cash crop in Dunukofia L.G.A of Anambra State.This implied that the cocoyam farmers should use their knowledge and potentials in the environment to expand their cocoyam productive capacities.This will enhance and improve sustainable food supply, generate employment, raise income generation opportunities and improve standard of living of the rural farmers.Government must be involved through the efforts of National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, which introduced new varieties, mini -set technologies on cocoyam improvement programmes.Extension agents should create awareness of the new technologies for subsequent adoption.Inputs like fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides should be provided to the rural farmers.Efforts should be made to enlighten rural farmers on the high nutritional value of cocoyam as food crop and the various forms of processing.The recent innovation of processing cocoyam into chips and flour that lasts for a long period should be encouraged.Cocoyam can be stored in the ground and harvested during the lean period when most crops are scare.The problems encountered by the farmers should be remedied by the collective effort of the government, research institutes, extension agents and farmers.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The result showed that cocoyam was used in many ways and forms consumed in the area.It is a major crop among farmers in the area.There is a particular traditional festival in the area called "iri ede", in which cocoyam is prepared as a special delicacy.The regularity and intensity of consumption of cocoyam by the respondents implied, that its importance cannot be overemphasized.However, cocoyam production and processing are yet to be maximized since several constraints still limit its production.The inability to commercialize its crop stems from lack of support from government, ineffective research and extension services, shortage of planting materials and scratching nature of cocoyam.These problems constitute serious impediment to cocoyam production, processing and consumption.These constraints need to be addressed adequately before the production of cocoyam can improve in Dunukofia L.G A and Anambra state as a whole.It is recommended that cocoyam based research on genetic improvement on the crop should be encouraged by the government especially, the commonly grown species.There should be researches on other uses of cocoyam such as pharmacological /medicinal/, industrial uses should also be encouraged by government.Modern processing technologies should be developed and adopted by the farmers, Vigorous campaigns on radio and television should be mounted and backed by extension services to introduce new and improved practices for cocoyam production and use in all ecologically suitable areas.Cocoyam dishes in various forms should be encouraged in schools and institutions of higher learning.The use of cocoyam flour as a composite in specialist food should be explored.

Table 1 :
Distribution of the respondents according to socio-economic characteristics

Table 3 :
Table2showed that Edeofe is the most popular cultivar grown in the study area.All the respondents (100%) grow Edeofe.The cultivar is commonly used as paste for soup thickening, boiled and mixed with vegetables for occasions as special delicacy.The fresh tender leaves and petrioles are used as vegetables during periods of scarcity.Edebuji ranked second as the next most commonly grown cultivar in the study area with 95%.While Indian coco, edeuhie, akanoke and ede eko ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively Distribution of the respondents according to cocoyam production Pattern.

Table 4 :
Distribution of the respondents according to the processing and consumption pattern.