COCONUT, THE WONDERFUL CROP (Centre Spread) 16-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

MANY people wonder how come there is water in its fruit and how come the crop thrives for about 100 years on the beach where no plant dares grow for a day. Others have been engaged in intense international debate over the health benefits or otherwise of its oil. And many others have committed suicide for losing the crop. Such is the mysterious nature of coconut (Cocos nucifera L.), a crop whose usefulness is beyond measure, but whose potential has been grossly under-utilised in Ghana.
The popular Ghanaian musician, Atongo, had it all wrong with one of his hit songs, There is no beer in heaven. If he had done his research very well before releasing that song, he would have known that heaven’s beer is even being enjoyed on earth now. Some communities in Ghana refer to coconut as heaven’s beer and have been drinking it since time immemorial.
Indeed, coconut has many other accolades within various communities to reflect its mysterious nature and economic importance. Some call it the "Tree of life", others say it is the "Tree of Heaven", whereas others refer to it as the "Milk Bottle at the Doorstep of Mankind" and the "Heaven’s Gift to Mankind". These accolades affirm the fact that every part of the plant, from its roots to the fronds, is useful to man.
Interestingly, coconut is also referred to as the "Lazy man’s crop", but that tag does not suggest a weakness in the crop. Rather, it is an expression of its strength, in that, once it is planted, a farmer can go to sleep without weeding around it. The only job a farmer may be required to do is to harvest the fruit for a period of between 50 and 100 years.
For many centuries, indeed, as long as creation, the circumstances under which coconut produces water in its nut, has remained a mystery to mankind. That mystery finds expression in local proverbs, one of which says "Nobody can tell how water is produced in coconut until the end of the world".
There are hundreds of quality properties in coconut that can only be described as amazing. Coconut is used for many purposes in agriculture, health, environment, mining, aviation and industry.
However, many Ghanaians have not fully discovered the enormous economic potential and uses of coconut, five centuries after Portuguese missionaries introduced the crop into the country(Gold coast). It is very ironical that such an economic crop grows in communities where thousands of people are stricken with poverty.

Uses & importance of coconut:
From Africa to Asia, America to Europe, coconut has largely been used as a source of food and medicine for more than 5,000 years.
There is a huge economic potential of coconut and its by-products, which has remained largely untapped in Ghana. Activated charcoal produced from coconut shells, for instance, has a huge economic value in mining and industry.
Enquiries made at the Ghana Chamber of Mines indicate that the mining industry in the country spends about $20 million annually to import activated charcoal made from coconut, which is used to absorb gold from cyanide solution during processing.
The Communications Officer of the chamber, Mr Ahmed D. Nantogmah, says the mining companies cannot do without activated charcoal and that they are prepared to do business with any local producer who meets their quality standard. Unfortunately, there is none at the moment. According to chamber officials, a few of individuals who have come forward to claim that opportunity have not done anything beyond their intentions.
Activated charcoal is also used for water filteration and cleaning machines that expel air. It has medicinal properties, which are extensively tapped by pharmaceutical companies for the manufacture of drugs. When mixed in water, activated charcoal is believed (not documented) to be potent for the management of diarrhoea.
According to Mr R. N. Quaicoe, the acting Co-ordinator of the Coconut Programme of the Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), it is reported that activated charcoal applied on a snakebite sore can absorb the poison therein instantly.
Apart from activated charcoal, virgin coconut oil, a pure oil produced from fresh mature coconut, is also imbued with enormous economic and medicinal value. It is believed to have the potency to cure diseases from candidiasis to cancer.
For more than 5,000 years in India, coconut oil has been used for alternative medicine practice, which is the traditional medicine in that country, while in Panama, the inhabitants drink a glass of coconut oil either for protection against or speedy recovery from illness.
In the Philippines, coconut oil is used for the speedy healing of burns, cuts, bruises and broken bones. It is also applied on the hair to keep it shiny, thick and dark, even for the aged.
Mr Quaicoe shares a personal experience of how an application of virgin coconut oil cleared some rashes on his hand. After that medication, he has made the oil his body lotion.
Dr Kaku Kyiamah is the only industrialist in Ghana who is into the manufacture of virgin coconut oil and other coconut by-products. According to him, virgin coconut oil can be used to manage diabetes within six weeks. Furthermore, he claims, the oil can also be used to manage most cancers, sores and asthma conditions.
The antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties of virgin coconut oil are underlined in an article written by Lucy Atkins in the Tuesday, January 15, 2008 issue of the British newspaper, The Guardian, in which the author made reference to Dr Christine Tomlinson, the Director of the National Candida Society, as advising candida sufferers to include virgin coconut oil in their diet.
Dr Kyiamah believes the use of virgin coconut oil will save the nation a fortune. "We are losing double by importing oil to give us diseases and importing drugs to cure the diseases, and losing man-hours as a result of diseases derived from eating imported oil", he asserts.
Some of the uses of coconut are very astonishing, but when I visited Dr Kyiamah’s factory at Esiama in the Western Region, I came across one that was most intriguing. That was eating fufu with coconut soup. The taste of the soup has never gotten lost in my memory.
Apart from using coconut for food, the stem and fronds of the plant are also used for fuel and building, while the husk, shell and leaves are used for small-scale craft and handiwork. The crop also comes sweet as coconut palm wine, coconut sugar and coconut cabbage, which is a delicacy in some Asian countries.
Fine coconut fibre is used for making of vehicle seats, while coconut lumber is used for furniture, construction, tiles and other products.
In spite of the qualities and economic benefits of the crop, in most parts of the country, coconut shells are rather used to fill potholes and land depressions, burnt for fuel and dumped indiscriminately as waste materials.
"With little ingenuity and investment, we can turn the large volumes of coconut waste into wealth", Mr Quaicoe submits.

History of coconut in Ghana:
It is believed that coconut was introduced into West Africa by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th Century. In Ghana, the missionaries first planted coconut in the Volta Region and one of its amazing qualities immediately manifested. It survived on the beach, which is very hostile to plants in view of its high salinity and porosity.
When the then Department of Agriculture under the colonial administration realised the success of the crop, it promoted its mass cultivation on the coast westwards to the Western Region. People along the coast embraced the initiative and between 1920 and 1940, a ‘green carpet’ of coconut trees had been laid along the coast of the country from the east to the west and even beyond to neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire. Apart from the coast, the crop also performs very well inland.
Although coconut was first introduced in the Volta Region, the bulk of its production now comes from the Western Region, particularly the Jomoro District.
The West African Tall (WAT), the local coconut variety cultivated in Ghana, is very high-yielding, both in quantity of the nut and quality of the food and oil extracted from it. As a result, many people who went into coconut farming became very rich.
However, as many more people were attracted by the success of the crop to go into its cultivation, a terrible disaster, unfortunately, struck the country’s coconut plantations and a large part of the once beautiful ‘green carpet’, better appreciated in an aerial view, was rolled back.
A disease known as Cape St Paul Wilt, wiped off about a quarter of the country’s 45,000 hectares coconut plantations. Many farmers, particularly those in the Western Region, who could not bear the disaster, committed suicide in the process.
According to Mr Quaicoe, himself a coconut farmer, it was a terrible moment in the lives of many coconut farmers in the Western Region.

Cape St Paul Wilt:
The Cape St Paul Wilt is a disease that causes the leaves of coconut to dry. Although the disease is common in coconut-growing countries across the world, it is christened differently depending on which country it is found. In Nigeria, it is known as Awka Wilt, while in Cameroon, it is known as Kribi Du and Lethal Disease in Mozambique and other East African countries. In the Carribbean and America, it is called Lethal Yellowing Disease.
The name of the disease in Ghana is derived from Cape St Paul, a small village near Woe in the Volta Region, where it was first detected in 1932. Within 10 years of its detection, it spread to other parts of the Volta Region, particularly Keta.
The devastation caused by the disease was so intense that an oil mill established in the Keta area for the processing of coconut oil was closed down due to lack of raw materials. The anticipated job opportunities, especially for the youth in the area, were also curtailed.
The disease was confined to the Keta area until 1964 when it showed its ugly face at Cape Three Points in the Western Region, again wrecking large acres of coconut plantations.
Although something common could be established between the two communities where Cape St Paul Wilt first surfaced (both are communities along capes), the source of the disease causing organism and the circumstance under which it bypassed coconut plantations between Cape St Paul and Cape Three Points, have remained a puzzle to researchers.
"We have done many works on the disease but nobody can explain how this happened", says Mr Quaicoe.
Before the advent of scientific research, the disease had defied spiritual intervention. Initially, some farmers around Cape Three Points where the disease first appeared in the Western Region, deemed it as spiritual and proceeded to perform some purification rites to pacify the gods. But no!, the gods had no answers to this calamitous disease.
Currently, the western front of the disease is at a town called Ampain in the Western Region where it has been contained for a considerable period. The containment does not stop the disease; it only prevents a further spread westwards.
As of 2000, the country’s coconut landcover was about 45,000 hectares out of which 12,000 hectares have been lost to Cape St Paul Wilt. The good news, however, is that for now, about 80 per cent of the country’s coconut plantations is safe from Cape St Paul Wilt because they are found in the Jomoro District, which is on the west of Ampain, and parts of the Central Region where the disease has not been widespread.

Management of disease:
Painstaking research is ongoing to find remedy for the disease. The early signals of Cape St Paul Wilt include premature dropping of unmature nuts, followed by the yellowing of leaves. If the inflorescence (flowers), which are supposed to be white, turn black, then there is the possibility that an agent of Cape St Paul Wilt has visited the tree.
Although those signals may be due to some physiological stress in the tree, researchers advise farmers to cut down the affected palms to avoid its further spread, and thereafter, report the case to the relevant authorities.
Mr Quaicoe says it is only a laboratory test that can confirm the reality or otherwise of the disease.
Apart from the cutting and elimination of the affected palm, the disease can also be managed by injecting tetracycline into the affected trees. That will make the trees healthy enough to produce. However, according to Mr Quaicoe, this method is not economically sustainable.
"You can only do this when you have one or two coconut trees at your backyard. But for large hectares of coconut farm, you cannot afford it", he explains.
Another management option, which has received global endorsement, is to plant disease-resistant coconut varieties. In line with this recommendation, the government initiated a natural screening/selection programme in 1956 under which some coconut varieties were imported and planted at places where the disease was most severe.
The rationale was that if the imported coconut varieties survived on the disease-prone plantations, they would have passed the test of resistance to Cape St Paul Wilt.
Since the beginning of the programme, 48 different coconut varieties have been screened/tested. Out of the number, only three after more than 20 years of screening, showed high level of resistance to the disease. They are the Sri Lanka Green Dwarf (SGD), the Vanuatu Tall (VTT) and the Malayan YellowDwarf +Vanuatu Tall (MYDxVTT), a hybrid of two varieties.
In an attempt to salvage the country’s coconut endowment from total destruction, the government in 1999 recommended the MYDxVTT coconut variety to farmers for cultivation in the stead of the local WAT variety, which, although good agronomically, was very susceptible to Cape St Paul Wilt.
About 1,300 hectares of coconut were cultivated under the Coconut Sector Development Project of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
However, the intervention could not succeed as envisaged because many farmers reportedly planted the MYDxVTT variety too close to highly-diseased coconut trees, thereby weakening the resistance of the new coconut variety. Only those which were planted with the assistance of researchers survived the experiment and are currently doing well.
Recognising the fact that the MYDxVTT) is not totally resistant to Cape St Paul Wilt, researchers have remained on the field and in the laboratories just to stay ahead of the disease in all its manifestations. "It’s a continuous battle", Mr Quaicoe says.
The persistent, resolute and painstaking research appear to be yielding positive dividend with the discovery of a new coconut hybrid of SGDxVTT, which has proven to be more resistant to Cape St Paul Wilt than the MYDxVTT hybrid.
Research on this new hybrid started in 1999 on an experimental coconut farm at Agona Nkwanta in the Central Region, but the scientists are cautious in their optimism.
"Theoretically, it is better but as scientists, we are not satisfied with paper work. So we are still doing the field work", Mr Quaicoe says.
According to him, if everything works according to schedule, Ghana will be the only country in the world to develop a totally resistant coconut variety to Cape St Paul Wilt and that breakthrough will bring huge economic benefits to the nation, since many countries, particularly close neighbours, will want to import it for cultivation.

Challenges:
The Cape St Paul Wilt has battered the country’s coconut plantations enough, but one other major challenge that looks equally deadly to the industry is the poor remuneration and condition of service of researchers. As a result, many of them are abandoning the fields for the classrooms at the universities for greener pastures.
Over the years, politicians have paid no attention or, at best, lip service to the development of research and the improvement of the condition of service of researchers. That is because the results of research take a long time to materialise, perhaps, too long for politicians to cite as success stories of their relatively short regimes.
The CSIR has bemoaned this situation over the years, but their concerns have often been treated with a pinch of salt, largely because they do not possess potent industrial arsenal like university lecturers whose concerns are addressed promptly anytime they go on strike.
Mr Quaicoe says as a researcher, there is no motivation to go on strike for better conditions of service because he cannot see his research work done over 20 years to be destroyed within a short period of industrial action.
The only motivation that is keeping him on the job is that his kinsmen are mostly coconut farmers and so he considers his research work a non-negotiable responsibility to help improve farming practices and living standards of his kinsmen.
Another major challenge facing the coconut industry is what Dr Kyiamah describes as misinformation by some Western interests that coconut oil is harmful to human health, just so they can promote their own brand of oil.
At the 57th World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO) held on May 22, 2009, the world body endorsed a recommended strategy on diet, physical activity and health, which among other things, advised individuals to limit their energy intake from total fats and shift fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids.
The WHO’s recommendation has largely discouraged the consumption of coconut oil, which is the most saturated fat, but Dr Kyiamah alleges that it is only a fraudulent theory orchestrated by some Western interests to destroy the highly edible tropical saturated fats and project their types of oil for the purposes of marketing.
In an open letter to the WHO Country Representative in Ghana dated January 15, 2009, he argues that the WHO’s recommendation "conflicts with the basic chemistry of fats".
Quoting various documents to support his contention, Dr Kyiamah explains that trans-fatty acids are a type of unsaturated fatty acids and can be produced only within unsaturated fats. Consequently, trans-fatty acids cannot be eliminated by shifting generally to unsaturated fat.
He further submits that saturated fats do not contain trans-fatty acids and so shifting fat consumption away from saturated fats will not affect the trans-fatty acids in the diet.
"The statement in question makes the World Health Organisation (WHO) sound and look unscientific. The impression does not suit such an august organisation", he indicates in the open letter.
Responding to those concerns in another letter dated February 18, 200i9, the WHO Country Office dismissed the submissions of Dr Kyiamah, explaining that although trans fats are a type of unsaturated fats, "they are bad for your health".
"The recommendation therefore seeks to point this out by advising on a shift from saturated fats to unsaturated fats (which are generally better for health) and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids; which even though are unsaturated fats, are an exception and should be avoided due to their adverse effect on health", the WHO contends.
It says the intention of its recomnendation is not to shift from all unsaturated fats but only the trans-fatty acids which are bad and raise individual’s cholesterol, as well as increase the risk for developing heart diseases and stroke.
This debate notwithstanding, coconut oil is becoming popular among British athletes, following its inclusion in the diet of the England rugby squad in 2007. In her article in The Guardian, Lucy Atkins quotes the rugby union nutritionist, Matt Lovell, as saying that virgin coconut oil can raise the metabolic rate and therefore help the body to burn fat more effectively.
"It is the most misunderstood of all fats. It is what we call a 'functional food' because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional or calorie content", he notes.
According to Lovell, coconut oil, like butter, is extremely high in saturated fat, but it differs from fats such as butter because it contains a lot of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) that are absorbed directly by the liver, and so they burn very much like carbohydrate.
The debate may become more intense and unabated, but the fact still remains; coconut is the heaven’s gift to mankind. And the question still stands; what use is Ghana making of it?