Farmers’ indigenous knowledge of breadfruits’ nutritional, medicinal, and fodder values inSoutheast Nigeria.

Abstract:

This study investigated farmers’ indigenous knowledge gap of Traditional breadfruit
(Treculia africana) nutritional, medicinal, and utilization values in Southeast Nigeria. Data
for the study were collected via a structured questionnaire administered to 260 farmers from
13 communities in the Anambra and Enugu States of Southeast Nigeria. Data collected were
analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The
result inter alia reveals that: a majority of the farmers (89.2%) have indigenous knowledge of
breadfruit seeds as very good nutritional and medicinal food items, and farmers use the seeds’
after-cook residues as beverage drinks. The general tendency is greater use of the seeds as
against other body parts of the tree. The factors limiting farmers’ consumption of breadfruit
in the study area include lack of finance (55.1%) and its processing drudgeries (10.2%). The
study concludes that while some breadfruit body parts are used as food, feeds, and medicine,
its other parts are highly underutilized and under-researched. The paper recommends policy
intervention for the crop’s increased research and production for food security and
development of different important industrial sectors such as beverage drinks, animal feeds,
and pharmaceutical industries.