IRAD creates new varieties of legumes

The Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) and the French Development Agency are encouraged by the results of the debt-relief project, C2D, on leguminous plants.

The innovation is reported to have produced commendable by-products like beans, soya beans, groundnuts and peanut flour used in food processing.

IRAD on May 7, 2015, assembled women from the Centre, North and West Regions at Efok near Obala in the Centre Region to train them on how to diversify sources of revenue by baking biscuits using beans, soya beans, groundnuts and peanut flour.

IRAD says the flour is made out of a new variety of leguminous plants rich in calcium, protein and iron. The challenge is to roll back malnutrition in pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants.

Research results indicate that the Centre is the country’s third most fertile region (49.9 per cent), with the same percentage of pregnant women suffering from anemia as 43.7 per cent of pregnant women in this part of the country do not consume micronutrients.

However, IRAD thinks this situation can be reversed if families turn to leguminous plants rich in proteins, calcium and iron for nourishment.

Thursday’s Training Of Trainers was part of IRAD’s drive to promote research results on the new varieties of leguminous plants, to contribute to ensuring food security, alleviate malnutrition and above all, empower locals and the vulnerable to create income in a bid to reduce poverty.

Like the Focal Point of the C2D Project on Leguminous Plants, Chimene Mfoumou, the representative of the General Manager of IRAD, Isabelle Majo Kamdem, was upbeat about consuming biscuits and infant flour made of leguminous plants.

With this development, Cameroon is gradually moving out of the challenge of food insecurity, poverty reduction and economic growth, she added.

Chimene Mfoumou explained that grains of leguminous plants are rich in energy and aligo elements. Groundnut supports the body with 25 per cent of proteins, 50 per cent of lipids and Vitamin B; while beans is rich in glucose at 41.9 per cent, fibre at 18.1 per cent, proteins at 22-24 per cent, aligo-elements and a not-so-influential quantity of lipid estimated at 1.5 per cent.