Decline in palm wine manufacturing results in shortage, adulteration

Aniediabasi Edet has been a palm wine tapper for 65 years in Mbiabong Itam, Itu Native Authorities Space of Akwa Ibom State. Every single day, the 85-year-old Nigerian civil warfare veteran leaves house at 5 a.m. and treks a number of kilometres to a swamp (Adep within the native language) the place he has raffia palm bushes. Proceeds from palm wine tapping helped him to construct a home and practice his eight youngsters.

On 23 August 2023, he returned house with solely two 20-litre jars of wine after toiling within the swamps for hours below a downpour. He worries that the milky-coloured alcoholic drink obtained from the fermented sap of raffia palm is drying up in his group.

Mr Edet is likely one of the many tappers and retailers within the oil-rich Akwa Ibom, whose livelihood is threatened by the decline within the native beverage manufacturing regardless of the value leaping by nearly 1000 per cent within the final decade, from N300 to N2,000 a jar (10 litres) within the villages and N3,500 in Uyo, the state capital.

Mr Edet says younger individuals are not within the manufacturing.

“The present era feels palm wine is a foul factor. We don’t wish to do what we met our dad and mom doing once more. They contemplate them unhealthy due to what folks learn within the books,” he advised PREMIUM TIMES final August.

Udo Evanson, a tapper in Ikot Ekpenyong, Mkpat Enin Native Authorities Space, additionally fears time is working out on the native wine.

“Every part has an finish,” Mr Evanson stated. “5 years in the past, I used to faucet at the very least seven jars (70 litres) within the morning and 5 jars within the night, however it’s not the identical. Earlier than, a stand of raffia palm might produce about 25 litres of wine within the morning, however now you hardly get 5 litres,” he stated.

“Nonetheless, different crops too not yield fruits like earlier than,” he stated, suggesting that poor yield was not peculiar to raffia palm.

Raffia palm and palm wine

Raffia palms belong to the plant kingdom Plantae and the household Arecaceae. Different relations embody oil, date, and coconut palms. Nonetheless, raffia palms are the one family members whose existence is threatened.

Raffia palm wine has two sorts: one with a bitter style produced from ripe raffia palms, regionally known as “palmy” or “Ukot Nsung,” and the opposite produced from unripe oil palm bushes, known as “Ukod Eyop” within the native language.

Traversing the marshy areas of Mbiabong Itam with Mr Edet was an arduous process for this reporter visiting from Uyo, the state capital. However Mr Edet understands the terrain. He handed this reporter a “white cane” – a bamboo stick for testing the depth of the swamps.

Over two days, this reporter accompanied Mr Edet to his stands of raffia palms.

“We used to transplant the seedlings, however that’s not the observe. While you plant the seedlings on the swamp, somebody would reduce them down,” Mr Edet stated.

Mr Edet realized palm wine tapping from his late father. He stated there have been over 15 tappers in the neighborhood, however solely three remained on the time of this reporter’s go to.

The native gin, referred to as ogogoro or kai-kai, processed from fermented palm wine, can also be affected by the shortage of palm wine. Mr Edet stated no person in his total group sells the unique kai-kai.

“In case you purchase kai-kai on this group, know that’s bunkering,” a euphemism for adulterated kai-kai.

The right way to course of palm wine

In contrast to oil and coconut palms, which mature in three years, a raffia palm takes 14 to twenty years to mature and dies inside two to 3 months.

It dies as a result of the highest of the tree is reduce down, and a small bunch of firewood is lit on the carved floor of the raffia palm. The heating course of is finished routinely until the raffia palm dies. Mr Edet says it ensures wholesome manufacturing of wine.

He used to faucet 12 stands each day, however he now does solely 4. In his prime, he bought over 1,400 litres of palm wine a day however barely will get 30 litres now, he stated.

“Individuals are not planting. It’s so unhealthy that I can keep as much as three months with out having a ripe raffia palm for harvest. Earlier than, I used to be uninterested in chopping ripe palms each week. Then, I might have 5 mature raffia palms a day for harvesting.”

Mr Edet confirmed the reporter “Edad”, a tree bark added to “beautify” and switch the wine from milky-white to reddish. He stated “edad” additionally reduces the alcoholic impact of palm wine.

“For some folks, if “edad” just isn’t added, the wine might set off a abdomen dysfunction that usually ends in diarrhoea. I’m one in every of them. That’s the reason I can’t drink any palmy with out “edad,” Mr Edet stated.

A tapper visits his raffia palm 3 times each day – morning, afternoon and night however the wine is harvested within the morning and night. Mr Edet stated the afternoon go to is to resume the section and maintain it wholesome.

Mr Edet makes use of a tapper’s knife, “Annun” within the native language, to chop the palm’s section. His different instruments embody two ropes, one used to assemble a seat for the tapper on the high of the tree and the opposite, a protracted one, to decrease a container from the tree’s high.

In addition to the wine, the costs of different objects, together with raffia palms and native cups used for consuming, have additionally elevated. PREMIUM TIMES realized {that a} stand of raffia palms was offered for N200 a decade in the past, however it’s now N3,000. The native cup offered for N20 is now N300.

“The cups are extraordinarily scarce,” Frank Akpan, proprietor of a palm wine retail store, stated, including that he solely purchased a number of as a result of “a few of my clients don’t drink palmy with out the native cups.”

Adulteration, cash above security

PREMIUM TIMES talked to folks within the completely different native authorities areas about why raffia palm and palm wines have change into scarce within the state.

Iniobong Charles in Mkpat Enin and Mr Nyong from Uruan LGAs stated folks don’t plant raffia palms due to the very long time a tree takes to mature.

Frank Akpan owns a “palmy joint” at 18 Wellington Bassey in Uyo. He stated he travels over 40km to rural communities to purchase palm wine at N2,500 a jar (10 litres). Some days, he returns with a amount that can’t meet his clients’ calls for.

He began retailing palm wine in 2017. On the time, a jar was offered for N800, and a 60cl bottle was offered for N50. Six years later, he buys a jar for N2,500 and retails it at N250 per 60cl bottle.

The shortage of palm wine has triggered adulteration of the beverage, however Mr Akpan stated it’s straightforward to establish an adulterated one.

“Ordinarily, palm wine is meant to show bitter after 120 seconds within the mouth, but when the candy style persists for lengthy, undoubtedly it’s pretend,” he stated.

Mr Akpan opened a bottle of palm wine, which produced a pop sound and ran over the container. He stated that is a sign that the wine was not adulterated.

Trenchard Ibia, a soil scientist and professor on the College of Uyo, blamed the decline in palm wine manufacturing on the lower in cultivation of “homestead raffia palm”.

Bartholomew Effiong, a lecturer within the Division of Meals Science and Know-how on the college, blamed the decline in palm wine on a scarcity of succession within the commerce.

“The folks that had been the everyday tappers are useless. The folks arising now wish to drink wine however don’t wish to undergo the intricacies of tapping,” he stated.

Ofonime Akata, a crop scientist and head of the Division of Crop Science, Akwa Ibom State College, Mkpat Enin, stated, “Tapping was the work of aged males, so the psychological reasoning additionally led to the folks abandoning it.”

A plant pathologist, Yakubu Uwaidem, recalled distributors combating over the native wine in a village he visited.

“Three retailers going to search for palm wine in an inside group had been dragging a cake (jar) of palm wine with a tapper. This could inform you how scarce it’s,” he stated.

Mr Uwaidem stated agriculture usually suffers within the south-south area because of the presence of crude oil, the first income for states within the area.

This newspaper’s findings present that some distributors combine biscuits and saccharin, a sweetener, with palm wine for flavour. Nonetheless, these in rural areas add water and saccharin.

Ekemini Ituen, a chemistry lecturer on the College of Uyo, advised this newspaper that the observe of utilizing biscuits, water and saccharine to “prepare dinner” palm wine turned identified in 2011 and is prevalent in Ikot Ambang axis of Uyo, the state capital.

Aniefiok Okon, a medical physician on the College of Uyo Educating Hospital (UUTH), advised our reporter that the “saccharine” in palm wine causes diarrhoea.

Findings present that palm wine distributors indulge within the observe because of the absence of regulation.

Francis Ifem, a former head of the Uyo Workplace of NAFDAC, the meals and medicines regulator, advised this newspaper the company doesn’t regulate palm wine manufacturing.

“NAFDAC regulates solely packaged merchandise,” he stated. “NAFDAC can solely seal factories after investigation, however the Shopper Safety Council will search redress for compensation if there may be an damage.”

Seedlings manufacturing

In contrast to coconut palm and oil palm seeds, which have loved large funding from the Akwa Ibom State authorities, raffia palms seem deserted by the federal government and researchers.

Mr Edet lamented that there aren’t any improved raffia palm seedlings from the federal government or researchers like different crops.

Financial significance of raffia palm, palm wine

Though knowledge on the contributions of raffia palm and palm wine to the financial system are unavailable, the wines are a supply of livelihood for a lot of in rural areas and for distributors and store house owners in cities.

Many lovers of palm wine in Uyo advised this newspaper that recent palmy, higher often called “Oto-Onyong” by locals, is important for nursing moms.

“Contemporary palmy prompts the manufacturing of breast milk in new moms. That’s the reason it is suggested for them to drink it, notably those that have issue in milk manufacturing,” Akan Ukpe stated.

Nonetheless, Mr Okon, a doctor, stated the assumption was cultural and had no scientific backing.

Aside from the wine, raffia palm fronds are sewn into mats used as roofing sheets in thatch homes within the villages. Piassava from raffia palm bushes can also be used to fabricate merchandise equivalent to chairs, sneakers, tables, baskets, and bins for garments.

Different makes use of embody house and occasion ornament supplies, musical devices, and native fishing gear artisanal fishermen use. Maggots from raffia palm bushes are additionally eaten as meals.

READ ALSO: Hearth destroys palm kernel manufacturing facility in Ebonyi

Treatment

Mr Effiong, the meals scientist, stated raffia palm and palm wine manufacturing might be renewed if the federal government is within the space.

“The Ministry of Agriculture is meant to have extension brokers in all these areas who’re presupposed to go to the grassroots, work together with the folks, know what the issue is and produce suggestions to the federal government for doable options. However we don’t have these folks, and most often, they keep in places of work with out understanding what is occurring within the area.

“Those we do are at a really small scale the place you utilize college students for analysis work and contribute a part of the cash to publish papers and get some findings. But when it’ll be a full-scale analysis that you may come out and say that is this, it must be a funded analysis work,” Mr Effiong stated.

The Akwa Ibom agriculture commissioner, Offiong Offor, was contacted by way of calls and SMS for this report however has but to reply.