Kenneth Nwosu

Cocoyam Rebirth: Cocoyam Rebirth in Nigeria Kenneth Nwosu

Cocoyam rebirth is new holistic approach to the perception, research, production, utilization and marketing of cocoyam in Nigeria. It is a renaissance in cocoyam research. The rebirth is a paradigm of advocacy to sensitize all stakeholders in Nigeria, about the under-utilized potentials of cocoyam. It is a re-branding of Nigerian?s attitude that cocoyam is not food for the poor and downtrodden as erroneously conceived but a highly nutritious and medicinal indigenous food for all classes of citizens. It should be brought back into many families? diets to mitigate hunger and improve clinical health. Cocoyam rebirth is a strategy to recapitulate and re-orientate Nigerians about the roles cocoyam played as a major nutritious, easily available cheap food in the colonial era. It is a reminder of the Igbo tribe of the salvage role cocoyam played to save many of them form dying of starvation during the Nigerian civil war up to early 1970s. Cocoyam rebirth recognizes and appreciates cocoyam as a material culture, and as a driver of and roadmap to, economic empowerment and endogenous development in Nigeria.