Why groundnuts are grown

Groundnuts are grown as a food for men and animals and also for sale.

1. As a food.

People eat groundouts as fruit, or in the form of oil or as paste, sauce or flour.

Groundnuts are a nourishing food,

They are rich; they contain certain substances necessary for human life. They contain 200 grammes of protein per kilogramme. Millet, sorghum, sweet potatoes, yams and cassava all contain less protein than groundnuts.

Oil is made from groundnuts. This oil is much used in cooking.

100 kilogrammes of shelled groundnuts may yield 40 to 60 kilogrammes of oil.

2. As animal feed.

After the oil has been taken from groundnuts, oil cake is left.

Oil cake is a very nourishing food for animals.

SELLING GROUNDNUTS AND EARNING MONEY

3. Groundnuts bring in money for families and workers. The farmers sell their crop on the market, or to cooperatives, or to business companies.

The cooperatives and companies turn the groundnuts into oil.

The oil mills in the country make a livelihood for the workers.

4. Groundnuts bring money into the country.

Often the country resells the groundnuts abroad.

Groundnuts can be sold shelled or in the form of oil.

The money paid by foreign countries for groundnuts or groundnut oil helps the government to build schools and roads, to buy manufactured goods (machines, fertilizers, clothes), and pay government officials.

5. The price of 'groundnuts is rather low In all countries.

Groundnuts do not fetch a very high price. The farmer who wants to earn money must produce more on his land; he must increase the yield.

Even if the price of groundnuts is not high, the farmer who produces 1000 kilogrammes of groundnuts will earn more than the farmer who produces only 300 kilogrammes.

In order to increase the groundnut yield, the farmer must prepare his fields very well and carefully follow the advice of the extension worker.

In this way he will get good- quality groundnuts, sold at a better price, and he will have more groundnuts.