Page 138
with a general average of 528 lbs. per acre. It was, however, estimated that an average of 181 lbs. per acre were left in the ground. A further 66,472 lbs. of pods were obtained from 234 acres of local Wagogo nuts. Storage of the 1947-48 Crop
68. Apart from the small quantity shipped to the United Kingdom for scientific and technical purposes, the whole of the 1947-48 crop was reserved for seed for the following
year. The begged nuts were stored by each Unit on raised earth plinths and dunnage and covered with tarpaulins. Anti-termite precautions were taken by the application of arsenical preparations to the earth plinths. No termite infestation was observed during the year. The quality of the 1947-48 Crop
69. Free fatty acids develop in vegetable oils through the action of enzymes and moulds. Their presence is a direct loss in terms of food, and their exces- sive formation in hot humid conditions can amount to heavy losses unless installations for pre-heating the oil seeds are provided. Professor T. P. Hilditch, of the Department of Industrial Chemistry, Liverpool University. was commissioned by the Corporation to investigate this problem. The results of his research [detailed in Appendix VI (12)] on the 1948 crop at Kongwa are as follows:-
(a) In colour and in low free acidity the groundnut oils "far surpass any raw groundnut oil which has hithert; been on the English market.
29
(b) Both groundnuts and sunflower seeds stood up well to six months
storage in dry conditions.
(c) Access of moisture to the seeds activated mould spores causing lipolytic hydrolysis of the fat, and this happened with both pre- heated and untreated seeds of both crops.
(d) On the other hand the groundnuts yielded oil of unusually high
iodine value.
(e) The Kongwa oils contain much more linoleic and much less oleic acid in combination as glycerides than most groundnut oils, but this does not materially affect their value for the edible fat industry except in so far as:
(i) it might make the oil slightly more susceptible to the onset of
oxidative rancidity, and
(ii) that correspondingly more hydrogen would be needed to pro-
duce a hardened fat of given iodine value.
70. On these results it would appear that:
(a) there is no immediate need for the installation of artificial dryers, but a final decision cannot be made until further tests have been carried out in succeeding seasons and in the three localities; (b) especial care is required to secure suitable dry conditions in bulk
storage and bulk transport, particularly in the ships' holds. 71. Professor Hilditch is repeating these investigations with the 1949 crops. Clearing and planting targets-1948-49 season
72. The targets which the Corporation found that the Managing Agents had decided upon for the year 1948-49 were to clear sufficient land in the Kongwa Region to plant 45,000 acres of groundnuts and some 31,000 to 37,000 acres of sunflower. Sunflower was one of the rotational crops sug- gested by the Wakefield Mission and experience of the first year had shown that it was especially suitable and economic for production on first-year land. Experience had also shown how difficult and uneconomic it was to plant, cultivate and harvest an underground crop such as groundnuts on newly cleared land, full of roots and stumps, and left in a rough and we state
Page
15
uneven
78