John Igene

Traditional African Meat Products for Food Security: Traditional African Meat Products for Food Security and Agro-industrialization: Develoment Challenges John Igene

The book provides an overview of the livestock and meat resources as well as the traditional African cuisines characteristic of the five divisions of the continent: Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa, respectively. Analysis of animal products (meat, milk, eggs and fish); their production, consumption levels and/or pattern of consumption relative to the various countries; clearly shows a dwindling per caput/year intake of meat in the continent at 12.9kg, 11.8kg and 10.8kg for 1979, 1986 and 2000, respectively. The book posits that the gaps between rising demand for meat and the relative poor supply situation can only be effectively reduced though intensified efforts to ensure accelerated growth in livestock production and the effective application of research and relevant low cost meat preservation technologies. The failure of modern meat processing and preservation technologies (refrigeration, canning, dehydration and curing) to make much impact on the meat supply situation in the continent has thus created opportunities and development challenges for the relevance of traditional meat products.