Growing Food: A Guide to Food Production

Intercropping: okra is normally planted together with other food crops such as
cowpeas, maize, millet, sorghum, groundnuts and root crops.

YIELD
Okra pods are best eaten when young and fresh, when they are about 5–8 cm long
for most varieties. They should be picked regularly, every other day ideally, to
stimulate the plants to produce more.
Yields of fresh pods from intercropped okra are about 0.5–1 MT/ha, and from
monocultures about 4–7 MT/ha. The FAO estimate of the average global yield in
2004 was 6.4 MT/ha; the highest national average recorded was Cyprus at 22 MT/ha
and the lowest was Cameroon at 1.8 MT/ha.
The yield of seed grown in a monoculture is about 500 kg/ha.

UTILISATION

• varieties have pods 10–25 cm (4–10 in.) long, dwarf varieties are somewhat
  smaller. The pods can be either boiled, deep-frozen, canned, pickled or sliced
  and fried - eaten as a vegetable. Okra has the valuable attribute of strengthening
  stews and soups, which are thickened by the okra’s mucilage, in dishes such as

elsewhere. The pods can also be sliced and dried, while the young shoots and

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gur manufacture in India, and for sizing paper in China.

LIMITATIONS

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  and cook.

  
  

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Callaloo in Trinidad and Gumbo in many African countries, southern USA and

Okra are mainly grown for the tender, young, green fruit (pod). Traditional

leaves can be eaten or used as a herb.

substitute.

The ripe seed contains about 20% edible oil; sometimes used as a coffee

The foliage can be used as a low grade animal food.

The stem fibre can be used locally but is of poor quality.

expander.

relief.

The fruit (pod) is used to make a plasma replacement or blood-volume

The leaves and immature fruit are used in the East to make poultices for pain

Okra has low nutritive value.

The crop needs a relatively long, hot growing season.

Germination rate of okra seed falls rapidly (1-2 years).

The pods have a high mucilage content and can be sticky and messy to harvest

GROWING FOOD – THE FOOD PRODUCTION HANDBOOK

The mucilage from the roots and stem is used for clarifying sugarcane juice, in