Ethiopian Plant Might Be a Key for Surviving Famine
5/17/98
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Title: Ethiopian Plant Might Be a Key for Surviving Famine
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 5/17/98
Byline: Michael Kahn
WASHINGTON - Drought and famine have ravaged the North African nation of
Ethiopia in each of the past three decades, but scientists say a foul-tasting
plant might be a key to surviving these kinds of disasters.
Enset, which looks like a large, thick, single-stemmed banana plant, helped
people living in the southern part of Ethiopia escape the worst effects of the
deadly famines, according to a new study published by the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
"Those people who depend on enset have been able to avoid major famines," said
Brook Lakew, president of the Ethiopian Scientific Society.
Anita Spring, a University of Florida anthropologist who led the study, said
the little-known plant grows even in times of very little rainfall and can be
stored for up to 20 years.
Encouraging Ethiopians to grow the crop would provide insurance against
circumstances that often lead to famine, she said. "It's not famine-proof but
it prevents people from experiencing famine conditions."
One reason enset is so hardy is that only the edges of older leaves and the
outer leaf sheath are affected during a dry spell, so the plant is able to
resume normal growth after the onset of the rainy season, Spring said.
"All the famous famines were in the non-enset-growing areas," she said. "If
they (enset-growing regions) did not have enset, they would have been
vulnerable."
MUCH OF ETHIOPIA COULD GROW DROUGHT-RESISTANT PLANT
She estimated enset is eaten by about 15 million Ethiopians, roughly a third of
the population. Much of Ethiopia is at an altitude high enough for it to be
grown, she said, adding: "We think that there is a potential within particular
areas for additional spread."
Growing enset in many famine-prone areas outside Ethiopia is not now possible,
Spring said, but further research might one day produce a variety that can grow
in different climes. "Enset can be grown in other parts of Africa.... The
judicious answer is it will work where the conditions are right."
The ability to preserve enset for so long can help people build food reserves
to use in times of poor harvests, said Clifton Hiebsch, a University of Florida
agronomist who also worked on the study. "It's kind of like we have a freezer
full of food and they have the plant that is growing."
But Spring said enset is difficult to grow because it requires manure from
cattle for fertilization and must be transplanted up to four times before it
reaches maturity after seven years.
Turning the fibrous plant into palatable food is also a complicated and arduous
process, she said. After the plant is cut, it must be scraped until the excess
fiber is gone and then chopped into a white pulpy mass. Then it is mixed with
spices and buried in underground pits where it is left to ferment, sometimes as
long as 20 years.
"It's not just like you tear it down and munch it up," she said. "You have to
be knowledgeable to grow it."
AN ACQUIRED TASTE
The taste, moreover, is an acquired one, Spring said. "It's not a taste that
everyone thinks is great. You wouldn't eat 20-year old stuff unless you had
to," she added, noting that most Ethiopians eat their stores of enset within
two years.
The plant, often mixed with butter and milk to make a very hard porridge, can
be eaten any time after aging for a month.
Jim Schoneboom, acting director of the sub-Saharan Africa program at the AAAS,
said more research must be done because not much is known about enset, even in
Ethiopia. "People grow enset but don't realize they can use it," he said.
Hiebsch said enset, which is considered the food of the poor, was ignored by
the Ethiopian government for a long time because of its low commercial value.
"For this crop there is nothing for which they had a base of information."
Spring said one of the goals of the study was to bring attention to the
benefits of the plant and encourage its use among Ethiopians. The crop has been
overlooked by the world's scientific community as well, even though it has been
grown for thousands of years, she said.
"What is interesting about enset is that it has been around for a very long
time and has never been taken up by the world's research institutes."
Spring said recent interest in the plant prompted the Ethiopian government to
recognize enset as a national commodity in 1997, which made enset studies
eligible for funding from international organizations. "This research has
helped make it a national commodity," she said.
Lakew said home-grown plants such as enset are critical for the survival of
people living in countries where the danger of famine is real. "It's right in
our backyard and we need to focus on that."
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.