Addis Ababa, The Ethiopian indigenous plant Enset, also known as false banana, is a “golden crop” to achieve resilient food security in the country.
The Central Ethiopia Region Agriculture Head and expert, Usman Surur, told ENA that Enset has proven to be a resilient and versatile resource, playing a key role in saving lives during times of disaster, offering multipurpose benefits for humans, animals and the environment.
It is a staple for humans, feed for animals, and organic fertilizer for the soil, he said.
In Ethiopia, Enset has been cultivated by communities who have the knowledge on how to process its parts, producing the popular local staples kocho, amcho, and bulla.
“Our people call it a crop of bad times” because it is resilient to environmental impacts, the expert stated, adding that Enset was the sole staple that saved people from hunger during the disaster times in Ethiopia decades ago in 1954, 1955, the 1960s, and 1977 Ethiopian calendars.
According to him, Enset grows in seven regions of Ethiopia.
Albeit its widespread adaptation and significance, its cultivation outside of southern, southwestern, and central Ethiopia, is mostly unknown, the expert noted.
For him, Enset cultivation is not given the required attention worth of its importance both by local relevant entities and foreign financiers.
“Enset is important for Ethiopia. Enset is very important for human beings, which is food, especially for Central Ethiopia…. Enset is (also) a natural resource or fertilizer for soil.”
Usman elaborated that “nothing is thrown away from Enset. Everything is consumable; consumed by human beings, consumed by animals, consumed by the soil or by the environment. So it is environmentally friendly, human friendly, and animal friendly. But our eyes are closed. I don’t know why.”
Usman revealed that a National Enset Flagship Development Program (NEtFDP) has been prepared to make Enset a national strategic commodity and the Ministry of Agriculture is dealing with it.
To give due attention to the crop and alleviate problems a national consultative workshop had developed SODO Declaration for Enset Development, which is aimed to transform the Enset production system in the country, he stated.
The expert noted that “Enset is disease-free, like gluten-free. Teff is gluten-free, Enset is the same.”
However, Usman added, Enset has unique features compared to other agricultural products.
“Once Enset product is baked, it can stay a month or two without any fungus. Can you imagine that? If you take Injera, in one or two days, it will be spoiled by fungus.”
“So if we work on Enset production, productivity, research, especially post-harvest, we can alleviate most of our production and productivity challenges, even climate change challenges,” he stressed.
The National Enset Flagship Development Program (NEtFDP) states that the food and feed values of Enset crop that ensure food and nutrition security for the ever-growing population is one of the key national challenges.
And according to the report of Brandt et al. (1997), Enset is a staple food for 20 million Ethiopians; and estimated to feed 100 million people in East Africa (Borrel et al., 2020).
Source: Ethiopian News Agency