Ethiopia’s ‘false banana’: the answer to future food scarcity?
A relative of the banana plant, endemic to Ethiopia, could hold the answer to future climate change-induced hunger.
The enset – a banana-like plant which around 20 million Ethiopians rely on for food – has not yet been cultivated elsewhere. It is a staple of the Ethiopian diet, often made into porridge or bread. Nicknamed the ‘false banana’, just 60 plants are estimated to provide enough food to feed a family of five for one year.
Now, researchers believe it could be grown widely across eastern and southern Africa, feeding approximately 100 million people in areas impacted by rising temperatures, including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
“This is a crop that can play a really important role in addressing food security and sustainable development,” says Dr Wendawek Abebe of Hawassa University in Awasa, Ethiopia.
Dr James Borrell, study researcher from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, comments that enset is known as ‘the tree against hunger’ thanks to the ‘unusual traits’ which make it uniquely resilient. “You plant it at any time, you harvest it at any time and it’s perennial.”
Borrell says in order to avoid future food scarcity in areas of Africa and beyond which are predicted to be seriously impacted by climate change, ‘we need to diversify the plants we use globally as a species, because all our eggs are in a very small basket at the moment.”
Ethiopian ‘false bananas’ could be the new supercrop we’ve waiting for against climate change – ZME Science 10:38
It’s probably the most important crop you’ve never heard about.
By Tibi Puiu
January 21, 2022 in Climate, News, Nutrition
Enset is a very close relative of the banana that’s grown and consumed in some parts of Ethiopia. Outside the Horn of Africa, especially in the West, virtually no one has heard of this crop, which locals have been using for centuries to make porridge and bread. Pay attention though: enset could become a new staple across the world. Scientists claim that enset is highly resilient to climate change and could help feed more than 100 million people, boosting food security in regions where conventional crops are threatened by rising temperatures and extreme weather.
The tree against hunger
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of heating, averaged over the next 20 years. As temperatures increase, crop yields for the world’s most essential crops, which provide over 66% of the calories people across the globe consume, are expected to decrease. Maize yields, for instance, could plummet by 24% as early as 2030 under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario.
Climate change disproportionately affects sub-Saharan African countries because their economies are highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture. It is therefore likely that the agriculture sector, which provides essential food for human consumption and feed for livestock, will undergo an important transformation in order to withstand the impacts of climate change and protect the livelihoods of farmers. Such transformation may involve introducing new crops that are currently not being rotated — and this is where enset may come in.
Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is a perennial crop that fruits only once in its 10-year-long life cycle. It is known as the Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana, or false banana due to its morphological resemblance with the banana. The crop, which was domesticated some 8,000 years ago, is widely cultivated in the south and southwestern parts of Ethiopia, representing a traditional staple for about 20 million people. A multipurpose crop, enset is also utilized to feed animals, make clothes and mats from its fibers, and build dwellings.
However, unlike sweet bananas, which are widely farmed for their fruits, people in Ethiopia disregard the enset fruit and use its starchy stems and roots instead, from which they make porridge and bread.
There are a number of reasons why enset may boost food security. It grows over a relatively wide range of conditions, is somewhat drought-tolerant, and can be harvested at any time of the year, over several years. It provides an important dietary starch source, as well as fibers, medicines, animal fodder, roofing, and packaging. The crop also stabilizes soils and microclimates. These attractive qualities have earned it the nickname the ‘tree against hunger’.ADVERTISEMENT
Although enset is a hugely underrated food crop, not much research regarding its potential to feed a wider population has been conducted until recently. Dr. James Borrell, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has run agricultural surveys and modeling work to investigate what the potential range of enset could look like over the next four decades, and the findings are very encouraging.
The researchers found that the crop could feed at least 100 million people in the coming decades, boosting food security not just in Ethiopia but other vulnerable African countries, such as Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the authors believe enset could supplement our diets and offset expected yield losses of rice, wheat, and maize due to climate change.
“We need to diversify the plants we use globally as a species because all our eggs are in a very small basket at the moment,” said Dr. Borrell.
False banana offers hope for warming world BBC 01:52
False banana: Is Ethiopia’s enset ‘wondercrop’ for climate change?
By Helen Briggs
Science correspondent
Scientists say the plant enset, an Ethiopian staple, could be a new superfood and a lifesaver in the face of climate change.
The banana-like crop has the potential to feed more than 100 million people in a warming world, according to a new study.
The plant is almost unknown outside of Ethiopia, where it is used to make porridge and bread.
Research suggests the crop can be grown over a much larger range in Africa.
“This is a crop that can play a really important role in addressing food security and sustainable development,” said Dr Wendawek Abebe of Hawassa University in Awasa, Ethiopia.
Enset or “false banana” is a close relative of the banana, but is consumed only in one part of Ethiopia.https://buy.tinypass.com/checkout/template/cacheableShow?aid=tYOkq7qlAI&templateId=OTBYI8Q89QWC&templateVariantId=OTV0YFYSXVQWV&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EXAWX60BX4NU&iframeId=offer_0e763acc7b457c03340a-0&displayMode=inline&widget=template&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com
The banana-like fruit of the plant is inedible, but the starchy stems and roots can be fermented and used to make porridge and bread.
Enset is a staple in Ethiopia, where around 20 million people rely on it for food, but elsewhere it has not been cultivated, although wild relatives – which are not considered edible – grow as far south as South Africa, suggesting the plant can tolerate a much wider range.ADVERTISEMENT
Using agricultural surveys and modelling work, scientists predicted the potential range of enset over the next four decades. They found the crop could potentially feed more than 100 million people and boost food security in Ethiopia and other African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Study researcher Dr James Borrell, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said planting enset as a buffer crop for lean times could help boost food security.
“It’s got some really unusual traits that make it absolutely unique as a crop,” he said. “You plant it at any time, you harvest it at any time and it’s perennial. That’s why they call it the tree against hunger.”
Ethiopia is a major centre of crop domestication in Africa, home to coffee and many other crops.
Climate change is predicted to seriously affect yields and distribution of staple food crops across Africa and beyond.
There is growing interest in seeking new plants to feed the world, given our reliance on a few staple crops. Nearly half of all the calories we eat come from three species – rice, wheat and maize.
“We need to diversify the plants we use globally as a species because all our eggs are in a very small basket at the moment,” said Dr Borrell.
The research is published in Environmental Research Letters.
Follow Helen on Twitter.