Lost Crops of Africa Volume II: Vegetables (2006) / Chapter Skim
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9 Enset
9 Enset
Pages 172-189
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From page 173... ...
During their enforced exile in that salubrious region so close to the great capital, they taught themselves to cultivate this huge herb. Returning to Sombo, they carried planting materials home, and the alien food grew to be part of their everyday diet.
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From page 174... ...
An individual plant producing food by the cubic meter is something of a marvel. This long-lived species represents a standing food supply, available for daily use or for the rare times when all other eatables fall short.
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From page 175... ...
A second food comes from underground, where a corm may be almost a meter long and a meter in diameter, packed with starch like some giant potato. Any plant producing food by the cubic meter is surely something to put to use in a hungry continent, but so far enset is barely known to science, let alone to Ethiopia's neighbors.
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From page 176... ...
Although traditionally they incorporated exceptional quantities of animal waste, it is still fair to say that the plant provides a long-term sustainable food supply with minimal inputs -- an ability one writer considers "probably the most noteworthy characteristic of the enset plant." Also you might think that withholding inputs would hurt the land, which was far from fruitful in the first place. But that seems not to be the case either.
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From page 177... ...
"The northern town of Lalibela, famous for its eleventh century rock-hewn churches, is also the site where thousands of people died as a result of the mid-1980s famine," write The Tree Against Hunger authors. "Some farmers in Lalibela grow a few enset plants near their houses in order to use the leaves to wrap bread for baking.
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From page 178... ...
Flour The best quality enset food comes mainly from the stems of mature plants. The milky white pulp, known as bula, is obtained by laboriously scraping it off the inner leaf tissues.
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From page 179... ...
Indeed, the fermented pulp is said to contain more lysine than cereals have, but the methionine content remains low. Despite the plant's dismal nutritional power, something about the household garden system benefits human health.
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From page 180... ...
After a year, those buds sprout leaves and can be broken off. The resulting suckers, looking like ensets in a bonsai garden, are planted in nurseries, where, following another year or two, they turn into 6Because of dominance by this apical bud, lateral buds on the true stem do not usually develop; but once the apical bud is removed, these lateral buds form suckers around the periphery of the mother corm piece.
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From page 181... ...
HARVESTING AND HANDLING Although we've said that enset plants typically live 7 years, the lifespan depends on the altitude. In warm locations at low elevation ensets reach maturity in five, four, or even three years.
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From page 182... ...
Women are generally the exclusive marketers of enset food products. (Anita Spring)
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From page 183... ...
Only in 1997 was enset declared a National Crop, making it eligible for reasonable research and development funding. NEXT STEPS Following are a selection of possibilities that can move enset forward to better serve African needs.
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From page 184... ...
of agricultural systems." Thus one of the best sciences for bettering this plant's production may be animal science. The authors state that positive effects on enset cultivation systems would come from improving animal nutrition and health, improving breeds, training farmers to cull herds, and providing information, capital, and planting materials to improve pastures and forages.
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From page 185... ...
One "cursory survey" of the main Addis Ababa market, Mercato, revealed over 120 women selling kocho and bula. In addition, both women and men sell leaves, mats, rope, construction materials, and other non-food products made from the enset plant.
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From page 186... ...
SPECIES INFORMATION Botanical Name Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman Synonyms Musa ensete, Ensete edule, Musa ventricosum Family Musaceae Common Names Ethiopia: enset, guna-gunaf (Amhara)
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From page 187... ...
A fibrous rooting system grows out from the corm. While banana plants naturally form suckers or clusters of plants at the base, enset plants do not.
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From page 188... ...
Soil Enset grows well in most soil types, as long as they are sufficiently fertile. Neither roots nor corms tolerate waterlogging for long.
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