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12 Tef
Pages 215-236

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From page 215...
... Each year, Ethiopian farmers plant almost 1.4 million hectares of tef,' and they produce 0.9 million tons of grain, or about a quarter of the country's total cereals.9 The grain is especially popular in the western provinces, where people prefer it to all other cereals and eat it once or twice (occasionally three times) every day.
From page 217...
... I! lef production in the Ethiopian I I Highlands.
From page 218...
... And it usually produces grain in bad seasons as well as good an invaluable attribute for poor farmers and of special benefit to locations beset by changeable conditions. However, along with its advantages tef has serious drawbacks, mainly stemming from its tiny seeds, high demands for labor, lack of development, and difficult cultural practices.
From page 219...
... A very correct British gentleman visiting Ethiopia in the mid-1 800s tried to explain the experience of eating injera: "fancy yourself chewing a piece of sour sponge," he said, "and you will have a good idea of what is considered the best bread in Abyssinia." But these days people are not so closedminded. Indeed, the search for new tastes and new culinary sensations is becoming a force that is opening up the food industries of affluent nations.
From page 220...
... Moreover, this grass is exciting South Africans as a '~quick fix" for holding down bare soil and thereby baffling erosion while more permanent ground covers establish themselves. Humid Areas Prospects probably low.
From page 221...
... In the United States, it is recommended as a good thickener for soups, stews, and gravies, and, at least according to one promotional pamphlet, "its mild, slightly molasses-like sweetness makes tef easy to include in porridge, pancakes, muffins and biscuits, cookies, cakes, stir fry dishes, casseroles, soups, stews, and puddings."' As fodder, the tef plant is cheap to raise and quick to produce. Its straw is soft and fast drying.
From page 222...
... However, this is probably because it is always eaten in the whole-grain form: the germ and bran are consumed along with the endosperm. Tef grains are reported to contain 9-11 percent protein, an amount slightly higher than in normal sorghum, maize, or oats.
From page 223...
... The average ash content is 3 percent. Tef is reported rich in iron, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus.
From page 224...
... e want to draw attention to the high values for methionine and cystine found in tef .... The protein from a mixture of tef and a pulse will give a near optimal amino acid mixture with regard to both lysine and to the sulfur-containing amino acids."~5 The vitamin content seems to be about average for a cereal, but making injera involves a short fermentation process, and the yeasts generate additional vitamins.
From page 225...
... In Yemen, tef is known as a lazy man's crop: the farmers merely toss seed onto moist soil following flash floods and then return after about 45 days to collect the grainy No matter how it is grown, tef requires little care once it is established. Its rapid growth stifles most weeds; few diseases and pests attack it; and it is said to produce well without added nutrients.
From page 227...
... Handling and transporting them is also a problem because they tend to fall through any crack. NEXT STEPS Tef seems poised on the brink of becoming a resource for everyday foods, gluten-free specialty items, animal feeds, and erosion control.
From page 228...
... Other targets for improving the crop, especially for large-scale commercial production, include larger grain size, less shattering of seeds, and quicker drying seeds.9' Agronomy In Ethiopia, large yield improvements can be achieved by applying techniques that are already known: careful land prepara 20 A variety called "munite" seems especially valuable in this regard because it is very short (40 cm) , early maturing, and has a high harvest index.
From page 229...
... The Carlsons' tef flour now goes to natural-food markets nationwide as well as to the numerous Ethiopian restaurants that have been springing up in major cities to serve Americans as well as an estimated 50,000 Ethiopian immigrants and students. Their long-range goal is to make tef a new option among America's cereal crops.
From page 230...
... , Kew's Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information advocated introducing the crop "to certain hill stations in India, to elevated portions of our colonial empire, and indeed to all places where maize and wheat cannot be successfully cultivated." These efforts stimulated tef trials in various parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia. As a result, many reports on the plant's performance were received.
From page 231...
... It is providing outstanding erosion control on toxic, dry, degraded, and infertile slag heaps and other problem sites where nothing previously would grow. As an erosion-fighting plant, weeping lovegrass is better than tef because it is a perennial whose natural staying power keeps the land covered as the seasons go by.
From page 232...
... In South Africa it is already used in mixtures to protect road cuts, open-cast mine workings, stream banks, and other erodible sites.93 Black Cotton Soils Tef has evolved on the Ethiopian highlands on vertisol (black cotton) soils that frequently get waterlogged.
From page 233...
... Samples claimed to be tef have been found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. The plant is still harvested in the wild and wild tef is eaten, sometimes on a considerable scale, in mixtures with other wild grains (see wild grains chapter, page 2511.
From page 234...
... A vigorous grower, widely distributed in Namibia and other arid areas of southern Africa, this wild tef is locally valued as sheep fodder. · Eragrostis invalida.
From page 235...
... While tef has some frost tolerance, it will not High Temperature Tef tolerates temperatures (at its lower altitudinal range) well above 35°C.27 Soil Type Tef's tolerance of soil types seems to be very wide.


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