Enset, a fake Ethiopian banana and a miracle plant against hunger?

From afar, the tree looks like a banana tree among many others. However, upon closer inspection, there is no yellow cluster hiding under its large leaves. Like her cousin, Inset belongs to a family Mosaic But, unlike the banana tree, it has no fruits to offer. On the other hand, it often earns abundant pulp and root qualifies for “The Plant Against Hunger”particularly in East Africa, which is violently facing global warming and drought.

In southern Ethiopia, inset is already the staple food for the 20 million people who live in the humid, sunny highlands on the border with the Rift Valley. Here, it is omnipresent, overlooking the roads, overflowing with gardens and filling dishes. “It has been growing for more than ten thousand years.”says Adisu Vekedo, professor of biotechnology at Arba Minch University.

“In our village, it is the first crop, Cheer Mahatami Mengisha, who, despite his seventy years, continues to extract pulp from the stump in Dorzi locality, a well-known destination for tourists who come to observe the traditional way of life deep in the Ethiopian south.. Without it, it is not certain that we can survive, because it is our food and our animals. »

This frail lady who kills herself with this task is no exception: in Ethiopia, the cultivation of anset, according to tradition, is an almost exclusive domain of women. In his garden, Mahatami Mengisha skillfully meanders among hundreds of trees growing trunk on trunk. Like her, each dorzi person keeps dozens, if not hundreds, of these delicate plants several meters high in their backyards, to saturate them. More than one-fifth of the Ethiopian population grows it.

‘Exceptional potential’

If it takes three days to harvest one whole “fruit”, this is because it yields 70-100 kg. The Mahatami Mengisha begins by peeling the stem into about ten stalks and squeezing them to extract the pulp, which will be buried for fermentation and then cooked, most often in the form of KochoTraditional flat bread. And the bulb that hides underground becomes edible once cooked. Finally, the leaves are the goats’ main food while the fibers are recycled into bags or sometimes into temporary roofs.

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