The enset plant, which is a staple food source in Ethiopia, has the potential to be a superfood as well as a savior in maintaining food security amid climate change, researchers say.
A new study shows the plant known as the "fake banana" could be a source of food for more than 100 million people. Enset is commonly used to make porridge and bread in one part of Ethiopia, but the plant is barely known outside the country.
"This plant plays an important role in maintaining food security and sustainable development," said Dr Wendawek Abebe of Hawassa University in Awasa, Ethiopia. Enset is a close relative of bananas.
The banana-shaped fruit is inedible, but the roots and stems contain starch that can be fermented, then used as an ingredient in porridge and bread. Enset is a staple in Ethiopia, a source of food for 20 million people. Unfortunately, in other locations the food cannot be cultivated and is considered inedible even though it grows wild in the South African region.
Enset is a close relative of bananas. The banana-shaped fruit is inedible, but the roots and stems contain starch that can be fermented, then used as an ingredient in porridge and bread.
Enset is a staple in Ethiopia, a source of food for 20 million people. Unfortunately, in other locations the food cannot be cultivated and is considered inedible even though it grows wild in the South African region.
It proves that enset plants can be cultivated more widely.
Through agricultural surveys, scientists estimate that rice is a potential source of staple food in the next four decades.
Enset has the potential to feed more than 100 million people, thereby maintaining food security in Ethiopia and other African countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Dr James Borrell, as a researcher from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, who conducted the study, said that enset can be cultivated as a buffer food source during famine to maintain food security.