A perennial crop resilient to the challenges of climate change could reshape the food system across Africa.
The Ethiopian orphan crop Enset is being cultivated as a climate-smart, zero-waste food source, according to Alabaster International’s Enset Food Security Initiative. The organization claims that it, together with its partners, can develop climate-adaptive and genetically varied Enset crops for underserved and drought-stricken areas in Ethiopia and the wider African region, enhancing biodiversity in local farms and creating a more resilient food system.
Ensete ventricosum, known also as Enset or “the tree against hunger,” is native to Ethiopia and primarily grown and eaten in the southern regions where it is farmed largely by women. The plantain-style plant supports nearly 20 million people in the country, but remains underutilized as a broader food security resource in the region.
Now, Alabaster and its partners collaborating in Ethiopia and Kenya say that they have developed the first-ever Enset tissue culture protocol outside of Ethiopia for specific wild and cultivated Enset landraces. This scientific breakthrough will enable diverse, disease-resistant, drought-tolerant, and nutrition-rich Enset strains to be further developed and grown in various climates and temperatures.
Women in Gamo Highlands, Ethiopia, utilizing new mechanized Enset processing equipment
The resulting seedlings will be distributed to farmers for cultivation as Alabaster International aims to improve Enset’s accessibility to smallholder farmers, particularly female farmers, reframing it as a sustainable food solution in the face of increasing food insecurity caused by climate change.
Alabaster and its partner, Arba Minch University in Ethiopia, now plan to promote Enset cultivation in new locales, with community-based Enset processing centers using new mechanized technology. This cutting-edge technology is intended to ease the labor-intensive process of harvesting and processing Enset, lightening the workload particularly for women who typically handle the processing manually.
The impact could be huge on communities across Africa, not just as a source of nutrition in disadvantaged communities, but as a valuable contribution to gender equity in these areas. Alabaster International’s Enset Community Ambassadors, in partnership with Girl Child Network and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, will conduct educational workshops on Enset nutrition and consumption, with a focus on remote, female-led households. These programs will lay the groundwork for women-run Enset cooperatives, empowering women by turning processed Enset fiber into unique market products for local and international trade.
The project includes creating a compendium of indigenous knowledge on Enset farming practices in the first-ever Enset mobile app in partnership with Deep Impact AI. The aim is to help scale production of this superfood across Ethiopia and the wider African region, with open access to the project’s research, insights on Enset’s impact on intercropping, livestock health, and nutritional biomarkers. The app intends to help farmers understand how to work with weather patterns and increase soil health to maximize successful Enset cultivation and harvesting, while promoting regenerative farming techniques more broadly. The app will also house a carbon sequestration algorithm and calculation to estimate Enset cultivation’s impact on carbon emissions and environmental resilience.
Ultimately, Alabaster International’s Enset Food Security Initiative states they are building a self-sustaining ecosystem centered on Enset—an indigenous African crop—demonstrating how traditional, farmer-centered resources can effectively address chronic hunger. This model strengthens local food security and provides a blueprint for incorporating other indigenous crops across the continent, fueling our collective fight against global hunger.
Learn more about the Enset Food Security Initiative.
Written by Gilly Smith
Photos provided by Enset Food Security Initiative
