The Importance of Moringa
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The Importance of Moringa “Ecosystem-based Adaptation to enhance Pastoralist Resilience by Conserving Buska Massif Mountain Forest” Project Period: April 2014 – December 31, 2014 “Moringa Production Builds Resilience and Reduces Agricultural Disaster Risk in South Omo Zone” Project Period: June 2014 – December 31, 2015 “EASIER: Enhancing the Ability to Scale Initiatives that Enable Resilience” Project Period: January – December 31, 2016 South Omo Zone Malnutrition: high Food Security: 85% of Dasenech are PSNP recipients Maternal/child mortality: high Average rainfall: < 400 mm per annum Environment: Arid, sandy, shrinking grazing grounds Conflict: Escalating: between tribes and between tribes & GoE Literacy: Adult literacy in Dasenech <1% GoE infrastructure: Weak with poor linkage to communities Life in South Omo Requires a Fine Balance The land is harsh and arid Water is scarce The children are beautiful The young people posture . Men have little to do And, the women work Global Team for Local Initiatives (GTLI) mission is to build resilience in South Omo Zone Woreda Population Health Environment Livelihood Hamer 39,495 25,229 2,772 Dasenech 10,918 37,257 21,930 501 BenaTsemay 10,579 12,456 - - Nyangatom 13,159 - - Total 21,497 102,367 47,159 3,273 Moringa: the Tree of Life Continuous source of: • Food – Humans – Animals • Nutrition • Medicine • Water Purification • Economic Opportunities Drought-resistant Grows fast • Soil Conservation Produces for 60-100 years and • Fertilizer available for continuous harvest • Biogas Water stored in roots discharges into surrounding soil GTLI and Moringa stenopetala Seedlings Vulnerable Year Woreda distributed Households 2014 21,140 867 Hamer 2015 22,804 1,710 Hamer 2015 56,838 3,985 Dasenech 2015 6,504 10 Producer Assn Dasenech 2016 14,000 1,402 Dasenech Total 121,286 6,364 Moringa Stenopetala cultivation • Naturally grows in riverine and acacia- commiphora woodland and rocky ground • Evergreen perennial plant that can be productive for 60-100 years • Grows year around and is available for continuous harvesting, 6-12 m tall, 60 cm diameter, smooth bark • Likes arid & semi-arid lands free from termites Day 1: 42,000 potted seed bags & intensive grazing, tolerates alkaline and salt- Day 90: 42,000 seedlings ready for prone distribution • Moisture: 250 mm/year to 1600 mm/year • Propagated by seed or by cuttings, can be replanted by retaining only 30 cm of lateral and tap roots • Vulnerable to moth (noorda blitealis) larvae (caterpillar) and termites • M. oleifera is better known but not as potent M. Stenopetala locally known as Shiferaw or Haleko Physical Length Weight yield/ Yield / characteristics year/ tree hectare / year Leaflets Light green, 3.3 – 6.5 1-5 kg 10,000 – ovate, acute cm 15,000 kg/ha with 1 m x 1 m spacing Flowers Sweet scent Petals up to 10 cm Pod Creamy gray 6-9 cm 230 pods/ 31,000 kg /ha tree or 15- with 2.5 x 2.5 20kg m spacing Seeds / Pod In 10 years, one tree can produce up to 4,500 – 10,000 seeds that weight 2.3 – 5 kg from approximately 500 – 1,000 pods Improves food security & nutrition Contains high amounts of essential amino acids and vitamins A & D Believed that if consumption in Ethiopia was wide-spread, child and maternal mortality rates could be reduced by 30-50% nationally Leaflets can be stripped and eaten like spinach (fresh, dried, powder) Fresh Leaves Dried Leaves Vitamin A 4 x carrots 10 x carrots Vitamin C 7 x oranges ½ x oranges Calcium 4 x milk 17 x milk Potassium 3 x bananas 15 x bananas Iron ¾ x spinach 25 x spinach Protein 2 x yogurt 9 x yogurt Animal fodder: Cut and carry leaves and pods Moringa products should be 40% or less of animal fodder (protein needs to be balanced by other energy food) • Cattle: milk yields for dairy cows and daily weight gains for beef cattle can increase 30% • Breeder chickens: improve growth performance, feed efficiency, and carcass yield • Sheep: improve dry matter intake, body weight gain and nitrogen retention Medicine: Rutin is the magic ingredient Ailment Process Claim Study High blood Boil leaves and drink Drop in systolic and Mengistu pressure as tea diastolic (2012) Aqueous leaf extract Reduce high blood Toma Diabetes and/or butanol faction glucose and cholesterol (2012) of ethanol extract levels Malaria, Boil leave or chopped hypertension, roots, drink as tea stomach pain Antimicrobial agents Water-borne Methanol & n-hexane against Salmonella typhii, Walter diseases extracts of seeds (2011) vibrio cholera & e-coli Antibiotic activity against Bacterial Defatted and shelled Staphylococcus aureus, Mekonnen disease seeds Salmonella typhi, Shigella (2003) spp, & Candida albicans Traditional Uses Purpose How Where Expel retained placenta Infusion of leaves from women and cows Leprosy Infusion of leaves Turkana - Kenya Treatment for cough Chew the bark Njemps – Kenya and fortifying soup Inhale smoke from Difficult labor Somalia burning root Inhale smoke from Epilepsy Konso - Ethiopia burning root Expel snakes from Root extracts Gamo Gofa - Ethiopia homestead Water Purification Seeds are natural flocculation agents with anti-microbial properties – Whole crushed seeds remove turbidity from waters with high initial turbidity – Bacterial contamination can be reduced by 90-99% – Seed powder removes heavy metals from industrial waste water • Chromium from tannery effluent • Cadmium & lead from polluted water Economic Uses and Potential Applications • Leaflets sold for food (fresh, dried, powder) • Oil extracted from leaflets and seeds – Edible oil has properties similar to olive oil – Light for illumination – Cosmetics, perfumes and soaps – Lubricating machinery • Seed cake obtained after oil extraction – Protein supplement in animal feed – Biogas production – Organic fertilizer – Water purification • Flowers increase honey production • Bark is used to make mats and rope • Wood is soft and makes excellent pulp Sources • “Guide to Use and Processing Practices” Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network • “The African Moringa is to change the lives of millions in Ethiopia and far beyond” Solomon Habtemariam, Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 2016 • “Extractability of Rutin in Herbal Tea Preparations of Moringa stenopetala Leaves” by Solomon Habtemariam and George K. Varghese. 2015 • “Actual and potential applications of Moringa stenopetala, Underutilized Indigenous Vegetable of South Ethiopia: A Review,” Eyassu Seifu, International Journal of Agricultural and Food Research, 2014 • “The Moringa Tree” by Dr. Martin L. Price, published 1985; Revised 2000 by Kristin Davis • The Hunger Project-Ethiopia brochure • “Trees for Life” www.treesforlife.org GTLI Best Practices Propagate in local nursery sites Integrate with Community-based Learning in Action (CBLA) Healthy Children, CBLA-WASH, CBLA- Nutrition and Integrated Functional Vocational Literacy Build the capacity & motivation within the community “Moringa is the perfect fish hook. When we throw are regular fish hook in the Omo river, we don’t always catch a fish. But with moringa, we always catch our food. Now we are not so hungry and our stomach pain is less” Netsale Neguanaluk, July 2016 Thank You.