Fiber Bananas (Ensete Ventricosum) for a Mineral-Rich Diet in Southern Africa

Fiber Bananas (Ensete Ventricosum) for a Mineral-Rich Diet in Southern Africa

In the German-Zambian student competition of the initiative Students4Kids in 2016 the Jury decided to reward two project teams for their outstanding ideas. Both projects, Samaki, a re-circulating aquaculture system, as well as For Zambia Zambians, won a grant of € 10,000, funded by the Assmann-Foundation for Prevention. The second one, For Zambia Zambians, promotes the consumption and distribution of fiber bananas in Zambia (1). At the Students4Kids-Summit in Berlin, Daniel Cardenas, a Mexican exchange student of the University of Applied Sciences Mainz, presented the the idea of his project team to the audience.

Fiber bananas are rich in minerals such as potassium, calcium, manganese and zinc and also nutritionally valuable by its high proportion of fibrous materials. As water-storing and water-saving plant, it can be perfectly combined with corn and coffee. The fiber banana Ensete has already been tested in Ethiopia. Since Ensete is sturdy and easy to grow, it can provide a sustainable support for the region, so that in the long term it is expectable that the plant contributes to the independence of the cultivation area from imports and other external assistance.

Whether the consumption of Ensete will effectively help to reduce micronutrient deficiencies in Zambia, will depend to a large extent on the marketing of nutritional diversity. The project team of For Zambia by Zambians from Mainz will try out whether common communication channels in Zambia such as smartphones or digital radio can promote the acceptance of a more diverse daily diet, which is rich in micronutrients. Students4Kids will report on the progress of the project on this website and on Facebook (facebook.com/students4kids) at irregular intervals.

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(1) For Zambia by Zambians. Project submission. Link: http://students4kids.org/blog/cause/for-zambia-by-zambians/

(2) B. Mohammed, M. Gabel und L.M. Karlson. Nutritive values of the drought tolerant food and fodder crop enset African journal of agricultural research 8(20):2326-2333 DOI: 10.5897/AJAR12.1296. Tabelle 2. Link: http://www.doc-developpement-durable.org/file/Culture-plantes-alimentaires/FICHES_PLANTES/Ensete/Nutritive%20values%20of%20Enset.pdf. and L.M. Karlsson. Effect of cultivar, traditional corm pre-treatment and watering on spouting and early growth of enset . (Ensete ventricosum) SUCKERS. Experimental Agriculture 51(02) 01.12. April 2014. DOI: 10.1017/S0014479714000246

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