Enset’s role on Food Security in Ethiopia and Kenya
Summary
In 2024, Alabaster International committed to address food and economic insecurity in Kenya and Ethiopia for 2,000 indigenous, smallholder farmer households through their Enset crop initiative.One thousand female smallholder farmers in both nations will be trained on Enset cultivation and established as community ambassadors to raise awareness about Enset consumption. In addition, one full package Enset processing site will be established in each nation to provide technological support for Enset harvesting, impacting 6,000 households across Ethiopia and Kenya. These processing sites will then aid in the establishment of Enset-based women-owned businesses, benefiting an additional 1000 households in Ethiopia and 1000 households in Kenya. Alabaster will also publish seven articles on the regional impact of Enset, closing existing research gaps on Enset’s drought tolerance, viability in arid lands, tissue culture protocols, and prevention of bacterial wilt disease.
Approach
Alabaster is dedicated to supporting 1,000 food-insecure, indigenous, female-led smallholder farming households in Kenya and another 1,000 similar households in Ethiopia by providing access to Enset, a new food security crop, by 2026. A total of 2,000 female smallholder farmers across both countries will receive training in Enset cultivation and will serve as community ambassadors to promote Enset consumption. Additionally, one fully equipped Enset processing site will be established in each country to support harvesting, benefiting 3,000 households in Ethiopia and 3,000 in Kenya. These processing sites will facilitate the creation of women-owned businesses based on Enset, helping 1,000 households in each nation.
Alabaster will also publish seven articles examining the regional impact of Enset, addressing research gaps related to its drought tolerance, viability in arid lands, tissue culture protocols, and bacterial wilt disease prevention. Furthermore, the organization will develop the first comprehensive compendium of indigenous knowledge on Enset farming practices, gathering insights exclusively from female indigenous farmers in Ethiopia.
Key research initiatives will include: 1) analyzing and comparing Kenyan and Ethiopian wild and cultivated Enset strains for their nutritional value; 2) optimizing Enset cultivation for arid lands to support drought-prone communities; and 3) evaluating wild and cultivated Enset strains for resistance to bacterial wilt disease. Alabaster is partnering with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology in Kenya to provide staffing, advanced equipment, and expertise for scaling Enset. In Ethiopia, Alabaster is collaborating with Arba Minch University, the leading institution for Enset research and cultivation, to promote Enset in drought-affected regions, particularly among farms unfamiliar with the crop.
Action Plan
Phase 1 goes from March 2024 to March 2025 and involves ongoing community surveys conducted in food-insecure communities in Northern Kenya and in Enset-naive regions in Ethiopia on Enset farming and food products through cooking demonstrations and community workshops. This will help identify farmer and consumer preferences for Enset, sensitizing communities to Enset before planting begins. 500 Enset farming ambassadors will be launched in each nation.
Phase 2 goes from May 2024 to November 2024 and involves the collection and analysis of wild Enset strains in Kenya and Ethiopia under laboratory and greenhouse conditions to determine their viability as a food source and compare them to cultivated Enset strains to determine their growth and nutrition profile.
Phase 3 goes from June 2024 to January 2025 and involves the analysis of cultivated Enset strains from Ethiopia under greenhouse and laboratory conditions to determine their growth and nutritional profile and also their viability under environmental stressors like drought and increased temperatures. A tissue culture protocol for Enset will also be developed for the mass multiplication of Enset seedlings to prepare for transfer to local farms in Kenya and Ethiopia. One Enset processing site will be established in Ethiopia, enabling the launch of women-led Enset business cooperatives in Ethiopia.
Phase 4 goes from January 2025 to January 2026 and involves the transfer of Enset seedlings from research field conditions to 1000 farming households led by indigenous women in Ethiopia and 1000 in Kenya to be planted and harvested as food.
Phase 5 goes from January 2026 to December 2026 and involves monitoring Enset seedlings in local farms, assessing farmer needs, monitoring harvesting progress, and assessing the impact of Enset on food and nutritional security. One Enset processing site will be established in Kenya, enabling the launch of women-led Enset business cooperatives in Kenya.
Background
Food insecurity impacted by climate change has become a dire issue in Africa, highlighting the need for innovative and climate-smart agricultural solutions. 278 million people in Africa suffer from chronic hunger, 20 percent of the continent’s population, however, by comparison, only 10% are affected globally (World Economic Forum, 2022) . In Kenya, families headed by women in rural areas are more likely to be food insecure than those headed by men and 29% of children in rural areas are malnourished (WFP, FAO, 2022) . In Ethiopia, prolonged drought throughout the country has left 11.8 million people food-insecure (WFP, 2022) . Alabaster’s Enset Food Security Initiative focuses on developing climate-resilient and genetically diverse crops for marginalized and drought-prone communities in Kenya and Ethiopia in need of sustainable food alternatives. Ensete ventricosum, commonly known as Enset, is a versatile and drought-tolerant crop that can be harvested year-round, withstanding temperature, altitudinal, and rainfall changes (Borrell et al., 2019) . An indigenous crop to Ethiopia, Enset is currently only cultivated and consumed as food in southern Ethiopia. Despite being used as a sustainable food source for approximately 20 million people, Enset’s potential is under-researched and it remains an underutilized food source (Koch et al., 2022) . This project aims to increase access to Enset amongst smallholder farmers, particularly indigenous female farmers, in Ethiopia and Kenya, so Enset can be utilized as a new sustainable food source to combat food insecurity fueled by climate change and ultimately reverse famine conditions in marginalized communities. Bringing together key stakeholders from Ethiopia and Kenya, the project facilitated the first-ever transfer of Enset plant material outside of Ethiopia’s international borders to Kenya to enable groundbreaking collaborative research to begin so the regional impact of Enset and its role as a food security crop in East Africa can be established.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
Alabaster is seeking financial resources to ensure sustainable funding is available for the entire life of the project. Due to the unprecedented nature of the project, funding sources have been limited as many are unaware of Enset and its potential to impact food insecurity and famine throughout Africa. Alabaster is seeking financial resources, particularly for the research components of the project, which would support advanced scientific technological efforts in the agriculture industry in Africa. In addition, Alabaster is seeking media support to enhance the visibility of the project to further attract financial resources for the project., Alabaster is providing financial resources for project activities in both Ethiopia and Kenya in addition to ensuring activities are implemented promptly according to the research agreement between the partners. Alabaster will also lead all monitoring and evaluation activities of the project and share outcomes with relevant partners. All research findings and data on Enset farmers’ regenerative farming practices, Enset’s drought tolerance, climate chock resilience, and tissue culture viability will be made available to the wider agricultural and scientific community. This dissemination will enable Enset cultivation and its role as a climate change-resilient food security crop to be scaled throughout the East Africa region. In addition, the Enset Indigenous Farming Compendium that will be compiled, featuring best practices for Enset harvesting and processing, will be shared with other indigenous farming communities throughout the region to enable more efficient adoption of Enset cultivation, especially amongst female indigenous farmers experiencing food insecurity.