"Hunger-Fighting Tree" Could Feed Millions.. Why is This Plant Grown Only in This African Country?

- The titles given to agricultural crops can be quite flattering. Cotton, for example, has been known since the 19th century as "white gold," but few crops have received titles that rival those given to the "enset" plant, such as "the hunger-fighting tree," "the activated banana," and "the miracle crop."

However, if you live outside Ethiopia, you may not have heard of this plant before. Enset is a staple food for more than 20 million people in Ethiopia, but it does not enjoy significant global recognition compared to the three major crops, namely rice, wheat, and corn, which together provide more than half of the calories consumed by the world's population.

British researcher James Borrell, a specialist in plant biology and conservation, confirms that enset is one of the most underappreciated crops, given its remarkable ability to adapt to different environments. Borrell himself had not heard of enset before he began his work in 2017 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in West London.

He soon discovered the reason for the crop's lack of global fame. Wild enset grows naturally in several African countries, from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south, but its use as a food crop is almost entirely concentrated in Ethiopia.

Even within Ethiopia, its cultivation is primarily limited to the southwestern highlands, at an altitude ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 meters above sea level. The plant initially appears to be a massive tree, as it can reach a height of about 10 meters, with green leaves that can grow up to 5 meters long.

However, it is not actually a tree, but a large herbaceous plant from the banana family. What appears to be a trunk is made up of tightly stacked leaf stems, and this part, along with the corm, which is a fleshy underground base resembling a large tuber, is used to produce food.

These parts are crushed and mixed with materials that aid fermentation, then placed in underground pits for several months, with the fermentation process potentially extending to two years. After that, the mixture is used to make a traditional Ethiopian food similar to bread known as "kucho."

The process also produces a starchy liquid called "bula," which can be dried and turned into a white powder, then used in making porridge or dough balls. The yellow or orange fruits of the enset are not eaten.

Despite the plant's resemblance to bananas, its fruits are filled with hard black seeds and contain almost no edible pulp. However, the true advantages of the plant lie in its productivity and its ability to withstand drought and diseases.

About 60 enset plants are sufficient to feed a family of 5 for a year. It is also a perennial crop that can live and produce for more than two years without the need for replanting, unlike staple crops such as wheat, rice, and corn, which typically complete their life cycle within one growing season.

A study on modeling the agricultural range published in 2021, in which Borrell participated, indicates that enset is capable of growing in vast areas of East and South Africa. According to the study, the suitable areas for its cultivation can be expanded to up to 12 times the current area, which could help provide food for up to 111.5 million additional people in sub-Saharan Africa, a region facing increasing food insecurity and malnutrition.

Researchers believe that enset may also succeed in other countries around the world that have a suitable climate. Kew Gardens demonstrated this practically when the plant bloomed there for the first time in April 2023, four years after it arrived at the garden as a small plant no taller than 30 centimeters.

But the question remains; why hasn't enset spread outside Ethiopia like crops such as corn, rice, and potatoes? Borrell suggests that the reason is due to a combination of historical, cultural, and political factors.

Ethiopia imposes strict restrictions on the transfer of plant materials abroad to protect its genetic resources from exploitation or "biological piracy." A legal dispute in 2019 over patents related to the Ethiopian "teff" crop heightened these concerns, as many viewed the case as a struggle over an important national resource.

Additionally, the wild species of enset found in other countries are not suitable for food production like the varieties developed by Ethiopian communities over centuries. Moreover, transferring the knowledge necessary for cultivating and processing the plant is not easy, as the process of converting it into food requires specialized expertise.

Other challenges include that harvesting and processing enset is a physically demanding task, often carried out by women. Several Ethiopian universities are working on developing mechanical solutions to ease the work, but these have not yet been widely implemented.

Additionally, the taste of some foods made from it, such as kocho, may require getting used to. With the increasing impacts of climate change, researchers believe that diversifying food crops has become more important.

Global reliance on a limited number of crops makes agriculture more vulnerable to pests, diseases, and environmental changes. Enset is characterized by its ability to withstand a wide range of climatic conditions, making it an important candidate in a world marked by increasingly volatile climates.

However, the paradox is that enset cultivation is declining within Ethiopia itself. In a study conducted in 2025 on more than 400 farmers in the southwest of the country, about 60% of them reported that the area allocated for enset cultivation has decreased over recent decades, and its consumption within households has also declined, as some farmers shift to more profitable cash crops such as wheat, maize, and potatoes.

Therefore, Kew Gardens and its partners are working to encourage local communities to protect agricultural diversity, including compensating farmers who continue to cultivate threatened varieties of enset. Borrell believes that international interest in this plant can help improve its cultivation methods, increase farmers' incomes, and preserve a unique resource that Ethiopia alone has a long history of using.