Research

'False' bananas could save millions of people from starvation

One of the most important problems of humanity inall the time there was a massive famine. The first half of the 20th century was especially difficult for people, but until 2010 the number of hungry people in the world was not very large. However, then hunger again began to cover our Earth and already in 2020, 9.9% of the world population suffered from a lack of food. In the year the coronavirus pandemic began, 811 million people did not have enough food - most of them live in Asian countries, with Africa in second place. The cause of starvation is both climate change and insufficient funding. Researchers recently announced that mass starvation can be partially eliminated with the help of so-called "false" bananas. Let's see what it is and how many people can be saved from hunger with it.

One of the most hungry countries is Africa, but this problem can be solved

Interesting fact: in 2011 throughout East Africadrought has begun. It caused a humanitarian catastrophe - 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti died from lack of food.

What is a "false" banana?

Enset plant is called "false" bananaswollen (Ensete ventricosum). It is a relative of ordinary bananas and grows in some quantities on the territory of the African state of Ethiopia. Its wild species have a bitter taste and hardly anyone dares to eat them. However, the domesticated false banana is very sweet and is a staple food for 20 million people. It is important to note that this is the fifth part of all of Ethiopia - a place that is home to 116 million people. Researchers recently announced that a false banana could save almost all of Ethiopia and possibly the entire African continent from starvation.

Enseta swollen leaves

Unlike ordinary bananas, enseta is swollenhas features that are convenient for farmers. First, the homemade false banana has a flexible harvesting schedule. Secondly, it does not require special storage conditions and therefore has a long shelf life. Thirdly, the false banana is resistant to drought and plant diseases. A few years ago, I said that ordinary bananas could disappear from the face of our planet due to the “Panama disease”. So, the swollen enseta has some protection from it.

false banana fruit

See also: Why do we find tasteless food tasty when we are hungry?

How to solve the problem of starvation in Africa?

Due to all of the features listed above,the plant even has the unofficial name "tree against hunger." However, for all these benefits, Enset puffin is only cultivated in certain regions of Ethiopia. The authors of the new scientific work decided to find out whether it is possible to grow a plant in other regions - it turned out that there should not be any problems with this. The fact that false bananas are grown only in Ethiopia is due only to historical, cultural and geographical restrictions.

Ethiopia on Africa map

The state of Ethiopia is known as the "roof"African continent. Its territory is isolated by lowlands, which are so dry that they are in no way suitable for plant growth. Scientists believe that this natural barrier was the reason that information about the cultivation of false bananas in ancient times did not make it to other regions of Africa. But if Ethiopia hadn't been so isolated, Enset puffin would have spread across Africa as well as potatoes and tomatoes around the world. It is possible that in the absence of this barrier or its earlier detection, many deaths from starvation could have been avoided.

Regular bananas on the left and fake bananas on the right

Fortunately, scientists now know that the areacultivation of false bananas can be increased 12 times. So it may well be that in a few years this crop will be grown throughout Ethiopia and feed hundreds of millions of people. It may also start growing in Kenya and Uganda, where there are also many deaths from starvation. It is possible that due to their properties, false bananas will be able to save people even when exposed to the effects of global warming.

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I have already talked about increasing the number ofstarving people. Their number is increasing even if enough food is produced today to feed all the inhabitants of our planet. If you want to know what other causes of mass starvation exist and which countries suffer the most from it, read this material.