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By
Lowell J. Fuglie - (image)
Lowell Fuglie on UMTV
The advantages of using Moringa
in
malnutrition prevention programs
|
In
the African context, Moringa is a
very simple and
readily available tool to help prevent malnutrition. It is a
drought-resistant and fast growing tree which is present in nearly all
tropical and sub-tropical countries (see page 32 for names of
Moringa
in West African
countries) . Its edible leaves are already an occasional food source in
West Africa regions and appear at the end of the dry season: a time
when other greens are in short supply.
As
a source of good nutrition, its leaves are considered the best of
tropical legumes with its high quantities of
vitamin A and significant quantities of vitamin C, calcium, iron,
protein, potassium, magnesium, selenium, zinc and a good balance of all
the essential amino acids.
Also, the leaves can be easily dried into powder form for use as a nutritional supplement for sauces or as an addition to infant weaning foods. Moringa�
leaves can be produced intensively in a family-size small garden. The
seeds can be spaced as closely as ten centimeters apart. When the
plants reach a height of a meter, they can be cut down to a height of
30 centimeters.
The leaves can be stripped from the stems and used to prepared sauces or dried for long-term storage as a nutritious food additive, and the stems fed to livestock. The stumps survive the harvest and will re-sprout, allowing another harvest in as little as fifty days. Using this technique, a Moringa garden can continually produce green matter for several years with very little labor required. As the West Africa representative
for an American non-profit development
organization� over a period of seventeen years, I did
extensive research and field trials to test the nutritional value of
adding Moringa leaves, in dried form, as a nutritious food supplement
for women and their children.
Results were conclusive. Moringa demonstrated tremendous value in helping moderately malnourished women and children rapidly return to good health simply by the addition of Moringa leaf powder to their daily meals. These results received considerable publicity, including the publication of a book in English and in French with the support of the : 'Technical Center for Agricultural and rural Cooperation (CTA) in The Netherlands; the sponsorship of an international seminar in Tanzania; the development of strategies for improving livestock nutrition in Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and The Gambia'; and the creation of a network of researchers, marketers and development project practitioners throughout the third world. Some
of my work on Moringa was featured on the front page of the Los
Angeles Times , on page 2 of the International
Herald Tribune,
as a chapter in a UNESCO
book on Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge
, as a documentary aired on the Discovery Health Channel,
on the National
Public Radio , and on many other sites.
Lowell
Fuglie
Moringa project Coordinator |
eKstreme.com