Ensete

Where does Ensete grow?

Found in: Africa, Angola, Asia, Australia, Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa, Congo, East Africa, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Pacific, Philippines, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, SE Asia, South Africa, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Notes: There are 10 Ensete species.

Status: In areas with an ensete staple between 0.5-0.7 kg of kocho are eaten per person per day. This provides about 860-1400 calories. It is a staple food for 10 million people.

Growing Ensete

Cultivation: It can be grown by seed. It is normally grown by bud suckers or shoots. To get bud suckers a 4-6 year old plant is cut off at 20-30 cm height. The central bud (which would normally grow one shoot) is removed and the hole filled with soil. The corm is then replanted into a manured pit about 5 days later. After 4-8 weeks this produces 40-200 buds. These can be separated and grown in a nursery for one year before being transplanted into the field. These plants are normally then transplanted to wider spacing after 2 then 4 years. Plants reach harvest maturity in 6-7 years. Suckers can be used for transplanting and reach maturity in 2 years. The final spacing for bud suckers is 3 m x 1.5 m. Large amounts of organic manure are often applied. Plants are harvested before the onset of flowering.

Edible Uses: The fermented pulp (kocho) of the stem is eaten. It is used as a flour to make bread. The leaf bases and fresh corms are cut up and boiled as a vegetable. The milky white juice extract is allowed to ferment in pits lined with ensete leaves then cooked. The young flowers are eaten as a relish. The fruit are eaten only in times of food scarcity. It is the endosperm of the seeds that is eaten.

Production: An average family cultivates 200-400 plants per year and they eat about 10-20 plants per person per year. In Ethiopia using1600 plants per hectare at a spacing of 2.5 m gave about 5000 kg per hectare of refined product.

Nutrition Info

Ensete Photos

References

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