Amaranth is derived from a Greek language which means unfading to describe a flower that never change its color. These days, the word ‘amaranth’ is a name of a grain which has various colors and species and can be served as food. It is a cosmopolitan short-lived perennial plant. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudo cereals, and ornamental plants. Most of the amaranth species are summer annual weeds.
Approximately 60 species are recognized, within florescences and foliage ranging from purple, through red and green to gold. According to Endale Amare (PhD), a Food Science and Nutrition Expert at the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute, Amaranth is a solution grain type to the world hunger. It has short maturity period ranged from three to four month; that’s why it is called a solution to the world hunger.
Food security has four pillars including food availability, access, utilization and sustainability at national and household level. Today, the nutrient level of country’s agricultural products is decreasing due to the depletion of the soil or other reasons. Therefore, the country needs to apply supplementation, fortification, and bio-fortification activities to improve this, Endale said. Food taboo and other constraining cultures along with negligence among others make the society far from consuming from the wide biodiversity [that has significant nutrition] fruits of the nation.
As to him, a study conducted in 2016 indicated that among 100 under-five Ethiopian children 38 percent were found stunted. Similarly, 24 and 10 percent respectively found underweight and wasted. This result clearly shows that the shortage and consumption of low nutritional food has harmfully affected the health of the generation, he stated.
According to Endale, while agriculture is the livelihood for over 80 percent of country’s population, but traditional farming yet has not saved the nation from importing food. Contradicting to this, the amaranth will be produced within three to four months. This means the grain can be produced twice a year. This help to curb food shortage beside to the nutritional value. However, this can only be done if the nation gives the needed concern to the product and cultivate a wide plot of land with it, he stated.
Understanding the nutritional value of amaranth to health, today a number of countries produce it across the world. Its major producers, China and Russia are cultivating 300,000 and 100,000 hectares of land respectively. Ethiopia produces 1.6 to 4 tonnes of white, red and black amaranth species products per hectare. However,the product can be grown to six tonnes by using various technologies. In this regard, country’s wide ranged topography and weather condition is very suitable to grow the grain. Amaranth contains iron, zinc calcium, amino acid, fatty acid, protein, and other nutrients which can be best solutions to prevent various health problems caused by shortage of nutrition, according to Endale.
Technological Development and Research Director General Khalid Ahmed (PhD) at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology for his part said that his ministry is endeavoring to promote study and document indigenous knowledge in order to make it one of job opportunities. The ministry has been supporting researchers that have exerted efforts to conduct study on amaranth’s significance and its general nature. The researches have been made to find out nutritional level of amaranth and possibilities where the grain productivity can be improved. It is a nutritious crop certified by health professionals, he said.
The country has to do a lot to ensure food security therefore the crop will assist in this regard. The ministry has facilitated preconditions including identification of the seed nutrition, productivity and manual of suitable environment to its cultivation, he noted.
There is also a plan to widely produce and present the product at national and international market. However, the major problem related to the crop is that, it has low familiarity in most of the country’s rural areas, said Aweke Agizew, from Amaranth Trading Organization. It is common in Southern Nations and Nationalities of Peoples (SNNPs) state especially in Benchmaji zone. It is also somehow used in Gambella and Tigray states. However, the mass farmer including the aforementioned states has low or no awareness about the nature and the significance of the product. Even some of the farmers recognize it as a weed that can negatively affect their crops. Therefore, they avoid it on purpose.
Rather, it has better recognition and consumption in neighboring countries. For example, Kenyans used to produce four liter oil from a quintal of amaranth and sell it at a cost of 100 USD, Aweke stated.
The whole part of amaranth would serve to various purposes. It serves as forage to chickens and dairy animals. Consequently, the result clearly indicated that animal’s product is also increased when it is used as forage. On the other hand, its maturity period and the wide yield in a small plot of land would help to increase productivity and serve the public with nutritious food. We should have to learn from this and widely produce the grain at national level,” Aweke said.
Therefore, we need to promote amaranth across the country to increase its product both in quantity and quality. To this end, raising the public awareness and enabling it to use technology is significant. It has huge nutrition, but only a small number of the society has been used the products of amaranth as daily food. It helps the people to get varieties of nutritional values. Specifically, it also helps to alleviate pains of birth giving mothers, babies and injured peoples. In the other way, the product can be served as a raw for cosmetics.
As a result, amaranth ought to be widely produced. To this end, improving the awareness of the farmers and equipped it with the needed technology [including fertilizer, and selected seed among others] is essential. Accordingly, universities, agricultural institutions, MoIT and other stakeholders need to work together with farmers to improve productivity. Consequently, the crop would be produced and provided in various items to the local and international market.Then the amaranth would maintain the health of the people with its nutrition, as its name entails to not fading.
The Ethiopian Herald June 18, 2019
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
