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Eden FoundationFounded 1985 in SwedenActive in Tanout, Niger, since 1987 |
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Written: August 1992 One of Eden’s goals is for Dry Farming Candidates to be analysed for their nutritional value. Many Dry Farming Candidates are being used for human food, not just in famine years but also in years of good harvest. A large number have a direct economic value for the farmer. Food can be gathered from these plants throughout the year including the critical months before harvest of annuals when food supply runs low. But little is known about the nutritional status of many of these species, so Eden considers it important that analyses are done on them in order to find out how to best include them in a balanced diet.
Peter Sahlin, a chemical engineer in food processing teaching at the University of Lund, Sweden has been responsible for Eden’s nutritional work since the beginning. In 1987 he came for a study on the food habits of the rural population of an area in Niger. The study was done on 49 households in 5 villages. He found that the people regularly used food from 18 local Dry Farming Candidate species including herbs, bushes and trees that provided fruit, seed, leaf and gum. This confirmed the need to study the nutritional values of food from little researched Dry Farming Candidates more thoroughly.
The fruits were found to have a very high energy value. Only dates, figs, raisins and a few other dried fruits have a higher value. The seeds were rich in protein and the leaves in calcium, iron and magnesium. The study shows clearly that food from this plant is an important source of energy, protein and minerals. Peter Sahlin’s survey in Niger showed that children between the age of 6-18 months didn’t gain weight and half of the children between one to five years were undernourished. One of the reasons for the undernourishment was given as a lack of variety of food, showing the need for novelty foods such as Ziziphus spina-christi. There is the challenge of many edible perennial species growing in arid zones of the world that are used for human food by the local population, but are virtually unknown to the scientific community. As finance becomes available, more nutritional tests can be done and more knowledge will be gained about the food benefits from these valuable plants.
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Copyright © Eden Foundation
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This
year money was made available by Strømme Foundation of Norway for a freeze-drier
which is used to prepare plant parts for transport to a laboratory for
the analysis itself. Strømme also financed a drying oven which is used
to calculate the dry weight of samples. Plant parts from Dry Farming Candidates
were screened through Eden’s Nutritional Analysis Screening Method. Highest
ratings are given to plant parts that are harvested without damage to
the plant, culturally acceptable, easily obtained, transportable to lab,
environmentally constructive, growing well at the field station, little
researched and have been through the Dry Farming Candidate Preparation
Test. 
