ECONOMIC VALUE OF MORINGA, ZAMBIA'S EXPERIENCE

[Music] Moringa is classified as a superfood by those that have seen its benefits it is believed that it is able to heal close to 300 diseases and its properties how far-reaching the value moves not just from the leaves but to the seeds as well that I also seem to have commercial volume today on news in depth join me as I look at the economic value of Moringa I'll be talking to various people linked to the development of value-added products out of this particular crop for coming you to this week's program my name is penny fuh Narendra once in a while something manages to capture global attention this time around the sport light is on a tree code Moringa oleifera also fondly referred to as the drumstick dream it consists of approximately 13 varieties and its roots have been traced back to Asia it originated from India the northern part of India that's what originated from and currently the widely grown variety of marine guys Moringa oleifera yes so when you speak on weighing up a lot of people think Moringa is just more enjoy different the one that has smallest with a lot of seeds but then Moringa has several other varieties on board want to bring also Moringa Stano patella a very good variety as well it's poo factor is its medicinal and nutritional attributes this is because it contains protein vitamins fiber and minerals including all nine essential amino acids it is also a rich source of iron vitamin K and E vitamin A and calcium as well as high in antioxidants in some parts of the world Moringa has made it onto the dining table as it is used for food the ability to deal with malnutrition makes stakeholders approve it for consumption Moringa brings some nutrients that that you need at the house there the issue is and as a hotter house what level we need to promote different types of food different type of nutritious food so a household should not only have access to one type of food Moringa is a superfood Moringa has got nutrients that can deal with the problem of malnutrition without adding any other component yeah and because when you look at Zambia it is actually called the food basket but we don't have information on the ground on how the food basket can be used a combination of foods needs to be reinforced ice Moringa is also linked to the treatment of a number of diseases that include anemia arthritis asthma cancer constipation and diabetes added to the list are heart problems high blood pressure kidney stones fluid retention and the common fungal viral and parasitic infections it is believed that Moringa can energize the human body in a more effective way than regular energy drinks and in North Carolina at the Appalachian State University further research is taking place to understand how that works Mali NEFAs a lot of properties and one of them is energy people that they morena usually feel like a lot of energy inside their bodies so where we're trying to find out to find out how this happens how how is working more in that inside the body how how we produce energy zambian professor Nathan MOA is living the North Carolina Research and speaks highly of medicinal properties of Moringa so our lab is really focused on the mendocino aspects of Moringa or the the health aspect of Moringa but there's so many benefits that Moringa has which I would group into three major categories it has agricultural benefits it has industrial benefits but as well as medicinal benefits Briana Tate is a master student at Appalachian State University and she spoke of her input into the research so I'm taking cells harvested from patients with arthritis and treating them with the extract of the plant and looking at how the plant can attenuate inflammatory chemicals in the cells preliminary Lee I'm seeing that the plant extracts are actually able to induce apoptosis in the cells down looking in which is actually good because the types of cells that I look at are actually overpopulated and a patient with arthritis and so if you induce apoptosis you may be to attenuate some of the symptoms of arthritis so we are very hopeful that we can provide an alternative treatment for arthritis that is more accessible and more affordable and safer than any treatments that are currently on the market issues of inflammation also have interest to Jacob Gordon an undergraduate student having moringa as officially a supplement but also a heavy regular occurring item that's in a diet can also really help with that as in terms of decreasing the amounts of low-grade inflammation that are going on as well as being able to treat the amounts of high grade inflammation that you commonly associate with a lot of different diseases in South Africa look Jamaica is a professor of chemistry at the vits University and he has helped to devise the technology for extracting and converting Moringa powder into a liquid concentrate it has been used to create a Moringa yogurt and other beverages the ability to fight disease and provide essential vitamins and minerals earns Moringa the classification as a superfood the good news of of Moringa is if you have a child with kua shock which is severe the nutrition you can turn that kid around within two months we are so interested and making research and proving that these benefits are are real you have bit of a team of Inger and cabbage I just put a lot of essential compounds like and Austin's that can help to eat would prevent but reduce certain lifestyle diseases led for example high pressure so marina at the moment needs to be promoted because it's a wonderful that really saves lives and would contribute to improving the nutrition status of many people in this country in Cola Chanda tested HIV positive in 2001 she has not suffered many opportunistic infections and credits Moringa for her good health I was introduced to more English my preside growing there and puts my mother put it in my foot and it really helped me get strong and just my quality of life improved they found that my liver and my kidneys are fine because of ID talks with Moringa and then it's also good for the brain yeah I had the brain scan which showed that my brain just shrunk a bits identification because a person has been sick for a long time there's a tendency to have a permanent a brain but man was fine yes and then like immunity I hardly get sick a similar testimony is shared by Sylva food solutions proprietor Sylvia Banda who describes Moringa as the invested teaching hospital uth tree from the time that I've been using this more Inga products this is my 13 CA I've never been to any hospital to see the doctor to say I've got this problem I've got that problem personally I used to be a victim of malaria whenever I just start feeling low I know that it's malaria when I go to the hospital you just confirm I call it the you th yeah when you have one plant at home you have the hot uth at home Moringa oleifera has been grown in Zambia for many years but its usefulness has mostly been its medicinal value concerns have arisen on the underwhelming use of Moringa and steering the growth of the Zambian economy this is in light of the competitive advantage Moringa has on the international market outstripping commodities like copper on a good a market today for copper we know that copper fetches between 6000 to is slightly below 7000 dollars on a good market day but Moringa on a bad day I repeat again will switch $8,000 attack grains like maize do not come anywhere close to the very competitive price of Moringa both locally and internationally when you look at soya beans and and maize which seem to be our key active crops in in the land of Zambia you will find that on a based a farming season maize will fetch let's talk in kwacha the maize will fetch between 1/4 and 1/4 15 way occasion but morinda will fetch on a bad day 8 quarter-deck ageing sorry a 8 a quarter per kg which is about 8 US dollars per kg one thing certain is that Moringa can grow without much trouble in Zambia the 26:17 2018 season I have seen a lot of people come in to buy the seed because apart from the believes which we we knew Mary buy from our farmers we saw it we also encourage them to buy the seed Malinga is good in the sense that it can improve the economy of the small-scale farmer because number one it's it is a tree and the you harvest and then the tree will give you something else to harvest again you have this to give you something else to harvest over a long period of time the same Agriculture Research Institute confirms that Moringa can be grown in different parts of the country with relative ease we're trying to promote the crop so we're trying to improve the right users and raw the new varieties to farmers out there but kindly what we have at the moment just demos throughout the country in certain parts of the country and then the demos are just to demonstrate the general public that Moringa can be grown in a wide range of soils and it can adapt to different kinds of weather conditions small-scale farmers are linked to the farming of Moringa with southern province leading the park guys actually scattered all over we have some more Inga plants in southern province in fact there are large numbers and thousand province we have mooring that trees being planted in central province we have just a few that I've grown Moringa in the eastern province these are the provinces that are leading in terms of Moringa growing in this country but the actual numbers we have not yet done that to say these are the numbers of trees that we are including Lusaka problems with the international market offering attractive prices for Moringa they needs to add value to it is highly recommended we have also been following global trends on the evolution of the Moringa plant and its various uses most importantly on the commercialization of Moringa we are seeing now things like use in bio fuel cosmetics and animal fodder so we're seeing more we're seeing more that the value chain is changing and it's not only producers but also processors who are getting interested in using the the Moringa plant for various uses as a commission obviously our interest would be on the value addition aspect would be interested in seeing the innovation that will come out from the different product of Moringa some industries in other parts of the world thrive on this Wonder crop the entire Moringa tree is useful and nothing goes to waste from the back flowers and its roots the seeds and even the roots are useful for Inga seed is huge on the world market and much of it is going to the cosmetic was making the industry but we can also use it for water purification and get the oil out and the the cake the seed cake that remains could be used for livestock and also for water purification other than its use for food parts of the tree are being used in livestock feed development improving soil nutrients water purification production of cosmetics and pesticides among other industrial processes so there are industrial application water purification agriculture application which we haven't even talked about it could be used as pesticide it could be used for livestock industry the growth in beef in gaad's in milk yield would grow upwards of twenty twenty percent to reap the benefits desirey has recommendations on managing the tree the most important thing was like for any other crop is water so during the dry season it can thrive yes but if you're going to get the maximum out of it like maximum biomass refire Masato Maringa you need to do irrigation apart from that you need to scout for diseases as well as pests you don't want that pests and diseases invest in your plants and in addition you also need to do fertilization just a bit of fertilizers will make you realize a good profit out of it and then to add on Moringa also requires a little pruning so the more you prune the more grief - you get out of it yes so the best practice when comes to pruning is probably pruning twice a week that way you get you're going to realize the most part of it the Wonder crop has attracted attention of Zambian entrepreneurs who in the last 20 years have transformed the tree crop into numerous products Sylva food solutions is one of the companies that pioneered Moringa byproducts with a production of powder unfortunately the products was initially mistaken for chums the early negative reactions prompted the company to refine its Moringa products about 15 years down the line the company which has invested in modern equipment is now making advanced products out of Moringa many people say Moringa is good but it has cooties it is male and aftertaste when you just drink it in tea like that this is how we came up with the soup we process the soup we completed the formulation a last year so when we looked at the combination of orange mace and Moringa then put together we came up with a formula cereal the Moringa revolution seems to be taking many more with it this is a factory in the heart of makini in Lusaka run by share Africa Zambia a not-for-profit company managing projects for UK Christian charity share Africa here we found that Moringa is infused into peanut butter Moringa has put its renowned of a lot of health benefits for example it's far much richer than milk it's far much richer than bananas so much richer than yogurt and so forth all these are what our bodies require but maybe to find them in one package it's a bit of a challenge so normally what we do what not every time dialog afford you know it but if they could afford it in a way that its packaged in one food product where we are adding value to reach then what's standing a mile to that mr. Kasongo explains that share Africa is working with farmers were being trained in growing and harvesting Moringa the right way through an out growth scheme so what we have done at the moment was to have started with the some few farmers who are doing already Acronis will take them to the Moringa or to grow ask him then we also train them on how to harvest Moringa because once you harvest more inga dramatic as it might be but if it's dried in a very environment or above 65 degrees then nearly all the nutrients in Moringa are destroyed the innovation in the parking of Moringa infused products cheers Evo's that approach manages to trigger a difference because interests different stakeholders interest into accepting and appreciating the value of Moringa or it increases the consumption because it's not only coming in one type of within one form but rather it's coming in different types of you know forms depending on your preference besides innovations in food as I'm an entrepreneur I started producing Moringa soap zindabad ingonyama is behind the venture I decided to start doing some research I looked at the different aspects that can be used Moringa for instance tea bags candles lotions and so on eventually I came across salt after that I did even deeper research on on the stop making and I found out this is something that I could do without too much knowledge the Moringa Development Corporation agrees that processing of Moringa will raise Zambia's industrial profile this is why they want to set up a processing hub in Western Province because for us like when we were promoting the Moringa development cooperation in these communities like in Kalmar where we have a lot of farmers our aim is that there we want to put up processing hubs where they can have places where they not only you know harvest Moringa but you know processes into powders into different products that can be ready for the market Xin Dawa believes that investment in Moringa would transform the agriculture sector landscape but supports to the sector is needed I think Moringa is a wonderful opportunity to help the different sectors in Zambia if we've got organizations like CEC who have got funds I think it would be good difficult tap into those funds the international interest in Moringa is validated by a Dutch consultant visiting Zambia for a study on Zambian Moringa contracted by the Dutch Enterprise Agency Kasbah curva is a senior consultant at profound I'm doing a study consisting of two parts I have looked already at the European market to see what the potential is of Zambia Moringa in Europe and now I'm here in Zambia to see what the capacities are currently in Zambia to produce Moringa for the international market caspo says interest in Africa and Zambia in particular is for the purpose of establishing new suppliers of organically grown Moringa which India the world's biggest supplier is struggling to provide other countries are becoming additional suppliers to the European markets they are considering Moringa as an interesting export product themselves but European buyers are also interested in diversifying their sources for Moringa because in India there are some problems with the organic certification for Moringa and that is also where I see a big opportunity for Zambia to compete with India in the market for organic certified caspere's work in Zambia is being followed closely by the citizens economic empowerment Commission we want to see where the potential is for the sector and how the Commission can be involved but you might also be interested to know that as a commission were not only mandated with funding but also section 29 of our act actually mandates us to identify venture capital opportunities so for us what we would also like to see is any interest from venture capitalists in the Netherlands last year we did for the first time a venture capital conference with investors in Germany we would like to see that grow more because that is also another route in which we know that our SMEs can access funding apart from what the Commission is able to offer the two-part research which started in Europe in January 2018 is expected to be completed by May this year so there may be Dutch investors interested in investing in Zambian Maringa the investors are actually also waiting for my research to see what the potential is for the product because for an investor it's about assessing the risks of your investments and one of the risk is that you invest in a company to produce moringa and then there's no market for the moringa so they need to know first is their market for Zambian moringa in view of the high interest Moringa has grown internationally Zambian farmers are encouraged to grow the tree on large scale I think what can drive the future we are seeing is integrating Moringa in the agricultural value chain because the world is hungry out there there are so many billions of hungry people that is already mass market it means that you know if we specialized that will produce and package and take to the marketplace we'll be able to also participate in feeding the world the world is hungrier now so if we ourselves here can you know specialize in producing whether is organic Moringa or things that you know you are not adding a lot of these outside inputs the world is waiting with arms open to receive our products oh that we need to do is to ensure that you know most of the things that we talk about should not end at talking but must be on the ground and mobilize our farmers to be able to see the opportunity at the same time farmers are encouraged to undergo training to manage the crop well a lot of people who are growing or inga but the quality of the seeds are not know there are no regulations there are no standards there are no policies at the government level and for zengid to have access to the international market we have to have those things in place the processing part of it is not very well known by the small-scale farmers they harvest the plants and just put in the Sun like that that makes it lose its value both nutritionally and as a medicine plant and it will not be bought by those who are available to buy sorry is also doing its part when get the very lucrative business it's of economic importance not only economic in countries I think we needed some additional purposes for our for our animals we need this we need it every day so for everyone that has capacity and is interested to get on it they should get on board and then I'd like also to say that I'd die under the tree crop section at Mont makalu Nanga in Lhasa Boca as well as other said sorry stations in the country we do offer support to farmers the rain chances so if you want information you want to know how to grow it you want how best you can do it against you just walk into offices and we'll be glad to help in growing the Moringa tree population the Moringa Development Association of Zambia once 20 million trees to be grown in the next five to ten years however among the challenges seem to be inhibiting growth of the sector is fragmentation the main reason why we reformed the moor in the development association was due to the fact that we have identified the full potential that marina has but most of it is untapped so the Association and its members came together and wanted to have this Moringa a dream for Zambia be done in a structured way it is our role actually to bring these farmers together and then link them to output market people who give them give them inputs Mabon credit or the like and also link them to the output market where they will sell the products that they are getting from their fields those in the Moringa business field government should get involved in research growing and processing the highly profitable tree we want to see actually happen from the government point of view is to encourage affirmance everyone who has got a piece of land which is just loafing let them come up with something to entice them the research has to be in place extension to the farmers has to be has to be there and so these are some of the key the key botton exit that we currently have policy changes are part of the recommendations a government has to come in all stakeholders up to come in and make it known that Moringa is got the value that can change the Sunda in a very positive way Moringa is likely to be a key catalyst in the growth of the Zambian economy a fully exploited so what we need to do is that yes we have in Dino conception in Zambia but let's also try to see if other avenues outside this country can be opened where we can actually have opportunities to export more inga that would really really be important in the process of sustainability in line with a coated F is for the salmon economy encouraging farmers to take part in the Moringa business is projected to not only aid the growth of the sector but industrial capacity as well the onus is on farmers and processors to seize the opportunity and fully exploit the Moringa tree due to its health benefits and economic incentives [Music] the economic value of Moringa was the core of our discussion on today's edition of news in-depth where many have classified this tree crop as green gold that can help to transform this Zambian economy we do hope that you found this week's program informative join us next week for yet another interesting news documentary right here on news in depth this is a penny funny render saying goodbye and God bless you you you

Channel: Pennipher Sikainda Nyirenda

Views: 218,196

Rating: 4.756701 out of 5

Keywords: Moringa treecrop, Zambian Moringa, Moringa Development Association, Zambia Agriculture Research Institute, Sylva Banda AWEP, Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission, Moringa Soap, Moringa Soup, Zambi

Id: Q1yUlSaqu3E

Length: 29min 48sec (1788 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 30 2018