Two Grahamstown eco-gardeners are hoping to improve rural food nutrition in the Eastern Cape by encouraging poor people to plant a hardy Himalayan wonder tree, normally sold over the counter in health shops for a high price.

Since the beginning of the year, Dan Long and Rob Davies have planted 2 000 moringa trees at a farm nursery, where they are piloting growing the plant in the Eastern Cape.

They have also supplied more than 100 seedlings to two Wild Coast schools and are encouraging children to eat the legume’s seed pods and leaves to combat malnutrition. "We want to provide people with nutritional autonomy," Long said. "There are massive disparities in accessibility to nutrition, especially in the Eastern Cape, where malnutrition is a major problem."

Besides the bean pods and leaves of the hardy legume being of high nutritional value, the bean husks are used around the world to purify water and extracted oils can be used for cooking, drinking and biodiesel. "In India they cook and eat the bean-like pods, which they call drumsticks,” Long said.

Although common in the East for centuries, planting of the medicinal tree has spread to places such as Nicaragua, Hawaii, the Philippines, Ghana and even other parts of South Africa.

"Moringa is being grown in other parts of South Africa on a large scale but as far as we know, we are the first people who are piloting growing in the Eastern Cape," Davies said. Long, a recent Rhodes University strategic management and organisational psychology graduate, said moringa was not considered an invasive alien species.

He and Davies developed their passion for coming up with sustainable ways to feed the needy while training to become permaculturists and learning how to grow food organically. It was through the organic grapevine that they heard about the many uses of the fast growing and drought-resistant moringa tree.

After much research, they decided to team up and start a small business called Local Motive, to try and encourage rural planting. According to Davies, the plant was only one of a few in the world that was high in amino acids, as well as protein.

"It is sad that moringa powder and oil is very expensive and can only be bought across the counter at health shops in South Africa. "It should be growing in every yard in the rural areas because it really does combat malnutrition," Davies said.

In tablet or powder form, moringa can cost R1 or more a milligram and people often take a 5mg dose daily.

The men were inspired to grow the plant on a large scale by fellow Rhodes University student Damian de Wet, who did a thesis on using moringa as a pioneering plant to help with agrarian reform in the country.

De Wet will be presenting the findings of his thesis at the first annual moringa conference in the Philippines in November.

Source: Daily Dispatch

Words and photo by David MacGregor