Knowledge Unpeeled: BANANA FLOUR
Maria Schiffer and Didas Mzirai at Mucho Mangos in Kenya
As part of my job with BODYandSOIL, I do lots of research in villages and communities to find solutions that can nourish both the body and soil. This February, I visited five different schools in the region of Karamoja, Uganda.
All of the schools in the region are provided with one meal per child a day from the World Food Program. This means each child is served 125 grams of white rice, 24 grams of beans, and 8 grams of cooking oil. In some schools, the rice is replaced with white maize.
For many children living in poverty, this single meal may be the only one they'll get. It lacks essential nutrients for growth and development like zinc, iron, B12, vitamin C, vitamin A, folate acid, and calcium. Even though beans are nutritious, they alone can't provide all the necessary nutrients. But I observed another commonality on every school property - they each had enough space to grow their own food.
A communtiy school property in Karamoja with enough space to grow food.
Researching for the Kara-Tunga Foundation the challenges of communties losing their cultural heritage as well as their indigenous foods. Here in a school in Timu, Karamoja.
Recent studies show that a healthy diet should consist of at least 30 different types of plants per week, this includes vegetables, fruits, pulses, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices (source ZOE predict study). With big school properties and so many small-scale farmers in Africa and most people owning at least a kitchen garden, growing 30-40 different plants using crop rotation, should be doable.
I'm passionate about finding alternative foods that don't necessarily change cultural eating habits but instead improve nutrient outcomes for both the body and the soil. During my recent research beginning of April in Kenya, I found one possible solution: Banana flour!
Sitting under the shade of a mango tree in a town called Taveta, Didas Mzirai, 41, shared his story with me. As a child, he was in and out of school because his grandmother couldn’t afford the fees. Some days there was no food. He worked in the mango fields to help the family make ends meet. Not only did he realize that the wages for his work were below what the farmer deserved, but he also noticed the waste or rejects that were left to rot. It was a double loss: one in terms of being exploited in pricing, and then in the quality of fruit.
40% of the vegetable and fruit harvests spoil in sub-Saharan Africa (Source FAO).
Bananas at the local market in Taveta, Kenya.
Today, with his Social enterprise Mucho Mangoes, Mzirai addresses these injustices. Not only does he train small-scale farmers to produce better crops and buy from them at a fair price, but he also ensures longer shelf lives for their produce.
Did you know, from a nutritional aspect, dried bananas have more magnesium than undried?
Magnesium is vital for bone health, needed for the body to absorb Vitamin C, Calcium, and also activates 300 enzymes in the body and plays a big role in regulating healthy blood sugar levels. Bananas are also full of fiber, which is good for gut health and other minerals and vitamins such as Vitamin C, B6, Beta Carotene, minerals like potassium, phosphorus, and zinc.
So when Mzirai introduced me to his special porridge mix called 'Bambino,' made from a blend of millet and banana flour, pumpkin seeds, and some secret ingredients, I got so excited I just wanted to hug this total stranger. Mzirai developed this mix to combat the rising problem of malnourished children under 6 and mothers dying during childbirth due to mineral deficiencies.
"We have children who can grow to realize their full potential and not perish at a tender age," he said.
Sundrying Banana flour at Mucho Mangos in Kenya.
Expirimenting with Bambino Flour from Mucho Mangos.
Banana Flour mix, a possible substitute for imported wheat flour?
Together, we decided to work on another experiment: could we use banana flour as a substitute for imported wheat flour for the staple chapati? Unfortunately, we found that the absence of gluten posed a challenge in keeping the dough fluffy.
There were a few other challenges regarding banana flour. While making flour isn't difficult—sun-drying the fruit for around 3 days—the bananas do require a lot of water to grow. With airtight packaging, you can preserve banana flour for up to a year, which is amazing but also not that long. The best green bananas for flour are from the indigenous Cavendish variety. However, the planting of these varieties is increasingly being replaced by larger industrial hybrids that are bigger in size but contain less nutritional value.
In the end, there is no one superfood that will heal or solve all of the health challenges faced in food and farming. I still believe that banana flour could serve as one of the many solutions and as a healthier option for porridge or pancakes, like the street food Mandazi, offering a more nutritious solution and consequently improving the livelihoods of farmers.
So I'm not done experimenting :)
The expiriment: A chapati made with banana flour.
I am convinced that diversity can be one of the driving factors for positive change in Africa and on this planet. In the future and inspired by Didas Mzirai, I'll definitely also be experimenting with adding seeds and mixing healthy grains together to develop more nutritious porridge flours for schools.
Maybe while reading this, you're thinking, 'How can I help?'
I envision BODYandSOIL growing into a center for education that offers achievable holistic solutions to heal both the body and the soil, and to empower the African continent to prosper. If this inspires you, write me.
Asante Sana, thank you, and keep on moving! 💛
Maria
A farmer harvesting the local banana from Taveta in Kenya.