Enset

The “tree against hunger” – around 20 million Ethiopians get their food from the trunk and rhizome of this false banana.

A giant, banana-like herbaceous plant growing to 10 m, with a thick pseudostem formed from leaf sheaths and leaves several metres long. Unlike the banana, its fruit is inedible – instead, the starch stored in the pseudostem and the underground rhizome is used. The scraped pulp is fermented in pits in the ground and turned into kocho, a kind of bread or flatbread that can be stored for years. The plant tolerates drought, so it protects against famine in bad years.

Significance in the country

Enset was domesticated in Ethiopia, and only here is it grown on such a vast scale; for the Gurage, Sidama, Hadiya and Wolaita peoples, enset groves beside their huts are the foundation of both cuisine and landscape.

Where it grows

The highlands of south-western Ethiopia at about 1,500–3,000 m – mainly in the Southern Nations region (Gurage, Sidama, Gedeo, Wolaita, Gamo) and in western and southern Oromia.

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