I was listening to a news story from the BBC recently about the starvation in the North East part of Nigeria called Borno and this made me think about the need for much wider adoption of Moringa oleifera better known as just moringa. Moringa is a fast growing, drought resistant tree that has leaves and pods that are incredibly nutrient rich. Just a few hundred grams of the leaves can provide sizable quantities of all of the essential amino acids and relatively high amounts of many vitamins and minerals. Although there is growing awareness of the plant's usefulness for a wide range of issues, fighting starvation is perhaps the most acute.
However, I have found little in the way of news reports for the use of this tree in fighting starvation. If we airdropped large quantities of the seeds plus a starter nutrient during the beginning of the rainy season, we could potentially create a self-sustaining food source that requires little to no input. I sent a version of this post to contacts in UNICEF and USAID, no idea what will become these messages
Links for more information about moringa:
Moringa oleifera: A Food Plant with Multiple Medicinal Uses http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.2023/epdf
Adoption of Moringa oleifera to combat under-nutrition viewed through the lens of the “Diffusion of Innovations” theory
Thurber, M. D., & Fahey, J. W. (2009). Adoption of Moringa oleifera to combat under-nutrition viewed through the lens of the “Diffusion of Innovations” theory. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 48(3), 212–225. http://doi.org/10.1080/03670240902794598
Nigeria Boko Haram: 75,000 children 'risk dying of hunger'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37991798