(Presented by Eng. Guillaume NDE TENE)
I am delighted and feel honored to share the following short life stories on Moringa in Cameroon.
I first came to hear about this God given species thru a friend, but when I saw it and tasted it, I was sure that I had already experienced it when I was young. I remembered its leaves with their light acidic taste and small size. I then started searching the Internet to confirm what excellent qualities were credited to Moringa Oleifera.
After I discovered its numerous properties, as a process engineer by background, I wanted to process this plant to make it available to the population at large. I wanted them to be able to take advantage of its nutritional, preventative and therapeutic properties.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that I was only starting a small operation, I was unable to get a continuous supply of fresh leaves. The answer would be to own a farm which could grow and supply enough fresh leaves and seeds for the processing plant. Processing would be the next challenge.
I was able to source seeds from India that were higher yielding varieties (PKM1 for leaves and seeds for high agricultural yield, and grade A for seeds for long lasting sowing.)
After purchasing and launching the farm, following instructions gathered on the Internet, we now had to contend with both interesting neighboring farmers and acquiring suitable processing equipment.
Reinvigorates the Elderly
The village where my farm is located has a council with ruling elders making the decisions. They are all old men over 70 with normal old age physical limitations.
One old man complained to me about his joints that had seized up so that he was unable to climb the river banks to check his fishing nets. He found it a very difficult situation to cope with. I urged him to consume some fresh Moringa leaves cooked as any other vegetable in his diet.
One week later when we met, he was so happy to be able to climb the little cliff in far less than 20 minutes, which is how long it took him before. He also confirmed that his stamina had increased and he was able to satisfy his younger wife twice a day instead of a difficult encounter per week.
Now, all the elders and other families in the village have at least one tree in their compounds, and all the population looks healthier and stronger, from toddlers to elders.
This boosted my determination to have it available for all neighboring villagers. It is meant to be help for their health.
Diabetes and High Blood Pressure
I once had a parent suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. When I told him about Moringa, he denied any possible use of it, as he had tried it before with no sound result, and was even surprised why people still credited it of so many properties.
I urged him to trust me and to take the powdered leaves I offered him, and within two days, his blood pressure came back to normal. His sugar level lowered to normal after a week and stayed steady as he continued to consume the leaf powder.
It happened that previously he had bought Moringa leaves powder that was in transparent plastic bags, and mixed up with different green matter to keep the color despite the shining sun over it for several days. This was due to high income generating value of Moringa Oleifera.
I then decided that no matter how difficult it would be, drying and storing should be done under shade and avoid direct light exposure, to be sure to preserve adequate curing and nutritional properties. Healthy properties will be better preserved.
Healthy Baby Food
When you consider how difficult it is for babies and toddlers to get all the nutrients in their daily food, plus the huge cost of imported baby foods, and the shortage of local tubers and cereals used in processed baby foods, you easily understand why our children grow up only wanting to eat bread and pasta, rice and so on.
They don’t have the taste memory of our valuable dishes and their esteemed properties that kept our ancestors free from what today are known as modern diseases. Moringa, even if not used directly in the traditional diet, is easy to add and improve the quality of our foods.
We therefore decided to conduct program researches on baby foods and children snacks. We aim to revert the loss of local tastes and traditional foods, and have results in one or two generations.
Profitable Activity for All Groups
Moringa Oleifera is a fast growing plant likely to provide excellent green matter for kitchen, and used as any other vegetable. It does not require a wide area for growing, nor fertilizers and pesticides. This makes it ideal to grow anywhere, be it rural, urban and peri urban areas. Thus it can be a profitable activity to be involved in, from planting, processing (if need be), and marketing.
We are working to promote Moringa activities among all groups of people, no matter where they live, what investment is required, what type and level of involvement, etc. We have various proposals to develop these activities.
On Health Issues
On health issues, with many people, we have witnessed improved health at an unexpected pace due to Moringa. They were diagnosed hyper or hypo calcemia, prostates inflation, HIV positive, nerves pains, joint pains, gout, arthritis, rheumatism, guinea worm, etc etc…
Daily supplies in essential minerals and vitamins are easily met with Moringa, and its regulatory power on the internal environment is no more questionable. This is a way it can help cure or prevent several serious diseases for which western medicine is very often powerless.
Expansion
In conclusion, we have decided to expand the initial farm of less than 2 hectares to more than 60 hectares now, so we can increase our processing and provide the market with a continuous supply and competitive prices, be it local, regional or international.
We also need to obtain all required certificates in order to respond to future requests. The first one is the bio certification which we aim to acquire before end 2018.
I also decided to get involved into launching a farm to have enough raw material for processing. I’d like to provide a wide range of quality products to reach the maximum of our population who need well-balanced diets.
Efficient processing of Moringa powder includes:
- Proper washing of freshly harvested leaves;
- Shade drying of said leaves, at a temperature under 65°C;
- Grinding with a stainless steel hammer grinder;
- Sieving if need be with a stainless steel sieve at desired mesh dimension.
From this powder, so many other products can be manufactured: tablets, capsules, etc. It could also be added to other powders/flours to produce snacks, biscuits, baby foods, paps, etc.
Our challenge is now to move from research level of our productions to marketing size, in order to present our products wherever potential customers are located. We will be proud of the fact once you’ve consumed Moringa and its derivatives, you remember well it made you and come back to it, without any addiction or side effect.
On the Environment
Finally, when it comes to the environment, Moringa is known to be one of the best carbon dioxide absorbents in the world, and its leaves sprout quickly once cut off. So we must also notice its potential to reverse greenhouse effects!
If we compare the efforts to produce and expected sales on either markets, it is also important to mention Moringa is a high-value-added species from all ends. It is good to encourage in its growing, processing and marketing.
We definitely must Eat and Plant Moringa everywhere across Africa !!!