Climate Action Madagascar Project #9470

Planting 15000 trees in Madagascar

by Zahana

Project Report | Sep 29, 2017
One man- one tree - thousand seedlings

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director

Our Zahana representative in Fiadanana

The man is our tireless Zahana representative in the village. For over a decade now he has been our biggest supporter in his community of Fiadanana. He is one of the people (called in the jargon) an 'early adopter'. If there is a new idea, he tries it out and implements and promotes it, if it works.

Planting Moringa oleifera in our villages is an 'old idea' from 2010. It has been beautifully revitalized in 2016/17. Way back when, he already planted Moringa trees in and around the village. This amazing tree can grow 9 feet are 3 m in one year. Once it makes seedpods, often in the first year, it may yield up to 4000 seeds. One of the trees from the 'first round' of planting is established and growing well as you see in the picture, it is also loaded with seedpods. Even more amazing is that mother nature makes it possible for a Moringa oleifera tree to have seed pods, flowers and leaves at the same time.

Implementing the abstract idea of a 'renewable resource' he has been harvesting 'his' very own Moringa seeds and is now planting them systematically since the 2016 launch. Once the seed pods are brown and dry, they can be split open by hand, to reveal their true treasure: new Moringa seeds.

Cooking notes: Fresh leaves and young tender seeds pods can be cooked as a vegetable or added to soup, the (hopefully soon) preferred way to prepare it in Malagasy culture. Fresh Moringa leaves are best added, just in the last second of cooking, when the pot is already off the stove. Bigger seeds pods can be cooked and eaten as well, called drumsticks e.g. in ‘curries’ or rasam in southern Indian cooking. Flowers make a tasty tea, or blanched a delicious addition to a salad. Bees also cherish Moringa flowers.

Ihanta and Markus

PS: It might be noted that is has been said that he favors lengthy speeches at community meetings and events, which can be a mixed blessing…

A Moringa oleifera tree in the village

Harvesting Moringa oleifera seeds in Madagascar

Moringa oleifera seeds in the pod in Madagascar

Moringa oleifera seeds close up

Planting the harvested Moringa seeds

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Jun 23, 2017
The seedlings of the Moringa forest

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director

Morings Seedling in the Gardener's Plot

Our grand plan of growing a Moringa forests is taking shape very well. The seeds from ECHO our founder Dr. Ihanta took back to Madagascar in February 2017 are growing well (see website). Our gardeners in both villages are growing seedlings successfully that will be planted first around the villages, and hopefully in the near next to every house in Fiadanana and Fiarenana. Called ‘Ananambo’ in Malagasy you can see the photos that the seedlings are indeed taking off.

Moringa trees are an extremely fast-growing species and under ideal conditions can grow to 8 to 12 feet, or 2 to 3 m, in just one year. Providing the climate and the weather is right, these trees will flower in the first year and produce many seedpods, with hundreds of seeds. It is our hope that within a year or two, we will be able to produce our own seeds plus hundreds to spare and share with surrounding villages and communities.

While we’re very excited about these prospects, we also very aware of the fact that young Moringa seedlings are best described as ‘moody’. After very promising start, only time will tell how many will grow into full, productive trees.

As soon as the seedlings are 2 to 3 feet, or 60 to 90 cm, tall the first leaves can be harvested and for example be added to soup. It is very encouraging to see in one of the pictures that a woman is harvesting a few of the young leaves rom the tiny little tree that is a few months old. After all, Moringa is a vegetable growing on a tree, and people have to want to harvest and eat it for the project to be ultimately successful.

We will keep you posted in future project reports about this exciting new reforestation adventure.

The gardener growing many moringa seedlings

Close-up of the morings seedlings

ECHO's seeds are growing well in Mdagascar

Picking fresh Moringa leaves in rural Madagascar

Links:

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Mar 28, 2017
Two Moringa varieties on their way to Madagascar

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director

Moringa Oleifera for Zahana in Madagascar

We are happy to report that two kilos of Moringa seeds arrived in Madagascar at the end of February. In the meantime the seeds have been hand delivered by our outstanding volunteer “Santa” to the gardeners in both of our villages.

The 2 kg will literally be the seeds for our Moringa forest, envisioned in a community meeting by the end of 2016.

We purchased two varieties of Moringa seeds. 1 kg of the most widely planted and consumed variety: Moringa Oleifera. Commonly known by many names, just as ‘Moringa’, Malunggay, Drumstick tree or Horseradish tree, Moringa Oleifera leaves, flowers and seedpods can be eaten.

The other variety is 1 kg of Moringa Stenopetala, with much bigger leaves that are widely consumed in Africa as a vegetable.

To ensure that Zahana is growing the best variety possible, we purchased our Moringa seeds from the nonprofit ECHO. ECHO has been actively involved for the past decades in promoting and developing the best strains of Moringa. The Moringa Oleifera variety we bought from ECHO is known as PKM-1, selectively bred for high yield in warm climates.

The Moringa Oleifera leaves, flowers and seedpods are highly nutritious and hopefully will become a great tool to address rural malnutrition in Madagascar.

We will keep you updated as we embark on this new adventure of growing our new Moringa forest first in our villages and hopefully spreading the seeds all over the entire region.

We know there is a lot of information about Moringa on the web. If you are interested in learning more, we recommend two publications that have become the gold standard for us: 'Moringa' by Ted Radovich at the University of Hawaii and ECHO. We will be happy to provide you with more suggestions should you be interested. Just drop us a line.

Dr. Ihanta, Jeannette and Markus

Moringa Oleifera for Zahana from ECHO

Moringa Oleifera and Moringa Stenopetala -Zahana

Links:

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