Home » News » Could Prosopis alleviate the starvation crisis? – Radio Berna RaBe

Could Prosopis alleviate the starvation crisis? – Radio Berna RaBe

There has been a drought in the Horn of Africa for years. Crops fall short, cattle die. “If our animals have practically nothing to consume, we as well die. Prosopis can save us, ”entrepreneur Guleed Ahmad stated to Klaus Petrus. The journalist and photojournalist not long ago visited Somaliland, a section of Somalia whose independence is not regarded by the intercontinental community.

The invasive Prosopis juliflora is indigenous to Central America. Their existence in Africa is artificial. It is amazingly drought tolerant as its roots arrive at deep into the soil. “Even the place absolutely nothing grows, Prosopis grows”, describes Klaus Petrus. The plant is spreading at a rapid tempo, it is now invading considerably of Somaliland and bordering nations around the world. Its leaves are inedible, the thorns damage the hungry sheep, goats and camels, which yet tamper with it. Ripe pods are significant in sugar, which will cause tooth decay and tooth loss in livestock.

But if you change the protein-rich pods into flour, the plant has the prospective to decrease prevalent hunger. “Guleed Ahmad convinced a bakery outdoors Hargeisa, the money of Somaliland, to make bread with prosopis pod flour. But even more essential: you can make a variety of dough with this flour and use it for animal feed, “claims Petrus. There have been discipline scientific tests that have shown that livestock gained body weight in a very shorter time and that creation as perfectly of milk amplified.

What is lacking, on the other hand, are the infrastructure investments that Prosopis could occur up with, this sort of as mills. “When animals are unwell, people today have to starve also,” Petrus details out. Nevertheless, if animals could be improved noticed, people in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa would also profit.


A report from Somaliland can be identified in the recent issue of Straßenmagazin surprise.

© Klaus Peter

© Klaus Peter

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