Bi Khadija Rajab, USAID contractor for the Tanzania Agriculture Productivity Program gave lectures about the astonishing Moringa tree at the DADA cooperatives in Matemwe.

Bi Khadija Rajab, Senior Harvest and Hostharvest officer, gives a lecture to the DADA cooperatives about Moringa trees

Moringa oleifera – known as mronge in Swahili and the Horse radish tree in English – is a fast growing, hot climate, small tree native to India, Malaysia and the Middle East that was introduced into East Africa in the early 1900’s and is now naturalised in many areas.

DADA cooperatives plant Moringa trees in Matemwe

It is a very useful tree, easy to establish and adaptable to a wide range of sites in the hotter areas of East Africa being both drought tolerant and able to withstand temperatures up to 40º C. It is used as food for both human consumption and animal feed, produces oil from the seeds that can be sold, is very good bee forage, and is a useful medicine for treating skin ailments.

Bi Jabu Nyange with Moringa cutting

It can be grown as a crop or used as an agroforestry tree as it assists in erosion control and has only light shade which is not detrimental to adjacent crops. The seeds also contain an ingredient in the kernel that will purify dirty water of both soil and bacterial contamination.

Moringa cuttings after three weeks

DADA uses the extremely nutritious dried and ground Moringa leaves as a supplement in our Tagliatelle Moringa and as an addition for soaps for its power to prevent skin infections. Moringa trees, once abundant and widely used for fencing, as animal fodder and for medicinal application are not very popular today, as like many other trees they fall victim to fires or axes while clearing areas for agriculture.

Women of the DADA cooperatives prepared Moringa cuttings and, with the help of Bi Khadija Rajab, planted about 50 trees in October 2010 in a clearing behind the Dada-Kituo cha Jua in Matemwe as part of their training. By now after one and half month the cuttings sprout leaves, little branches and (hopefully) roots. Moringa grows extremely fast and harvest of leaves could start as early as after only 6 month

To demonstrate just one of the wonderful features of the multi-talented Moringa tree , please have a look at the nutritiousness of the leaves:

DADA women and volunteers