[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-92908-en":3,"doc-seo-92908-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},92908,1374391974585,"Genevieve","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",10,"Lifestyle","Who would eat a false banana? - Enset cultivation and uses","Who would eat a false banana? It is likely to be people living in southern or south-western Ethiopia, where the crop called enset (Ensete ventricosum) provides starchy stems and roots that can be fermented and turned into porridge or bread. The plant can grow up to 10m, and mature roots can yield large amounts of calorie-rich food. Ethiopian cultivation methods rely on suckers, while harvesting and processing involve shared labor, fermentation pits, and dishes such as kocho. Enset also supplies fiber and animal feed.","Who would eat a false banana?  \nlevel: intermediate  \nEnglish Agriculture  \nWho would eat a false banana?  \nCompiled from information available in the public domain Illustrations by MissionAssist  \nEnglish  \nOxfordshire, England  \nCopyright © 2022, MissionAssist  \n[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)  \nYou are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc.  \nCompiled from information available in the public domain Illustrations by MissionAssist  \nThis edition published in the United Kingdom in 2022 by MissionAssist Permission is granted for non-profit reproduction and other use of the MissionAssist materials.  \nThank you for using MissionAssist Shell Books  \nWhere an asterisk (*) appears in the text, the word after it is likely to have local variations and you should change it to suit your own particular setting.  \nInstead of using personal names, we have used *M1, *M2 or *F1, *F2 etc to show male or female characters. Please change these forms to local male or female names.  \nYou can also substitute local names for plants, medicines, vaccines, food, tools, animals or any other item.  \nIf you can, ask a local medical or nutritional expert to verify the advice given in a booklet, if appropriate.  \nYou can change the text as you desire, and you can also change any of the illustrations if you need to.  \nWhen you print the book, it will be A5 size, each page on a separate sheet. If you want to make it into an A5-sized booklet, Word can do this automatically for you. You should:  \n• Go to “File”  \n• Select “Print”  \n• click on “Page Setup”  \n• From the “multiple pages” drop-down box, select“Book fold”.  \n• Click “ok”. The book should now print as a booklet for you. If you do not have a printer which will print automatically on both sides of the paper, you will need to turn the paper over manually when prompted.  \nWe hope you enjoy using this Shell Book . Please delete these notes before printing  \nWho would eat a false banana?  \nThe answer to that intriguing question is “At present it is likely to be only someone living in the southern or south-western part of Ethiopia.” But scientists think the false banana is a crop that could become a useful source of food for many other people, including those living in other parts of Ethiopia as well as people living elsewhere in Africa.  \nThe reason is that the false banana, known in Ethiopia as enset and by botanists as Ensete ventricosum, has starchy stems and roots that can be fermented and used to make porridge or bread. The plant looks quite similar to its botanical cousin, the real banana, but the fruits of the false banana are different and are not used for food.  \nIts roots and stems, however, provide a useful staple for the Ethiopians who cultivate it and perhaps it could be cultivated elsewhere too.  \nEnset plants can grow up to 10m tall. When mature, at 4-5 years, a single enset root can produce up to 40kg of calorierich food.  \nEnset cultivation and its uses  \nIn the wild, enset grows from seed but the Ethiopian farmers usually propagate it by means of suckers. Up to 400 suckers can be produced from a single mother plant. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that enset provides a greater proportion of edible food per area planted than most cereals, and that 40-60 enset plants occupying 250-375m2 can supply enough food for a family of 5-6 people.  \nLike palm hearts, the young and tender tissues in the centre of an enset plant are tasty and nutritious and can be cooked like potatoes. However, the main source of food lies in the stems and roots of the plant, which means that at harvest time the whole plant has to be dug up.  \nThe digging is usually done by men, whereas the scraping of the stems and roots for the starch they contain is traditionally done by women.  \nThese women are scraping pulp from enset stems.  \n","cbCaiew3obE1YcyR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiew3obE1YcyR","pdf",515373,1,17,"English","en",105,"# Who would eat a false banana?\n## Why enset is useful as food\n## Enset cultivation and propagation\n## Harvesting, scraping, and fermentation\n## Kocho and other dishes\n## Value beyond food","[{\"question\":\"Why might someone eat a false banana in Ethiopia?\",\"answer\":\"People in southern or south-western Ethiopia eat it because enset has starchy stems and roots that can be fermented and used to make foods like porridge or bread.\"},{\"question\":\"How do Ethiopian farmers propagate enset?\",\"answer\":\"In the wild enset grows from seed, but farmers usually propagate it using suckers. A single mother plant can produce up to around 400 suckers.\"},{\"question\":\"What happens to enset starch after harvesting?\",\"answer\":\"Women scrape stems and roots for starch, then mix it with fermented starch from a previous batch. The mixture is sealed in a pit lined with enset leaves and left to ferment for up to a year.\"}]",1784322957,26,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"who-would-eat-a-false-banana-enset-cultivation-and-uses","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,53,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/lifestyle/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/who-would-eat-a-false-banana-enset-cultivation-and-uses/92908/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-17",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"Why might someone eat a false banana in Ethiopia?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"People in southern or south-western Ethiopia eat it because enset has starchy stems and roots that can be fermented and used to make foods like porridge or bread.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"How do Ethiopian farmers propagate enset?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"In the wild enset grows from seed, but farmers usually propagate it using suckers. A single mother plant can produce up to around 400 suckers.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What happens to enset starch after harvesting?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"Women scrape stems and roots for starch, then mix it with fermented starch from a previous batch. The mixture is sealed in a pit lined with enset leaves and left to ferment for up to a year.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,100,104,109,114,119,124,129,132,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":133},"lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]