Transcript
GRAHAM LYONS: Well the one I like the most is the Drumstick Tree. It's common in the tropics and sub-tropics throughout the world, comes originally from northern India, highly nutritious, probably the most nutritious plant I've ever studied. So that's one, there's another one called Chaya, it comes from Mexico, it grows very well in Kiribati, Tuvalu. No fertiliser which is a good characteristic for up there because the governments have banned the use of in-organic fertilisers.
BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: Are these crops being grown at all in the countries that you looked at, Kiribati and Tuvalu?
GL: Well, to an extent but generally they were not known to be edible, or not by humans, people were tending to feed them to pigs and what have you. Or they were used as decorative ornamental type plants particularly in hedges. Hedge Panax was one of those and one they call Ofenga from the Solomons, Pseuderanthemum. People were very surprised when I actually mentioned you could cook these up and eat them and they'll do you a lot of good. And we actually demonstrated this several times and they like the flavour and they were happy to eat them.
BRD: How can people be encouraged to grow these crops more?
GL: So promotion is a key factor. We're doing various things. The project is actually being implemented by SPC (Pacific Community), but we've been running farmer field schools, village level workshops, schools, we've just started on that, having demonstration school food gardens and introducing the right sort of nutrition information into the curricula I think will be the key to the medium to long term adoption of plants like this in the diet. I think getting the information to those children really is the key.
BRD: Do they sell themselves though, are they tasty?
GL: Well yes they are. Yes, if you cook them the right way. That's the big thing, apart from being able to be grown on these somewhat difficult coralline soils, that was probably the next most important criterion. In my opinion they taste really good when they're cooked in coconut cream, that's the key I always stress that. Chopped up simmered for about 15 minutes then coconut cream added simmer for another 10-15 minutes, tremendous taste. I'd say the plants that have had previous research done on them that indicate anti-diabetes effects, the best ones that we've got in this group are Drumstick, Chaya, that one from Mexico, the Ofenga and the Amaranth which is quite well known and is already eaten reasonably widely in Kiribati. They're the four that have known anti-diabetes effects. So if people in those countries and indeed throughout the Pacific could include those in their diet I'm sure it would help them.
