Moringa: The New Jatropha

Moringa Oleifera, the "tree of life," is broadly grown across four continents--Asia, Oceania, Africa and Central and South America. I am fascinated by this crop, because it can produce food and fuel; it is a potential new crop for US farmers and an excellent crop for poor subsistence farmers.

I personally do not consider toxic, carcinogenic, non-edible crops like jatropha and castor to be sustainable. In a food crisis, moringa and soy and sunflower can prevent starvation and death, and crops like jatropha and castor cannot.

Moringa's seeds contain 30-50% oil, or 112-185 gal/acre/year. This oil contains 65-75% oleic acids, perfect for humans and biodiesel alike--good cold flow properties, low NOx emissions, and fuel stability.

Every part of the moringa plant is edible and highly nutritious. The immature pods (drumsticks) are sold as vegetables (tastes like asparagus). The leaves are sold for vegetables (like cooked spinach), salads and dried into a protein powders for baby formula and food additives. The leaves contain unique amino acids that are critical for infant and child development. The leaves and pods are high in vitamin A, C, and B and all the essential nutrients.

The defatted meal of moringa (after the seeds are crushed for oil) contains 60% protein, 40% more nutritious than soy meal. The high protein leaves can be used as animal fodder and together with the defatted meals, have been shown to increase weight gain in animals by 32% and milk production by 42-55%. The defatted meal can be used to purify water, settling out sediments and organisms in minutes.

In its uncultivated state, moringa looks like a spindly locust tree. The pods look like long string beans and contain the oilseeds. The crop produces 1.4 tons of seed per acre (3 tonnes/ hectare) on average without fertilizer or irrigation on rainfall of 1-12 inches/year. Higher inputs have positive yield responses. Moringa is drought hardy and can be grown in a wide variety of poor soils, even barren ground, with soil pH between 4.5 and 9.0. The Moringa Oleifera species originated in the Himalayas, but the current cultivars can withstand frost but not a hard freeze. It could probably grow wherever oranges grow successfully.

Moringa vegetables are currently grown throughout Africa and Asia as organic crops. India has developed an annual short bushy cultivar for easy harvesting that could be produced in the Southeast US and Southern California.

Sustainable crops should enhance our ability to survive with limited land resources. S