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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Health Reporter
IN line with the Government’s Education 5.0 model, three Zimbabwean universities have joined hands to develop a nutritious porridge fortified with mopane worms, a traditional food source, to combat widespread micro-nutrient deficiencies in communities across the country.
The collaborative effort is between the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) and the Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (MUAST) along with Abertay University and Sheffield University from the United Kingdom.
This was done in partnership with the Food and Nutrition Council, Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Forestry Commission through the insects for nutrition project.
Mopane worms (marimba/madora) are a natural source of protein, healthy fats, and essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc. By incorporating ground mopane worms into a porridge base made from pearl millet, baobab powder and other ingredients, the researchers hope to create a readily available and culturally accepted food product that can significantly improve diets.
Head of the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences at UZ, Dr Tonde Matsungo, said the project was in line with the country’s heritage-based education model.
“That we are working with locally available resources is in line with the university’s and the national mantra of the heritage-based education 5.0 where we solve our problems. We are trying to use what we have locally. Instead of waiting for donors to bring porridge, we want to make sure that we can make our own using our natural resources which tend to be neglected by communities. We are trying to go back to our roots to make sure that people go back to consuming our traditional delicacies,” he said.
The initiative leverages on the expertise of each university. MUAST was involved in the analysis and is spearheading the semi-domestication of the mopani worm while CUT was involved in the development of the product, the analysis to determine its nutritional composition and is now doing the upscaling of production for use in the feeding trials which are being led by the UZ.
The international partners were also involved in the design and nutritional analysis that had to be done before the product could be ready for feeding trials. Currently, the UZ is running feeding trials in Gwanda district where 220 children aged between seven and 11 years are being fed the porridge under close monitoring.
Dr Prosper Chopera, the co-principal investigator for the insects for nutrition study, said a randomised control trial was ongoing whereby children would be fed the porridge over a long period of time while they measured certain biological parameters in those children.
“We monitor and compare baseline and end point to see if indeed food had an impact on their physiology. This is a two-armed trial meaning that half of these are receiving the product with mopane worm and the other half is receiving a product without mopani worms but with all other ingredients.
“So far we are monitoring them daily, their intake, compliance, adherence and it seems the porridge is being received well in both arms,” she said.
She said studies had shown that the product was very nutritious, and could supply at least 50 percent of the recommended daily allowance for iron, protein and zinc to the children.
After the feeding trials, Department of Food Science and Technology chairperson at CUT, Dr Faith Manditsera, said the product would then be commercialised and produced on a larger scale.
“The in-vitro bioavailability has already shown that this product has the potential to improve the nutritional status of people. So with the scientific evidence that is also going to come from the feeding trial, we would want to upscale and commercialise the product,” she said.
Besides this, she said the project would be taken back to the communities from where the original idea and raw materials were obtained.
“We intend to train them so that they can come up with the same product at household level. The production of the porridge might be costly for rural communities so we need to also make sure they can make their own,” said Dr Manditsera.
To ensure the sustainability of the project, the insects for nutrition project is also addressing the challenges of the availability of the mopane worm itself. To this end, the Forestry Commission is working with the community to preserve the mopane worm while encouraging sustainable
Gwanda district forestry extension officer Mr Fortune Mathuthu said climate change had affected the production of mopane worms hence the need to protect the worm’s population.
“Through innovative solutions, we came up with a rearing site where we are protecting the mopane worm population from extinction and also making sure that we have mopane worm eggs at every season. We have created a greenhouse where we allow mopane worms to complete their life cycle.
“We have pupation beds in this site so when the mopane worms emerge, they lay eggs and we take the surplus eggs outside the site and leave some inside to ensure we have a continuous cycle,” he said.
Mr Mathuthu said due to extreme weather conditions experienced this year, there had been no mopane worms in the forests hence the eggs inside the greenhouse would ensure that more moths would emerge. Communities are also being trained to adopt the semi-domestication practices being done in the greenhouses in Gwanda, Beitbridge and other provinces to prevent premature harvesting while properly storing and processing the worm.
Food and Nutrition Council multi-sectoral co-ordination unit manager Mr Alpha Ndlovu said the project was key in addressing the micro-nutrient deficiency.
“One of the key challenges that we have observed in Matabeleland South is the issue of poor diet quality for children and women of childbearing age and also for households in general. This project aims to bridge the gaps in diet quality and promote the consumption of locally available foods to enhance the quality of diets. This project brings together stakeholders from the food and nutrition security committee as well as academia to come up with a locally grown solution to address the micro-nutrient gaps identified,” he said. He said the success of this initiative could pave the way for similar projects that use underused indigenous foods to create nutritious and sustainable solutions to food insecurity.
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