PROJECT SUMMARY
Project name |
SMIL Sorghum project |
Project short-name |
ESP |
AMU project code |
EXT/USA/VPRP/13/2015 |
Project phase |
I |
Partner country |
Kansas State University, USA |
AMU coordinating office |
VP for Research and Partnership |
Project type |
Research |
Project location |
Gamo and Konso zones |
Target communities |
Enset and Sorghum growing farmers |
Project coordinator |
Dr. Addisu Fekadu, Dr. Elisa Karkle |
Principal investigator |
|
Co-investigators |
Dr. Sabura Shara |
Total project budget ( ) |
2,440 |
Project start |
5-Jan-23 |
Project end |
31-Dec-23 |
Progress reporting period |
Quarterly |
Financial reporting period |
Annually |
Contact person |
Addisu Fekadu |
Project Management Office |
Office of the Director for Grant and Collaborative Project Management: |
Cereals constitute most of the world s carbohydrate food supply of which sorghum ranks among the top five. It is part of the traditional diet of many population groups and is growing in importance worldwide due to its gluten-free, high nutrient composition, along with increased drought and heat tolerance compared to wheat and corn. Merera is a newly registered open pollinated variety that has shown interesting aroma attributes in preliminary testing of a co-fermentation with enset. Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is a perennial and climate resilient food crop for over 20 million Ethiopian people. It is a high yielding, drought tolerant and cultivated for generations in Ethiopian highlands and have a potential of expansion to the world s agroecological niches. Kocho and bulla are the two main products from the enset plant. There is opportunity for value-addition of enset products as part of gluten-free products, alone or combined with sorghum. Despite the potential, data regarding the functionality and nutritional properties of enset products and co-fermentates of enset and sorghum is limited. Fermentation has been shown to enhance sorghum functionality in baked products and it is hypothesized that sorghum-enset co-fermented flours and/or enset fermented products are uniquely suited to enhance the quality of gluten-free products. In this project, our goal is to investigate the applicability of fermented enset and sorghum-enset flours in gluten-free products. Our objectives are to characterize the composition and functionality of the individual flours and evaluate their performance in three gluten-free systems. Expected outcomes include potential for increased nutritional value of gluten-free products and data to support an increase in demand of the two crops.
Publications