Stories of Tef: A film series
Tef is an ancient tropical cereal. It is a major food grain and plays an integral role in culture and tradition in Ethiopia. The World Food System Center produced a series of films highlighting ETH Zurich’s research concerning the nutrition, farming practices, and sustainability of this important food security crop.
While most of us enjoy our bread or cereal at breakfast, many Ethiopians start the day with an injera and a shiro wat, a simple stew. Injera, a soft, thin flatbread, is a staple of most urban Ethiopian households and is made from flour of the tef grain.
Tef is an ancient tropical cereal that has its center of origin in the northern Ethiopian highlands, first cultivated between 4000 and 1000 BC. In Ethiopia, it is a major food grain and plays an integral role in culture and tradition.
The vast majority of global tef production takes place in Ethiopia, and the cultivation, trading, and processing of the grain provides a livelihood for an estimated 25-30 million people. Smallholder farmers prefer to cultivate this ancient grain over other cereals since it can better cope with climate stresses such as drought. Farmers keep around 60% of crop yields for their own use, making it an important food security crop.
The small seeds of tef, only about 1 mm in size, are highly nutritious when compared to other cereal crops. The grain provides protein, minerals, Vitamin C, as well as many essential amino acids. It is also gluten-free, as other popular ancient grains such as quinoa and amaranth. Comprising a third of the total food budget, tef plays a significant role in the average urban Ethiopian household’s diet. The tef grain is enjoyed most often in the form of injera, a pancake-like soft bread that is nutritious due to its high protein and mineral content.
A team of researchers from ETH Zurich, along with partners from the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, has led efforts to determine how to make the Ethiopian tef value chain more resilient to shocks such as drought. They are trying to find ways to help the production and processing of the grain start working again after such shocks.
In Ethiopia, protecting the domestic market for tef is important to policy makers because of its food security and income consequences for rural producers and as an important food for urban consumers. In an attempt to keep domestic prices low, Ethiopia decided to ban the export of unprocessed tef in 2006. However, despite the export ban, prices of tef are rising, making it unaffordable for many households.
Results of an ETH Zurich research project finds the way forward is to transform the tef value chain in Ethiopia. A forum needs to be established to encourage open discussions among all stakeholders. Through such dialogue, ways to build sustainability and resilience can be identified. Such a transformation is necessary, as upscaling to international trade will be a challenge for many Ethiopian farmers. Issues include traceability, logistics, and compliance with European requirements.
Perhaps by reducing the export ban gradually while improving the sustainable production of tef, a resilient, nutritious food can be introduced to the world.
These videos were first produced for the ETH Zurich exhibit at the OLMA, the Swiss Fair for agriculture and Food, in 2018. Special thanks to Luzian Messmer, Kenza Benabderrazik, Jonas Jörin, Johan Six, Timothy Sykes, Wuyan Wang, and Samuel Zeeman for contributing stories and pictures from their years of research in Ethiopia.
Learn more about the project Assessing the Resilience of the Tef and Cocoa value chains in Ethiopia and Ghana here