Key Takeaways
- Alabaster International, JKUAT and partners harvested the first cultivated enset plant ever grown in Kenya on July 6, 2026, closing a four-year cross-border effort.
- The Checho cooking-type plant produced roughly 10 to 15 kilograms of food from its underground corm.
- Enset is a drought-resilient Ethiopian staple whose water-storing trunk lets it survive long dry spells.
- The harvest is undergoing nutritional analysis to confirm food safety for enset grown outside Ethiopia.
- Trunk fiber is going to women artisans in Letoire, Kenya, members of the country’s first Enset Ambassador groups.
Alabaster International Leads First Enset Harvest in Kenya
On July 6, 2026, researchers and field workers pulled the first cultivated enset plant ever grown in Kenya from the ground at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) research site. The harvest closed a four-year project led by Alabaster International with JKUAT, Girl Child Network, Arba Minch University and the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute to move one of Africa’s most drought-resilient indigenous food crops across a border it had never crossed.
A Drought-Resilient Staple Crosses Borders
Enset, a banana-like plant often called Ethiopia’s “tree against hunger,” has fed millions of Ethiopians for generations. Its water-storing trunk lets it withstand prolonged drought, giving communities a year-round buffer when other crops fail. Until this project, cultivated enset for human consumption had never been grown on Kenyan soil.
“We made the first cut as a team, and then we stepped out of the photo. This has always been about African collaboration and local hands. Our Ethiopian partners were on a video call watching it happen — four years of trust between two nations, coming out of the ground,” said Shannon Fernando-Rubera, Co-founder and CEO of Alabaster International.
From Corm to Craft
The harvested plant was a Checho variety, the cooking type whose underground corm is boiled and eaten much like a potato. It yielded about 10 to 15 kilograms of food and is now undergoing full nutritional analysis to confirm safety for the first enset grown outside Ethiopia. The leaves feed livestock, while the trunk fiber goes to women artisans in Letoire, Kenya — members of the country’s first Enset Ambassador groups — for craft production and income.
Alabaster International Plans to Expand Reach
The organization has developed a tissue-culture protocol for mass propagation, and a single nursery can supply seedlings to roughly 1,000 households, or about 5,000 people.
“We’ve proven enset can cross borders, grow in drought-prone land, and be embraced as food. All made possible by the generosity of Ethiopia and the incredible leadership of Arba Minch University and the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute. The next year is about doubling our reach — more seedlings, more trained ambassadors, more harvests in more communities,” said Fernando-Rubera.
