article · Journal of Agriculture and Food Research
Moringa oleifera is a resilient, fast-growing perennial tree that provides essential nutrients including protein, vitamins, and minerals. It can serve as human food, animal feed, a traditional medicine, a water purification coagulant, and an agricultural biostimulant. Because it thrives across diverse soil conditions and tolerates water shortages, it is well suited as a climate-smart crop for semi-arid areas facing climate-induced drought. This plant could help address rising malnutrition, poverty, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases across Africa. However, its development into an established commercial crop has been slowed by low research and development investment. Advancements in biotechnology tools and genome sequencing offer opportunities to enhance its cultivation and nutritional value. Further research is still needed to resolve knowledge gaps surrounding toxicity risks, potential weed invasiveness, and formal plant breeding programmes.
Semi-arid regions face increasing risks of drought, poverty, and nutrient deficiencies driven by climate change. Moringa oleifera offers a hardy, fast-growing alternative crop capable of producing nutrient-dense food and animal feed under harsh conditions. Recognising and resolving its agronomic and safety questions could bolster regional food systems, support preventative health, and improve agricultural resilience in vulnerable farming communities.
The work highlights commercial applications in food production, therapeutics, livestock feed, water treatment, and crop biostimulants. Potential adopters include commercial growers, agricultural input manufacturers, and food processors operating in drought-prone areas. This remains early-stage research. Realising viable commercial crops requires further investment in research and development, biotechnology, genome sequencing, and studies addressing key gaps in toxicity, breeding, and invasive risk.
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Moringa oleifera Lam. (moringa) is widely utilised around the world as a rich natural source of essential nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and protein. With an increase in malnutrition, diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and poverty across Africa, moringa could be an excellent alternative healthy food crop for alleviating these challenges. It is well-known for its versatility, serving as a food and medicinal source for humans and animals alike, a coagulant for water purification, and a biostimulant. In addition, it is a fast-growing, and resilient perennial tree that can thrive in various climatic and edaphic conditions. This plant is excellent for farming systems in areas of water shortage, where moderate drought-related incidences are projected to increase as a result of climate change. Despite its potential benefits and extensive adaptability, progressive efforts to establish moringa as a commercial crop have been hampered by challenges such as low investment in research and development. Thus, it is imperative to encourage the cultivation, consumption, and development of this plant with high nutritional and therapeutic properties as a means of guaranteeing nutritional security. The current paper reviewed various aspects of moringa, including its growing conditions, prospects as a climate-smart crop, and its potential to alleviate malnutrition and diet-related NCDs, particularly in semi-arid regions. We emphasised that, with the improvement of current biotechnology tools and genome sequencing, there is a strong rationale for investing in and developing moringa as an alternative to address nutritional deficiencies in the post-pandemic era. Finally, the existing knowledge gaps (e.g., toxicity, invasion potential and plant breeding) that necessitate explorations were identified and recommendations that could enhance its utilisation and development.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.jafr.2024.101217
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