The Access and Benefit-Sharing Agreement on Teff Genetic - Fridtjof ...

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2 Background: About teff
2.1 Teff: <strong>The</strong> ‘super-grain’
Teff is an annual grass whose plants range from 30 to 120 cm in height.
<strong>The</strong> grains of teff come in many different colours: in general, the darker
the grain, the richer the flavour. Teff grows well under difficult conditions
poorly suited for cultivating other cereals, <strong>and</strong> will produce grain
even in a bad season. This predictability, with stable yields under varying
conditions, makes it invaluable to poor farmers, <strong>and</strong> a much-appreciated
cereal in areas with changeable conditions, as pointed out by the USbased
Board on Science <strong>and</strong> Technology for International Development
of the US National Research Council (BOSTID 1996).
Teff is used mainly in making the Ethiopian staple injera, which is a
spongy, flat <strong>and</strong> slightly sour bread eaten as an accompaniment to spicy
stews. It also has other uses in Ethiopia – in gruel, cakes, other types of
bread <strong>and</strong> homemade beverages. Additionally, as teff has become popular
outside Ethiopia it has also been used to make non-traditional products
(BOSTID 1996).
<strong>The</strong> nutritional value of teff is often referred to as being similar to that of
wheat (Spaenij-Dekking et al. 2005), but teff is actually more nutritious,
as the seeds are so small (between 1 <strong>and</strong>1.5 mm long) that they contain a
greater proportion of bran <strong>and</strong> germ. In addition, precisely because the
seeds are so small, teff flour is usually whole-grain (BOSTID 1996).
Teff is also quite high in energy, <strong>and</strong> has an average fat content of about
2.6%. Protein content also tends to be just as high as, or higher than, that
of other cereals, ranging from 8% to 15% (with an average of 11%).
While the vitamin content is about average compared to other cereals, the
fermentation process of making injera generates additional vitamins,
further enhancing the value of the grain. In addition, the mineral content
shows especially good values for iron <strong>and</strong> calcium. <strong>The</strong> iron content
seems to play a particularly important role in Ethiopia, as absence of
anaemia has been found to correlate with areas of teff consumption
(BOSTID 1996).
According to Spaenij-Dekking et al. (2005), teff does not contain gluten
<strong>and</strong> is therefore a promising alternative for those suffering from coeliac
disease or other forms of low gluten tolerance. In the 14 teff varieties
tested by the researchers, ‘no gluten or gluten homologues could be
detected’ (Spaenij-Dekking et al. 2005: 1749). 10 <strong>The</strong> lack of gluten in
teff, at least gluten of the same type found in wheat, was also noted by
American experts in 1996, who mentioned that people with wheat allergies
bought teff for that reason (BOSTID, 1996). Thus, it would seem
that in the mid-1990s this feature was already well known in some
circles.
10 As it happens, these were, according to the authors, ‘provided by Soil <strong>and</strong>
Crop, Assen, the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s’ (Spaenij-Dekking et al. 2005: 1748).