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African vegetables and products in SSA – Some opportunities
Patrick Maundu
Overview of presentation
• Vegetable diversity in African flora• Vegetable products
• Prospects/ opportunities• Challenges• Conclusion
Plant species diversity in SSA
• 45,000 plant species
• About 10% of these have edible parts
• 800-1000 Vegetables species
• 210 recorded in Kenya
ALV include Introduced Traditional Root and Tuber species – now used as leafy
veges• Through selection
and accumulation of knowledge, new cultivars for vegetable have been developed
Highly commercialized vegetables are preferred
• Preference for a few exotic vegetables in Kenya – mainly white cabbage, Swiss chard (spinach beet) and kale (sukuma). Dietary diversity being compromised
Why ALVs ?
Comparison of the nutritional content of amaranth and cabbage
020406080
100120
Moisture(g)
Fe (mg)x10 vit C (mg) B-carotene(ųg)/100
vit B2(mg)x100
Ca (mg)/10 P (mg)
Cabbage
Amaranth
Source: Maundu, 1999
Nutritional Value
Vegetables consumption– a priority
• High prevalence of Mineral and Vitamin deficiency especially Iron, Zinc, Selenium, Vitamin A.
• High prevalence of micronutrient deficiency related diseases – Anaemia, blindness etc
• An estimated 42.2% of children in SSA at risk of Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) (Aguayo, V. 2003)
Why African leafy vegetables?
• More opportunities for growth in agricultural production
• More options to cope with new challenges e.g. climate change, new pests and diseases, water stress.
• Diversification of diets – (Dietary diversity) – for health and for enjoyment
• Preservation of cultural values• Economic opportunities
Diversity -Fruit vegetables
horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus),
African eggplants
Some common leafy vegetables
African nightshade
Spiderplant
Jute leaves
Leafy amaranths Crotalaria
Potential for value adding
• Fresh vegetable• Juices, beverages
• Dry ground vegetable (powder form)
• Dried vegetable– In powder form– Whole leaves or in
chopped form
• Other products– Oil from some vegetable
seeds
BeveragesHibiscus (Roselle) drink, plant and calyxes
Products from leaves
• In the Sahelian region of West Africa, leaves are picked in the short period when the plant is in leaf, sun-dried and pounded into powder which is used as part of the daily sauce in the long dry season
Baobab
Dried vegetables
• A common practice in Southern Africa
• Soups and soutp thickeners (finely ground)
• Use as normal vegetables after reconstituting
• Nutritional/ health
Use of dried leaves
Species dried include:
•Pumpkin leaves•Cowpea leaves•Okra fruit•Bean leaves•Corchorus leaves (Jute)
Dried vegetables
Dried vegetables
Pumpkin leaves
Corchorus (Jute leaves)
Dried vegetablesOther species:
• Cassava leaves (sold in supermarkets in Rwanda in the dry form)
• Moringa
• Common comfrey (Symphytum officinale)
• Desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca)
Nutritional
• Moringa
• Stinging Nettle
Juices
• The next frontier• Mainly for nutritional purposes
• Taste usually a deterrent• Species in use include jute plant
(Corchorus olitorius) and Moringa
Research and development needs
• Documentation of Indigenous knowledge and local practices
• Development of seed systems• Nutritional research including food value,
adding value to local foods through technological input – germplasm selection, processing
• Germplasm collection and conservation
Research and Development needs
• Improvement• Value chain
development/ improvement, new markets
• Promotion• Agronomic studies • Value adding• Reducing post
harvest losses
Gaps -Taxonomy
• African Nightshades or Solanums (in the Section Solanum)
• Amaranthus spp.
Post harvest losses -How much money? what are the losses?
• Large quantities of vegetables are lost due to poor handling.
• Economic valuation
A minibus loaded with Gnetum (eru), Cameroon
A minibus loaded with Gnetum (eru), Cameroon
Gaps-improving germplasm quality
Characterization;
Germplasm selection
Promotion Interventions
• linking peri-urban and Rural Vegetable Farmers to the Formal Market
• Promotion work
• Recipes
• Adding value
Challenges for the Future
• -Research on Toxicity of some –determine safe levels of some- Solanum, Crotalaria, Erythrococca
• -Germplasm improvement in trees
Indigenous knowledge documentation
A race against time
Cleome gynandraCleome gynandra
Research in nutrition ..
§ Nutritional analysis
§ Bioavailability
§ β-carotene
§ Disease risk reduction
§nutritional blindness
Conclusion
ALV have potential to contribute to:• Poverty alleviation in Africa.
• Nutrition and health.
Conclusion cont..
More efforts are still needed in:• Germplasm collection and conservation• Genetic studies and improvement• Improving seed systems• Market research and Promotion• Value addition • Nutritional research including food value• IK documentation• Agronomic studies • IK documentation