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