BMZ – Choose, Grow, Thrive

Start date: 1 March 2021
End date: 28 February 2024

Sub-Saharan Africa is not on track to meet its development targets:

• 23% of the population affected by hunger
• 39% of women of reproductive age and 62% of children under five are anemic
• 42% of adult population is either overweight or obese

These forms of malnutrition have their origins in inadequate diets. Currently, a dietary transition is observed in West African countries with increasing intake levels of fat, sugars, and protein.

Vegetable consumption in Benin and Mali is only about 80 grams per capita per day and there is a declining trend for Benin.  Vegetables are also found too expensive for many people in sub-Saharan Africa.

African vegetables, which are currently underutilized, could be an affordable source to diversify diets with vegetables in these countries.

Purpose and objectives
BMZ- Choose, Grow, Thrive (BMZ-CGT) aims to strengthen seed systems of African vegetables and scale variety adoption so that male and female farmers and urban consumers benefit from increased production and consumption of African vegetables, which are nutritious but currently underutilized.

BMZ-CGT has four objectives:

Objective 1. Stimulate seed enterprises to include African vegetables in their product portfolios to diversify vegetable production and consumption in Benin and Mali;

Objective 2. Scale seed production of varieties preferred by male and female farmers, traders, and consumers;

Objective 3. Scale variety adoption by connecting farmer networks with seed enterprises; and

Objective 4. Stimulate an enabling food environment for African vegetable consumption.

Target crops
Amaranth, jute mallow, okra

Funding
BMZ-CGT is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) commissioned and administered through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Fund for International Agricultural Research (FIA).

Budget : Euros 1,200,000