The Darwin Initiative explores ways to use local food plants while safeguarding biodiversity in the island nation.

With its extremely high richness in rare species, Madagascar is among the world’s most precious concentrations of biodiversity. The island is home to more than 10,000 plant species, some of which are indigenous and used as traditional food plants, including African vegetable species.

Yet Madagascar is also a biodiversity “hotspot” – a place where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing rapid loss of habitat. The island has lost more than 70% of its original vegetation and urgently needs to safeguard its remaining plant diversity.

Although neglected, traditional African vegetables, commonly known as “Bredes” in Malagasy, ensure food and nutrition security and provide unique opportunities for income generation and poverty alleviation.

Recognizing the potential of these plants, the Darwin Initiative supported a scoping study in 2018 led by the World Vegetable Center to understand the diversity of traditional African vegetables used by Malagasy farmers, assess their conservation status, and explore opportunities for income generation and increased consumption. The initiative, a UK government grant scheme, has sought since 1992 to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide.

The study results showed that while Malagasy farmers maintain a high diversity of traditional vegetables, actual production and consumption are low. This threatens the existence of traditional vegetables, which are prone to local or national extirpation under the pressures of land-use change and crop replacement.

A modest investment in seed systems and increased awareness on the benefits of traditional African vegetables for nutrition, income, and climate change adaptation would likely lead to increased use and better protection of these special species.

The scoping study identified potential sites for the collection and production of traditional African vegetables. The Darwin Initiative then launched a three-year project in May 2019 to secure the benefits of agrobiodiversity by strengthening food and nutrition security in Itasy and Antsirabe, two vegetable producing regions in Madagascar.

Partners include the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), the National Center for Applied Research on Rural Development (FOFIFA), the University of Antananarivo, and SEMANA, a private seed company for scaling up project outputs. In the project’s first year, 25 Malagasy extension workers (68% women) received training, and then went on to train over 200 women farmers in seed saving practices, participatory evaluation of local and introduced varieties, and safe production and preparation of traditional vegetables.

Two hundred fifty seed kits (40 g per kit) of 12 improved lines of amaranth, African eggplant, African nightshade, and Ethiopian mustard developed by WorldVeg were sent to Madagascar and distributed to women farmers for participatory on-farm evaluation, seed multiplication and exchange among farmers, and for school garden programs. A trial was conducted on-station at FOFIFA in Antsirabe to characterize these vegetable accessions under local conditions and evaluate their agronomic and morphological traits.

A baseline household survey conducted in early 2020 with 400 farmers (200 beneficiaries and 200 non-beneficiaries) collected data on the current status and household utilization of traditional African vegetable species, and identified opportunities and challenges associated with production and use of these species in Itasy and Antsirabe.

Data revealed that overall, consumption of traditional African vegetables is low. Whether collected or cultivated, traditional African vegetables were mostly used for household consumption, not for market sale. Many of the farmers surveyed lacked awareness about the nutritional values of traditional African vegetables.

Through extension workers, the project aims to educate and create awareness among Malagasy farmers about the opportunities to produce traditional African vegetables for income, improve the food security of their households and communities, and raise the nutritional quality of their diets.

The project seeks to strengthen regional school garden programs as a way to promote conservation and utilization of agrobiodiversity. Focus group discussions were conducted with teachers and students regarding crops cultivated in school gardens, knowledge of students and their caretakers about the value and production of traditional African vegetables, and the willingness of the schools to grow these vegetables and incorporate them in school meals. In 2020-2021, eight school gardens will be established to encourage traditional vegetable production and to create awareness among teachers and students of the importance of traditional vegetables in addressing malnutrition.

Conservation of agrobiodiversity includes protection of vegetable genetic resources. The project has obtained a permit from the government of Madagascar to collect at least 400 accessions of vegetable species and conserve these in genebanks.

The 200 trained women farmers are already growing and evaluating 12 varieties of African vegetables for household consumption and commercialization. Ten of these progressive women farmers will be chosen to receive training in commercial seed production and seed business development at the end of the first season of the on-farm evaluation.

The Darwin Project is set to increase the production and commercialization of traditional African vegetables through the protection and enhancement of genetic resources in Madagascar, which will result in increased access to vegetables for 15,000 Malagasy people, climate-resilient farming systems, and improved protection of vegetable biodiversity. The project is helping Madagascar deliver on Sustainable Development Goals 1 (No poverty), 2 (Zero hunger), and 13 (Climate action).

Story and photos: Ritha Luoga and Sognigbe N’Danikou