PHOTO OP — June / July / August 2021

SCREEN TIME

From 22-29 June 2021, enumerators for the Grow Against the Flow project trained by WorldVeg to collect data using tablets/mobile phones in Battambang Province, Cambodia, overcame rain, low batteries, and weak signals to gather information from 225 interviewees in control villages and 233 farmers in intervention villages on their cropping activities in the wet, cool and dry seasons, use of safe and off-season technologies for vegetable production, food safety, and household responses to Covid-19. The data will be used for an impact assessment of off-season vegetable farming. Funder: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany).

GROWING YEAR-ROUND

Uon Bonnarith, WorldVeg Provincial Coordinator in Cambodia, met with staff at the Kbal Koh Vegetable Research Station and the Department of Plant Protection, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (DPPSPS) – General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA) in Phnom Penh and Kandal to check on tomato grafting trials and discuss ongoing activities to increase the use of good agricultural practices for the Grow Against the Flow project.

BENIN’S SCHOOL GARDENS

In 2020, the WorldVeg Nutrifood Project established vegetable gardens at 10 schools in southern Benin, and in late June 2021, the project team visited the schools to follow up on garden activities, learn about successes and problems encountered, and make plans for the next school year.  Leafy vegetables were the most-produced crops in the gardens, especially amaranth, celosia, jute mallow, and vernonia. Harvested vegetables are sent to the school canteens for inclusion in school meals, and any surplus is sold in the communities to earn income for the school gardens and canteen. During a recent official visit to Benin, the First Lady of Burundi, Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye, made a stop at Goulo-Sodji Primary School in Ze municipality to get a closer look at their school garden. Project partner: World Food Programme. Funder: UK Research and Innovation.

BENIN’S SCHOOL GARDENS: PART 2

School canteen cooks learn good cooking practices to retain nutrients from leafy vegetables at Tokoli school, Tori, Benin.

BUILDING BRIDGES IN BENIN

World Vegetable Center Director General Marco Wopereis and a team from WorldVeg West and Central Africa Coastal & Humid Regions visited the offices of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Cotonou, Benin and Benin’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries on 5 August 2021 to take stock of SAFEVEG and other ongoing projects in the country. First Secretary of the Embassy of the Netherlands, Sigrid Meijer, received the delegation and was pleased to be updated by Marco and the team. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands) and the European Commission provide financial support for SAFEVEG.

BUILDING BRIDGES IN BENIN: PART 2

The group also met with Francois Assogba Komlan, Secretary-General of Benin’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and her team to discuss pathways toward the development of a strong seed sector in Benin.