People talk a lot about food – what their next meal will be, the rising prices of goods, or how a particular food is ‘making’ them gain weight. While food is a popular topic of conversation regardless of culture or geographical location, we rarely dig deeper to understand behaviors and patterns of consumption that lead us to eat what we eat. For us working in the food, health, and agriculture space, it is crucial to gain context on people’s attitudes towards food, specifically on fruits and vegetables, to better implement interventions to increase vegetable demand.

The World Food Organization recommends that a person consume 400 grams of fruits and vegetables every day. As part of the SAFEVEG Project, we conducted studies in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali – three countries with very low consumption of fruits and vegetables – to find out the key factors that affect their daily food choices. We found that in Benin, people only eat about 96 grams of fruits and vegetables per day, while in Mali and Burkina Faso, people only consume 74 grams per day – far below recommended levels.

More than 1000 households in each country were interviewed and asked not only what and how much they eat but also where they buy their vegetables and whether they can afford them. Results show that in Bamako, for example, 88% of the consumers mainly purchased vegetables from the open ‘wet’ markets, with tomatoes and onions being the most popular.  Although respondents said they were confident about their ability to judge the quality of vegetables, they were interested in knowing more about vegetable safety. They expressed serious concerns about the hygiene standards and pesticide residues on vegetables purchased from less reliable origins, such as peri-urban production areas. Meanwhile, households in Cotonou and Ouagadougou also share similar sentiments with those from Bamako. These findings will be further analysed to inform key stakeholders, such as policymakers, on trends and patterns in consumer behavior in the three countries and also test innovations that may ‘nudge’ consumers to consume more safe vegetables. 

In Cotonou, the team started an experiment with street food vendors who increased the portion of green leafy vegetables on their menus. Do their clients appreciate it, and are they willing to pay a small extra amount for it? In Bamako, we will label the trustworthy origin of more safe vegetables and observe how customers of open ‘wet’ markets respond to such a label. Will they develop a preference for labeled, more safe vegetables, and will this result in more demand? Will the private sector experience the benefits and sustain the supply of more safe vegetables? 

With these interventions, the team aspires to introduce innovations that can be adopted and scaled up by stakeholders in the food system, as they create added value or appeal to them. Moreover, the team intends to paint a clearer picture of food consumption in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali and have more evidence-based conversations on how to make vegetables more accessible and palatable to many consumers. By 2024, the results of these studies and experiments will be synthesized and presented to the public and private sectors to provide a basis for future decision-making on food policies and actions in these three countries.

About the authors:

Amadou Sidibé, PhD, heads the research unit at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at the Rural Polytechnical Institute for Training and Applied Research (IPR/IFRA) Katibougou in Mali. His expertise is in integrative analysis of rural development, technology studies,  innovation processes and scaling, value chain, network and development studies. Dr Sidibé leads in-country strategic engagement and coordination for Workpackage2  of the SAFEVEG project.

Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters, PhD, is a senior scientist in food system transformation and ambassador for food and nutrition security at Wageningen University and Research. He has gained expertise over 35 years of research and advisory work in Sub-Saharan Africa. His areas of expertise include food and nutrition security, policy development, stakeholder participation, and the design of sustainable production and consumption chains. He is currently co-leading Workpackage2  of the SAFEVEG project.