Start date: 2012
End date: 2014

Traditional African vegetables (TAVs) are the most affordable and sustainable dietary sources of vitamins, trace elements and other bioactive compounds. They are a major source of most micronutrients and offer the only practical and sustainable way to ensure that micronutrients are supplied through the diet among the rural poor. They are culturally accepted as dietary complements to staples, but their potential for increased household income and nutrition is insufficiently exploited.

The purpose of this project is to increase production and consumption of TAVs by overcoming constraints such as low productivity of current cultivars and landraces, lack of good quality seeds, limited knowledge of postharvest and processing options and opportunities, poorly developed value chains and a lack of awareness of nutritional benefits. Project activities promote productive and nutritious cultivars of key TAVs, and are boosting their profitability and consumption for food and nutritional security.

  • Burkina Faso (the Sahel)
  • Cameroon (Central)
  • Ghana (Coastal)
  • AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center – Abdou Tenkouano, Project Coordinator
  • Helen Keller International (HKI) ‐ Burkina Faso
  • Département Technologie Alimentaire (DTA) of the Institut de Recherche en Sciences Appliquées et Technologies (IRSAT) ‐ Burkina Faso
  • Africa’s Sustainable Development Council (ASUDEC) – Burkina Faso
  • University for Development Studies (UDS) – Ghana
  • CSIR‐Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) – Ghana
  • Institut de Recherches Agricoles pour le Développement (IRAD) – Cameroon
  • Center for Assistance to Sustainable Development (CASD) – Cameroon
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