Verifying the level of implementation of the SafeVeg project

In September 2024, a delegation from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited Benin and spent a day on Tuesday 3^rd at the offices of the World Vegetable Center on the campus of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Abomey-Calavi, to find out more about the state of implementation of the SafeVeg project funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The delegation was taken on a guided tour of the experimental fields of the WorldVeg regional center there, where a number of the SafeVeg project trials, on tomato, chilli and okra were presented to the delegation, as was the work being done to promote quality vegetable varieties that are resilient to climate change. Most of these are in the process of being certified and registered in the seed catalogue of the Benin Plant Production Department and its counterparts in Burkina Faso and Mali. These seeds are veritable treasures that are already delighting producers and consumers alike from the currently field test that are proving that they help to drastically reduce the use of pesticides, while at the same time significantly improving yields and thus the incomes of market gardeners.

On their return from the field, the project team and their hosts continued discussions around a large table where various people in charge of different components around which the project revolves were given the opportunity to give brief presentations of what is being done in the three countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali) in terms of promoting the production and consumption of healthy climate-resilient vegetables on a larger scale, while not forgetting improved postharvest practices, the provision of more resilient vegetable varieties, the creation and strengthening of networks of market garden businesses, and finally, impact assessment.

An interesting question-and-answer session was held at the end of the session, helping to outline the major challenges still to be met if the project is to be extended, notably through the scaling-up of a number of good practices that are already taking root in certain regions, the resolution of the problem of limited water availability in some areas, and overcoming the advanced state of soil degradation, amongst other issues. What was clear is that there have been significant impacts, currently being scale, and that project with exceed expectations in many of its target intervention areas.

Visibly satisfied with the wealth of information they had received, the Dutch delegation made no secret of its satisfaction with the progress made on a major project as sprawling and complex as SafeVeg.

The SafeVeg project (Safe locally produced vegetables for West Africa’s consumers) is carried out with funding from the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, part of the DeSIRA program, and is implemented by the World Vegetable Center, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement CIRAD and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and national partners, the Institut National des Recherches Agricoles du Bénin (INRAB, Benin), Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA, Burkina Faso), and Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER, Mali).