Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Africans have for centuries relied on indigenous vegetables not only for food security, but also for medicinal, social, cultural and income generating purposes. However, there has been a general decline in the consumption of these vegetables over the years, a factor attributed to unavailability and disappearing knowledge particularly among the younger generations.

To address this concern, PROTA in 2006, initiated the Indigenous Vegetables Projects – under its Pilot Projects Initiative – to promote cultivation and consumption of indigenous vegetables for the improvement of livelihoods of rural communities. The project empowered over 230 small scale farm households in Kenya: 150 from Narok and Bomet in the Rift Valley, and 80 from Maragua District in Central Province, with knowledge and skills on production, utilization and marketing of three indigenous vegetable species : black nightshade (Solanum scabrum); spider plant (Cleome gynandra) and amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus).

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Mr Jonathan Kilges, a farmers’ trainer from Sirnik Farmer Field School explains to Naivasha District Agricultural Officer, Mrs Dorothy Maye (in white cap) how members of the group have been growing and utilizing indigenous vegetables in Narok North District, Kenya.

Using information mainly from the PROTA 2 ‘Vegetables’, training materials were developed. Farmers were trained on various aspects including crop production methods, pest management, irrigation methods, post harvest handling, preservation, seed processing, nutritional and commercial value of vegetables and marketing.

It was a project well appreciated and a big success going by the findings of a recent impact assessment mission: People growing the indigenous vegetables in the project sites grew from less than 10% before the project commenced, over 90% today, two years after the project ended. There is also high of consumption of the vegetables with most households reporting consuming them more than once every week, an indication of the growing popularity of the indigenous vegetables. Amaranth is popular in Maragua (consumed by 87% of respondents) while black nightshade is more popular in Narok (consumed by 80%).

“The project was very beneficial to us. It fully trained us on the various aspects of indigenous vegetable farming, from land preparation to postharvest handling. More importantly it built our capacity to work to undertake vegetable cultivation as a business” states Rev. John ole Kaaria, a member of Ol Marei Farmer Field School in Narok adding, “We need to be empowered to produce more during the dry season, because this is when the vegetables fetch good prices.”
Ms. Alice Saitoti of Enyuata Self Help Group in Narok emphasizes “A good irrigation system that can help us cultivate the vegetables throughout the year is what we currently need, for it is at this time that the demand for the vegetables is highest and prices are at their peak.”
Of greater advantage to the farmers was the fact that the indigenous vegetables were cheaper to grow than exotics such as tomatoes and kale. The inputs for indigenous vegetables were minimal and of low cost compared to those for the exotic vegetables.