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5,000 small-scale producers in Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ghana have opted to return to their roots by integrating traditional vegetables into their daily diet, as a sustainable way of improving their nutritional health while increasing their income. These significant results were achieved thanks to the CORAF / WECARD-funded project "Strengthening the productivity, competitiveness and marketing of traditional African (leafy) vegetables for improved income and nutrition in West and Central Africa".

After three years of implementation, the project coordinated by World Vegetable Center-Africa ends on a positive note, with over 30,000 beneficiaries from small-scale farming families rescued from malnutrition, particularly women and children. "The project has stimulated vegetable production for greater productivity, providing opportunities for households to increase their income and improve their nutritional status", said Regine Kamga, regional project coordinator at WorldVeg.

Indeed, child malnutrition is very high in most West and Central African countries, and much of the micronutrient malnutrition can be attributed to a lack of diversified local diets such as traditional leafy vegetables. However, traditional African vegetables are neglected and under-utilized, despite offering a comparative advantage over their exotic counterparts, notably in terms of nutritional value and superior adaptability to local environmental conditions.

To date, the project has identified and promoted 10 varieties of nutrient-rich traditional vegetables. Post-harvest handling methods, including cleaning and storage, as well as food processing methods such as solar dryers, have been adapted to help preserve the food produced in this project and ensure that nutritious food is available all year round. "Growers are gaining a better understanding of the value of increasing production yields by improving the marketing of surplus vegetables," explains Dr. Ousmane NDOYE, Crops Program Manager at CORAF/WECARD.

In Burkina Faso, the project has succeeded in getting pastoral nomads interested in gardening, which has increased vegetable consumption in this community. In southern Cameroon, an increase in the supply of vegetables on local markets has been observed, which seems to be the result of a change in behavior from the sole collection of forest products to the cultivation of vegetables promoted under the project. In northern Ghana, women who were previously confined mainly to mixed farming with food crops during the rainy season are increasingly taking advantage of the dry season to produce traditional vegetables.

"Before the project, I grew onions, tomatoes and eggplants on a small scale on half a hectare. But I only produced for 4 months of the year, and only a third of the produce was used for food, while the rest was sold at ridiculously low prices. As a result, my children were stunted in terms of weight and frequently fell ill. But with the project, we learned to revalue the traditional leaves that grew behind our huts and that we had neglected. Today, my family eats better and is no longer malnourished, because we produce all year round and our daily food rations contain more nutrient-rich vegetables," testifies Germaine SORE, a market gardener in the eastern region of Burkina Faso.

"I used to grow cabbage, but it wasn't profitable at all because of the damage caused by insect pests. But since I joined the traditional African vegetables project, my profits have increased by 60% and the project has also provided me with market opportunities. I now supply vegetables to 3 secondary and technical schools in my community to feed their boarders. Demand is so strong that I've decided to start training in the production of high-quality seeds of the high-yielding, nutrient-rich cultivars Amaranth and Sorrel to support consumer and producer demand," added Umar Mohammed Abdourhamane from the Tamale region of Ghana.

During the end-of-project workshop held July 27-28, 2016 in Burkina Faso, CORAF/WECARD's Executive Director invited project coordinators to leverage the project's community anchoring for effective and inclusive growth of rural communities. "For the scaling up of the project's key achievements, it is important to develop a melting pot of community experiences that will serve as farmer education centers, where new varieties, crop management techniques, water-efficient management practices and technologies are tested and disseminated through participatory training and awareness-raising campaigns," said Dr Abdou TENKOUANO before adding that this project must foster community resilience by enabling them to increase market-driven production.