By Nokunceda Magagula | 2024-10-16

WORLD Vegetable Centre Project Director Dr Joyce Mulila-Mitti says traditional vegetables can make a difference in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). She said such vegetables were key in meeting SDGs.

Speaking at the closing of a two-day workshop for concluding phase one of the Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) project and commencement of phase two held at Esibayeni Lodge, Matsapha on Friday, she said vegetables could be a nitch market for farmers, adding that aspects to get it to the market were the same as other crops. Traditional vegetables include okra, sorghum, cow peas, jugo beans, ground nuts, sesame, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, cassava, mung beans, amaranth, African eggplant and many others.

The director added that the World Vegetable Center in collaboration with the ministry of agriculture had been implementing the TAVI project supported by the government of the Republic of China Taiwan to promote the production and consumption of traditional African vegetables in the country. “TAVI Phase One founded a new international collaborative effort that in only three years achieved significant visibility for the contribution of Taiwan in enhancing nutrition and livelihoods in Eswatini, and safeguarded vegetable biodiversity in Benin, Eswatini, Madagascar and Tanzania.

Project benefits were felt at grassroots, national, and international levels, new collaborative bonds were formalised, and successes were showcased in international events. awareness Children benefited directly from vegetable-enriched school meals and at neighborhood care points, along with nutrition education and awareness raising,” she said. Dr Mulila-Mitti added that farmers across Eswatini began to cultivate and earn money from traditional, nutritious and climate resilient African vegetables. She said government and NGO partners embraced the new crops, technologies and approaches, and innovative mobile kitchens and ‘food ambassadors’ spread the news further still.

She said the other key output was the development of the Africa Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan (AVBRP) that was a framework for achieving sustainable production and consumption of traditional African vegetables with interventions along the value chain. She said this was a significant output as the AVBRP constituted a framework that had been developed for countries in Africa to employ in their work to sustainably develop their TAV sectors regarding production and consumption. “TAVI 2024 project is the follow- up phase to the TAVI Phase 1 project and serving as a bridging project for the anticipated follow up phase II of TAVI. The TAVI 2024 is therefore of great importance as it gives us an opportunity to build on the significant successes of TAVI Phase 1, which clearly indicated the great potential for achieving impact with the project interventions.

The impact we expect from increased production and consumption of the Traditional African vegetables are major elements of the SDGs that include improved livelihood, increased nutrition and better health as well as more resilience to climate change effects. TAVI 2024 is scaling successes in Eswatini, as providing a firmer basis for expanding impacts in 2025 and beyond,” she added.

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