The Associate Director General of the World Vegetable Centre and Regional Director (ESA), Dr. Gabriel Rugalema held consultative discussions on the future of African vegetables with Prof. Mary Abukutsa-Onyango of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) at the regional offices based at ICIPE in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday, February 21, 2025.
The meeting was a follow up of the recent launch of the African Vegetables Biodiversity Rescue Ten Year Plan (2025-2035) which was held in Kigali, Rwanda during the Africa Food Systems Summit (2024).
The discussions centred on the broader vision of the African Vegetables Biodiversity Rescue Plan, which aims to see “Africa’s vegetable biodiversity conserved for the long term, and sustainably used for the benefit of people in Africa and the global community.”
Dr. Rugalema acknowledged Prof. Abukutsa’s pioneering research efforts in championing African vegetables in Africa and beyond, further describing the discussions as critical, as the World Vegetable Centre seeks to engage various researchers, experts and other stakeholders on African vegetables to make contributions towards the actualization of the Rescue Plan.
He said, the 5-year strategy entails key focus areas namely: Biodiversity conservation and use, Agribusiness Development, Genetic Innovations and Breeding, Capacity building / development, and Vegetable for climate resilience.
Prof. Abukutsa observed that having participated as a panelist during the launch of the African Vegetables Biodiversity Rescue Plan in Kigali, “It is important we come up with tangible progress to actualize the Rescue Plan which is broken down into 5-year-periods in a collaborative and synergistic way.”
Prof. Abukutsa stated that as a researcher in African indigenous vegetables, she was available to support the implementation of the follow up programmes for rescuing African indigenous vegetables as outlined in the Rescue Plan.”
She outlined the areas which included capacity building, research, biodiversity, nutrional sensitive agriculture, and agro-ecology, commercialization, among other aspects aimed at “repositioning African vegetables to contribute to health and wealth creation on the African continent.”
She also updated Dr. Rugalema on research strides JKUAT is undertaking specifically in the African indigenous vegetables value chain, where the institution is also currently spearheading a consortium of private and public sector players to implement –“Upscaling African Indigenous Vegetables Climate Smart Technologies for Food and Nutrition Security in Kenya – a project supported by the Government of Kenya through the National Research Fund.
The objective of the project, she explained, is “to upscale the production, preservation and utilization technologies of African indigenous vegetables for food and nutrition Security in Kenya.”
Dr. Rugalema and Prof. Abukutsa both agreed to collaborate to ensure the successful implementation of the African vegetables broader Rescue Plan by bringing together various expertise in the required critical areas.
According to the Rescue Plan, mainstreaming African vegetables into food systems would support the achievement of UN SDG#2 (zero hunger). Other challenges include weak seed systems, low technical capacity for vegetable research, seed technology, plant breeding and agronomy, postharvest and processing.
The African Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan was developed “to address existing challenges using a holistic approach to unlock the potential of African vegetable biodiversity by addressing supply, demand and policy challenges, and grasping the opportunities.”
