Keeping Weeds for Nutrition and Taste

This is the third post about our visit to the World Agroforestry Center in Arusha, Tanzania.  This piece is cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.


They have unfamiliar names, like amaranth, baobab, cowpea, dika, enset, moringa, and spider plant. And many of them are typically thought of as weeds, not food, but these African indigenous vegetables and many others provide an important source of nutrients to millions of people.

Some have been used for thousands of years, providing an important cultural link, while also helping increase food security and incomes. But these “weeds,” which are a rich source of protein, calcium, and important micronutrients, are typically neglected on the international agricultural resource agenda. Although they’ve often been ignored by researchers and policy-makers alike, who tend to focus on staple and cash crops, these vegetables can be an important part of helping alleviate hunger in sub-Saharan Africa. As food prices continue to rise on the continent—in some countries food is 50-80 percent higher than in 2007—indigenous vegetables are becoming an integral part of home gardens.

And as the impacts of climate change become more evident, the hardiness and drought-tolerance of traditional vegetables is becoming increasingly important. Many of them use less water than hybrid varieties and some are resistant to pests and disease, which will likely increase as climate change becomes more evident.

Ignas Swai, a Senior Research Assistant at the World Vegetable Center, guided us through their demonstration plot, explaining the different nutritional qualities of the vegetable "weeds." Not only are these vegetables hardy and resistant to drought and disease, but they also taste good.

Looking Back at Kenya, in Photos

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A Message From Arusha, Tanzania

Listening to Farmers

This is the second blog in a series about Danielle’s visit to the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania.  This piece is cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.


The World Vegetable Center is focusing on “building a sustainable seed system in sub-Saharan Africa.” What does that mean? According to Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, Director of the Regional Center for Africa, it requires “bringing farmers voices into the choices of materials they are using.”

The Center does this not only by breeding a variety of vegetables with different traits—including resistance to disease and longer shelf life—but also by bringing farmers from all over eastern, western, and southern Africa to the Regional Center in Arusha, Tanzania, to find out what exactly those farmers need in the field and at market. Mr. Babel Isack, a tomato farmer from Tanzania, was at the Center when I visited, advising staff about which tomato varieties would be best suited for his particular needs—including varieties that depend on fewer chemical sprays and have a longer shelf life.

The Center works with farmers not only to grow vegetables, but also to process and cook them. Often, vegetables are cooked for so long that they lose most of their nutrients. To solve that problem, Dr. Mel Oluoch, a Liason Officer with the Center’s Vegetable Breeding and Seed System Program (VBSS), works with women to improve the nutritional value of cooked foods by helping them develop shorter cooking times. “Eating is believing,” says Dr. Oluoch, who adds that when people find out how much better the food tastes—and how much less fuel and time it takes to cook—they don’t need much convincing about the alternative methods.

Dr. Oluoch also trains both urban and rural farmers on seed production. In fact, one of the women farmers we met in Kibera slum in Nairobi had been trained at the Center and is selling seeds to rural farmers, increasing her income. “The sustainability of seed,” says Dr. Oluoch, “is not yet there in Africa.” In other words, farmers don’t have access to a reliable source of seed for indigenous vegetables, such as amaranth, spider plant, cowpea, okra, moringa, and other crops. As a result, the Center is working—partly with CNFA, an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) grantee—to link farmers to input or “agro-” dealers who can help ensure a steady supply of seed.

In addition, the Center is providing how-to brochures to farmers in Swahili and other languages to help them better understand how to grow vegetables in different regions.

Stay tuned for more about our visit to the World Vegetable Center later this week.

Breeding Vegetables With Farmers in Mind

This is the first in a series of blog posts about my visit with the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania. Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

As hunger and drought spread across Africa , there’s a huge focus on increasing yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice. And while these crops are important for food security, providing much needed calories, they don’t provide much protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, other important vitamins and micronutrients—or much taste. “None of the staple crops,” says Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, the World Vegetable Center’s Regional Director for Africa, “would be palatable without vegetables.” And vegetables, he says, “are less risk prone” than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods of time. Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize often scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize which need a lot of water and fertilizer.

Unfortunately no country in Africa, according to Dr. Tenkouano, has a big focus on vegetable production. But that’s where the Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Center (which is a part of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa to breed cultivars that best suit farmers’ needs.

Despite the focus on staple crops, vegetable production generates more income on and off the farm than most other agricultural enterprises, according to the Center’s website. And unlike staple crops, vegetable production is something that benefits urban and rural farmers alike (See our posts on urban farmers in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya).

In addition, vegetable production is the most sustainable and affordable way of alleviating micronutrient deficiencies among the poor. Often referred to as “hidden hunger,” micronutrient deficiencies—including lack of Vitamin A, iron, and iodine—affect some 1 billion people worldwide. They lead to poor mental and physical development, especially among children, and cause poor performance in work and in school, further crippling communities already facing poverty and other health problems.

But by listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, the Center is helping to alleviate these problems. Watch for more blogs about our visit to the World Vegetable Center and their efforts to raise nutrition and income in Africa.

Danielle is 3 for 3: I've Vomited in Every Country We've Visited

First it was the malaria medication. We’d heard that mefloquine can have some nasty side effects, but because I think I’m tough, I wasn’t worried. But, a week before we left for our trip—and when I began the malaria medication—I wasn’t feeling very well. Bernie and I both chalked it up to lack of sleep and nerves about preparing for the trip. But by the time we arrived in Ethiopia, I was feeling worse. During our trip to Aksum, I was so nauseous that I had to lay down in the van we were using to get around during one of our farm trips. On our plane ride back to Addis, it finally happened. I vomited (in one of those handy air flight sickness bags) on the plane. All of the Ethiopians on our trip were sympathetic, thankfully, but mostly because they thought I was pregnant (I’m not, just so you know Mom, Stuart, and Barbara!).

And that wasn’t the last time in Ethiopia. I threw up in a cab (thankfully I’d saved a couple of those handy white bags) on the way to the airport to catch our flight to Nairobi and then again in the airport bathroom.

By then we’d figured out it was the malaria medication and when we arrived in Kenya we went to the chemist (pharmacy) and got a new prescription, which has (fingers crossed) not given me any side effects. Unfortunately, the side effects from the mefloquine lingered and I spent a few miserable nights in the hotel vomiting -- again.

And until yesterday, I thought I’d make it through our whole trip to Tanzania without throwing up at all. But then we got on the ferry from Zanzibar back to Dar es Salaam. Although the ocean looked pretty calm to me, our boat rocked violently for most of the two and a half hour trip. I was fine until the last twenty minutes when I watched several men walk to the bathroom we were sitting next to and heard them throw up. That did it! Yet again I was saved by the air flight sickness bags I had stolen on that first flight in Ethiopia.

So, I’m rooting for you, Uganda! Please be the first country in Africa where I don’t vomit!

After Another Epic 10-Hour Bus Journey from Dar Es Salaam, We've Arrived Back in Arusha, Tanzania

Arusha is a popular gateway for packers arriving to trek Mt. Kilimanjoro (a six or seven day hike, and Africa’s highest peak) or to visit Serengeti National park. But for us, it is also the site of the World Vegetable Center  – who we’ll be meeting with and visiting several of their projects before busing to Kampala, Uganda.

Underneath the throngs of people at the bus terminal trying to scam you into a suspiciously cheap hotel stay or safari – is a small town that is charming, safe, and very friendly.

People are offended if you don’t say hello – or “jambo” – before launching into a question about the direction of such-and-such place…. And when you walk into any home or shop in Tanzania, you are immediately greeted by the word – “Karibu” – or welcome.

And you can’t help but marvel as the beauty of Mt. Meru or the endless forests filled with banana plants and tulip trees.

Our favorite spot for a bite to eat in Arusha – a cute bakery by the clock tower – is called “la patisserie” and has a giant sign outside that says “Hot Bread.”

The owners, a friendly Indian family that live in Arusha, wake up every morning at 5AM, seven days a week, to bake delicious—and very much missed by Bernie—treats like chocolate croissants and countless varieties of bread (Danielle’s favorite is the whole wheat). It is also the site of the only broadband internet café in the town, which makes us both happier than we should be. The coffee and tea they serve is all locally grown and the menu is packed with great vegetarian options.