International Plant Health Day: African Leafy Vegetables and a Kenyan Biosytems Engineer.

Image credit: envato elements

Author: Alvin Wandabwa

“For bitter or for worse”, the vows African mothers took before feeding us all sorts of traditional vegetables such as managu, terere, sagaa or the many cultural names you had for them. It was always an interesting ordeal at the dinner table when your parents or guardian would insist on you eating these vegetables whereas you would be more inclined to every other option on the plate.

Photo credit:The Mawazo Institute

This International Day of Plant Health under the theme:  Plant health, Safe trade & Digital Technology, we would like to celebrate the efforts of 2021 Mawazo Fellow, Dorcas Bernard on her efforts to increase production of African Leafy Vegetable’s (ALVs) through her study of the use of Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP) in the irrigation of ALVs in greenhouse conditions.

With the passing of time there appears to be a shift in perspective. The nutritional value of African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs) is now more appreciated and in 2022 joined the list of 210 protected vegetables by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). According to the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture ALVs are also able to sustain small farmer’s livelihoods as they have proven to be low-input, pest resistant and climate resilient.

This is rather contrary to the previously held beliefs where ALVs  were associated with low income households.  As shared by the African Food Fellowship, there is a historical and colonial context here. Vegetables introduced by the colonial powers were seen as more refined cuisine and therefore fetched a greater price. Indigenous vegetables were confined to a less refined cuisine and quickly fell out of favor with Kenyans.

Comic Panel by The Mawazo Institute

Dorcas is a biosystems engineer at The University Of Nairobi  who has consulted widely on various projects on water resources and irrigation. Her proposal of modern farming methods to increase the yield of ALVs is a huge contributor in the ways we can take action to keep our plants healthy and ensure food safety and safe trade for sustainable economies and livelihoods.

According to Dorcas the data on irrigation water requirements and irrigation scheduling for ALVs is still scanty, leading her to test cowpeas (kunde) and African nightshade(Osuga). Through varied applications of SAPs and varying irrigation intervals on a sample of these ALVs she was able to confirm that her method resulted in higher yield for these crops.

In light of the past year’s drought and various climatic conditions that still threaten our food security. African governments need to make a #planthealth commitment to indigenous vegetables, and apply modern farming techniques recommended by knowledgeable researchers such as Dorcas in furthering their preservation and nurturing!

References.

Dorcas Ndunge Benard, J. P. O. Obiero, D. O. Mbuge, "Contribution of Superabsorbent Polymers to Growth and Yield of African Leafy Vegetables", Advances in Agriculture, vol. 2022, Article ID 8020938, 8 pages, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8020938

https://alliancebioversityciat.org/stories/traditional-vegetables-recognized-unesco-kenya