In Kenya many farmers focus on raising kale, cabbage or spinach to sell locally – or higher earning broccoli and cauliflower – but traditional African vegetables have often been overlooked, not least because seed for them can now be hard to find. However, The Musiega Women Group, in Kenya’s Vihiga County, one of more than 1,200 such cooperatives in western Kenya there is a return to African indigenous vegetables and other crops to curb malnutrition and hunger.
"Many farmers have ignored African indigenous leafy vegetables and yet they are very nutrient-rich, and some of them have medicinal values," said Ruth Khasaya Oniang’o, co-winner of the 2017 African Food Prize. Oniang’o Rural Outreach Programme (ROP), founded in 1992, works to make sure small-scale farmers have access to quality indigenous plants, soil testing and other help they need to grow quality food.
ROP Africa is now working to promote the planting of maize that is water-efficient, drought-tolerant and resistant to insects. Such maize, originally targeted for planting in arid and semi-arid parts of Africa, now is proving useful in normally rainy western Kenya as well as the climate grows more variable. “Our farmers have grown this variety for the past three seasons, and for sure, when other varieties succumb to tough conditions whenever it fails to rain, (it) has remained resilient, and this is a big hope for people in Western Kenya,” Oniang’o said.
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