The old ones are the best

During lunch time in Harare, expensive vehicles flock around make-shift food outlets. The main attraction - indigenous vegetable dishes served with sadza (a staple made from maize or millet flour). Although some people still queue for burgers, chips and pizza at modern food outlets, many prefer traditional vegetable dishes. For some urban dwellers, indigenous vegetables remind them of their rural childhood. Even some of the big hotels now provide dishes with indigenous vegetables.

Rural to urban migration (and other factors) has seen eating habits, indigenous crops and farming systems that were commonplace in rural areas, influence those in towns and cities. As a result, indigenous vegetable production has become a more integral part of urban agriculture.

Vegetables are an important part of the Zimbabwean diet. There are approximately 25 different species of African vegetables in Zimbabwe of which about 10 are frequently cultivated while others occur naturally. These crops have undergone some selective pressure, but have not benefited from research, so there are no uniform varieties. This is a major concern for both farmers and traders.

The following table lists some of the traditional vegetables found in Zimbabwe's urban areas:

Vegetables and food security

Surveys carried out in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare by the Horticulture Research Centre confirmed the increasing role of indigenous vegetables in food security and income generation. They do not require large capital investment and production systems are short and labour intensive. And because they are affordable, vegetables are also an important source of nutrition for poor urban families.

Most farmers only use inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides on their main crops for example, maize, and not on traditional crops. They also retain their own seed for most if not all of the traditional vegetables they grow.

Most producers undertake some processing and storage - a task usually done by women - and surveys have revealed that there is an increasing demand for dried and ground vegetables in urban centres. The most common processing method is blanching in boiling water and then sun and/or air-drying. However, the quality of the dried products, particularly of leafy vegetables, is compromised by poor drying conditions, poor hygiene and inadequate storage conditions, and the end product is vulnerable to insect and fungal attack.

Research

Recently, NGOs and the research community have begun to investigate urban farming as a source of livelihood. One such initiative in Zimbabwe was the project, 'Improving the livelihoods of peri-urban vegetable growers through market promotion of fresh and processed indigenous vegetables'. It targeted farmers, processors and traders of traditional vegetables in and around Zimbabwe's major cities and investigated quality and marketing issues.

A series of surveys revealed that indigenous vegetables provide a source of leafy vegetables from August to December - a period of scarcity. However, demand is outstripping supply. It also found that trade of indigenous vegetables has spread to higher income groups and retail outlets, including supermarkets. The surveys highlighted constraints in cultivation and trading, related to lack of seed, low productivity, high perishability and poor quality of processed products (mostly dried leaves).

As a result of the surveys' findings, improvement programmes on cowpea, bottle gourd, Corchorus and Cleome (spider plant) were launched. On-station trials on Corchorus and Cleome focussed on plant establishment, leaf harvesting methods and yield. It emerged that planting out seedlings (rather than broadcasting seed) could increase yields for Corchorus (nine-fold) and Cleome (two-fold). Transplanting also significantly increased seed yields, while harvesting by completely removing the whole plant stand above the second node, rather than harvesting the tips, increased leaf yield (three-fold) and seed yield (seven-fold). Post-harvest handling research of bottle gourd showed that cold storage maintained fruit quality better than polymer coating and that harvesting 15 days after fruit set produced the best quality gourds.

The project has been working with the Crop Breeding Institute of the Department of Research and Extension to develop dual-purpose varieties of cowpeas that produce both beans and leaves for consumption. Some work has also been related to nutritional analyses of the leaves where an evaluation has revealed that economic returns are greater when harvesting both beans and leaves (fresh and dried) particularly for newly developed 'dual purpose' varieties. Several organisations are currently adapting solar drying technology to produce dried leafy vegetables. Training programmes have also been developed and implemented. Two dryers have been built and set up for demonstration programmes in Harare and Bulawayo, working with groups of local farmers/processors. Work with indigenous vegetable production in urban areas therefore continues. With the recognition of improved food security and better nutrition, and the advent of improved production and processing technologies, the benefits of indigenous vegetables are now more attainable.

Article submitted by Charles Dhewa, Information Officer, Crop Post Harvest Programme - Southern Africa.
CPHP is funded by DFID.