Thirty-two nutritious, high yielding, and disease-resistant varieties developed from AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center lines have the potential to extend harvests, increase incomes, and improve health in sub-Saharan Africa.
From disease-resistant tomatoes to nutrient-packed indigenous leafy greens that produce over longer periods, 32 new vegetable varieties developed from AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center lines will diversify food production in sub-Saharan Africa and help farmers and communities become more self-sufficient and less vulnerable to food price shocks.
In early March, the National Variety Release Office in Mali announced the release of 23 improved vegetable varieties developed from AVRDC germplasm. The varieties were published in Volume III of the Catalogue Officiel Des Espèces et Variétiésmaintained by the Seed Laboratory of the National Directorate for Agriculture.
Tanzania’s Horticultural Research and Training Institute (HORTI-Tengeru) and the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) through the National Variety Release Committee released nine AVRDC lines as new varieties in February—bringing to 32 the number of vegetable varieties AVRDC and partners have introduced to Africa in 2011 alone.
“These releases are a major breakthrough in winning the war against malnutrition in Africa,” said Dr. J.D.H. “Dyno” Keatinge, Director General, AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center.
In Tanzania, the new varieties include tomatoes ‘Duluti’ and ‘Tengeru 2010.’ These varieties have resistance to early and late blight diseases, respectively, which limit production in cool wet weather; the new varieties have the potential to bridge the seasonality gap in production by allowing farmers to grow tomato during the off-season. The relatively firm fruit can be transported long distances, presenting opportunities for export.
High in micronutrients such as carotene and vitamin C, calcium and iron, amaranth is an important vegetable in Tanzania and grows in all agroecological zones. It contains lysine, an essential amino acid lacking in diets based on cereals and tubers. Compounds in amaranth enhance human growth and development, improve health, and strengthen immune responses to combat diseases. If used by pregnant women, the folic acid in amaranth reduces the risk of neural defects in their newborns. Most amaranth farmers grow types that are harvested in 2-4 weeks. Two new AVRDC amaranth lines, now named ‘Madiira 1’ and ‘Madiira 2,’ have longer harvesting periods. These high yielders have a good taste and aroma.
Highlights in Mali’s release group include three varieties of okra, ‘Sasilon,’ ‘Batoumambé,’ and ‘Safi’ adapted to grow in the hot dry and cool dry seasons; hot peppers ‘Nafama’ and ‘Nisondia,’ which farmers and consumers ranked as favorites for taste in participatory trials; and ‘Soxna’ and ‘L10,’ high yielding African eggplant with a slightly bitter taste preferred by consumers.
Seed development and multiplication systems in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are hindered by cumbersome procedures, which tend to discourage local seed production and encourage imports. With officially approved releases, local seed enterprises now have incentive to produce and market better quality vegetable seed to farmers.
AVRDC actively supports the public and private seed sector by providing improved lines that accelerate cultivar development, sharing disease-screening protocols, and conducting training in genetic improvement and seed production.
Breeding work on the new lines was carried out under Vegetable Breeding and Seed Systems for Poverty Reduction in Africa (vBSS), a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AVRDC plant breeders in the Regional Center for Africa, Arusha, Tanzania and the Subregional Office for West and Center Africa, Bamako, Mali, conducted the research in concert with colleagues at AVRDC headquarters in Taiwan and partners in national agricultural ministries, NGOs, and other international agricultural research institutes.
Vegetables, especially indigenous vegetables, are vital for good health and a healthy agricultural sector. They are the best source of vitamins, micronutrients, and fiber required by the human body, and add much-needed nutritional diversity to staple-based diets.
In the field, vegetables are less risk-prone to drought than staple crops, as they typically have a shorter growing time; this allows farmers to maximize scarce water supplies and soil nutrients. Growing vegetables is one of the most potent means available for small-scale farmers to generate income on and off the farm. Labor-intensive vegetable production creates jobs and diversifies local cropping systems; it encourages entrepreneurship in marketing fresh produce and processing the harvest, which helps develop rural infrastructure and strengthen local economies.
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