Traditional African vegetables have recently received considerable attention for their contribution to food and nutrition security and opportunities for enhancing smallholder livelihoods. Promoting the production and consumption of traditional vegetables is expected to enhance household nutrition among urban and rural households. The Good Seed Initiative (GSI) program promoted production and consumption of nutrient-dense traditional African vegetables in Arusha region in Tanzania to reduce malnutrition through diet diversification. We estimated the impact of promotion activities on households, women, and children's dietary diversity. The study used cross-sectional data from 258 and 242 households in intervention and control regions, respectively, and applied matching techniques and inverse probability weighting to control for unobserved heterogeneity and selection bias, which could otherwise bias the outcome estimates. We found that households benefiting from traditional vegetable promotion and demand creation activities had significantly higher dietary diversity of children under 5 yr and women in reproductive age. We found no significant impact of promotion activities on households’ dietary diversity. The policy implication is that scaling up promotional and demand creation activities to encourage consumers to grow and eat traditional African vegetables would be an important element in initiatives to increase dietary diversity, particularly for children under 5 and women in Tanzania.

African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) have potential to sustainably address malnutrition, a growing problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Their consumption is however, limited by poor perceptions and lack of awareness of nutritional benefits. There is limited evidence of the effectiveness of community-focused information dissemination approaches in influencing participants' perceptions and uptake of innovations in AIVs to address malnutrition. This article aims to fill this knowledge gap, using a case study focusing on pastoral communities in Monduli district in northern Tanzania. Target communities participated in a communitybased nutritional outreach facilitated by the Good Seed Initiative (GSI), held at Monduli district hospital in September 2014. The results provide evidence of the achievements of the GSI intervention, and the effectiveness of alternative information dissemination approaches.

Background Quality seed is at the core of the technological packages needed to increase crop production, nutrition, and rural wellbeing. However, smallholder farmers in Tanzania have limited access to affordable quality seeds, and over 90% of seed sown is saved by farmers from previous harvests, though its quality is often poor. The Good Seed Initiative (GSI) aimed to enhance access to quality African indigenous vegetable (AIV) seed in Tanzania, through the promotion of farmer seed production, using two models—contract farming and Quality Declared Seed (QDS). This study assessed post-GSI project sustainability factors and explored the prospects for replicating the approach in a wider regional context. Methods The study was conducted in Arusha and Dodoma, targeting locations where the GSI project was implemented. Qualitative tools employing focus group discussions (73 men, 69 women), and key informant interviews were used for data collection. Results Farmer seed production under both models continued to thrive, creating avenues for income diversification and contributing over 50% to household incomes. Farmer seed production contributed to increased availability of quality seed for vegetable growers, especially in central Tanzania that is less served by the formal sector. However, QDS production was challenged by a lack of access to foundation seed, inspections, and seed testing services, which are key for quality seed production. Conclusions Results reveal unequivocally that farmer seed production offers a potentially sustainable solution to the problem of seed supply while providing income benefits for seed producers. The market-based approach used by the project and partnerships with the formal sector, coupled with stimulation of demand through nutritional awareness campaigns, were strong contributory factors to the survival of farmer seed production. Farmer-led seed systems, especially QDS, deserve support from the government to develop a tailored and appropriate seed system that meets the ever-evolving needs of smallholder farmers. Adoption gender-inclusive approaches, particularly in contract farming is paramount to benefit women as much as men.

SUMMARYRecent years have seen increasing political interest and growing public health awareness and advocacy for diversifying diets into highly nutritious traditional vegetables, fruits and other nutrition-sensitive crops as a more viable approach to mitigate the growing scourge of malnutrition due to unhealthy and imbalanced diets. These foods contribute essential micronutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, and other health-related phytochemicals to staple-based diets and their consumption is crucial for the attainment of several Millennium Development Goals. Despite their nutritional benefits and the high farm gate values per unit of land, the production and marketing of traditional vegetables from Tanzania and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa are constrained by factors such as poor quality seeds, lack of appropriate market information and support systems, and lack of consumer awareness of their nutritional importance. This paper investigates the determinants and pathways for smallholder participation in traditional African vegetable production and identifies entry points for farmers to increase traditional vegetable production by linking nutritional awareness and promotion with potential high value markets. A primary survey of 181 traditional vegetable growers from five regions of Tanzania indicates that perceptions about the nutritional value of traditional African vegetables are a main driver of household production decisions in the sector. The results of this study provide evidence that farmers tend to grow more African traditional vegetables as compared to other crops based on their increased level of perception towards nutritional value of traditional vegetables along with other factors such as their market value, timely availability of quality certified seeds, willingness to invest in labour, required training for women and better access to credits. Farm size negatively affects growing traditional vegetables, implying that on a comparative basis, smallholders tend to grow more traditional vegetables than larger-farm operators. Thus, more attention should be given to reducing production and its associated transaction costs by ensuring timely access to quality certified seeds, ensuring optimal use of inputs and increasing labour productivity, particularly for smallholders.

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