The World Vegetable Center has collected and stored 6,000 vegetable germplasm at its state-of-the-art facility in Arusha. The seeds comprise of more than 100 species of vegetables such as Egg plants and Solanum nigrum.
Taking journalists on a tour of the World Vegetable Center, Eastern and Southern Africa, a scientist in charge with Traditional Vegetables Conservation and Utilizatuon at the centre, Dr Sognigbe N’Danikou underscored the facility’s role in supporting better income and healthier diets for Tanzanians.
“This is a global key collection point of traditional African vegetable seeds where collection and conservation work is done in collaboration with national partners who maintain duplicate collections”, said the scientist. This is in a bid to alleviate poverty and malnutrition in the developing world through the increased production and consumption of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables, according to Dr N’Danikou.
“Nearly half a ton of Vegetbale seeds is collected at the center every year which eventually leads to led to the release of hundreds of varieties”, he observed.
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