February 9, 2021
The project to engage women and youth in vegetable production and processing got off to a good start with the participation of government officials, partners, and donors.
His Excellency Gaston Dossouhoui, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MEAP) (left) with the Hon. Dr. Francoise Assogba Komlan, MEAP General Secretary at the SAFEVEG project launch.
Like many people around the world, the residents of West Africa have a worrying deficit in the amount of vegetables they consume.
In Benin, a coastal and well-watered country in the region, the consumption of vegetables hardly reaches 40 kilograms per year per person—far from the annual 73 kilograms recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for people to benefit from the nutrients vegetables contribute to the diet. In Burkina Faso, the situation is even more serious, with annual vegetable consumption at about 22 kilograms.
To address the deficit in the production and consumption of nutritious vegetables in West Africa, the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) officially launched SAFEVEG: Safe locally-produced vegetables for West Africa’s consumers on 5 February 2021 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Cotonou, Benin. Presentations were given at the hotel, where more than 50 people were present, and online to a group of about 40 participants.
The project, funded by the European Union (EU) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to develop and disseminate climate-smart sustainable agricultural and postharvest practices to increase vegetable consumption in urban and peri-urban areas in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
Benin’s Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Gaston Dossouhoui; Ambassador of the Netherlands to Benin, the Hon. To Tjoelker-Kleve; Head of the Delegation of the European Union, the Hon. Sylvia Hartleif; and First Secretary of Food Security and Water of the Netherlands in Benin, Madame Sigrid Meijer, attended the launch.
In their welcoming addresses, the dignitaries highlighted the challenges facing the project in the three countries, namely:
- significant improvements needed in the nutritional quality of diets
- relaunch agribusiness and create a thriving horticultural sector
- create research opportunities for students and other specialists in urban and peri-urban agriculture and food processing
Minister Dossouhoui placed particular emphasis on the importance of urban and peri-urban agriculture, which feeds more than 700 million people around the world. He applauded the international cooperation involved in the development of SAFEVEG and thanked the European Union and the Netherlands for their financial support (€ 11.8 million) of the five-year project. He expressed a wish to see urban and peri-urban agriculture become a full-fledged sector in the three countries and for agro-businesses to become an integral part of the regional economy.
WorldVeg Director General Dr. Marco Wopereis, speaking via videoconference from Taiwan, gave a clear picture of the malnutrition and poor diets prevalent in West Africa, and emphasized the consequences millions of people will face if nothing is done to change the situation. Reversing the trend in the three countries will require restructuring of the horticulture sector to focus on food safety and high added value in vegetable production to create good jobs (especially for women and young people), generate income, and improve diets.
Project partners then described their respective roles in SAFEVEG: Dr. Hamidou Traore, Director, Institute of the Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA), Burkina Faso; Dr. Adboulaye Hamadoun, Director General, Institute of Rural Economy, Mali; Mr. Alexandre Bouniol, CIRAD (France); and Ms. Elisabeth Obeng, Wageningen University (Netherlands).
WorldVeg Regional Director for West and Central Africa – Coastal & Humid Regions, Dr. Victor Afari-Sefa, thanked all for their participation and closed the official launch.
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