Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) including pumpkin leaves, amaranth and okra – long grown and eaten locally but often overlooked as commercial crops – are gaining new routes to market in Eswatini as farmers, researchers, government and businesses work to build demand and strengthen production.
TAVs are rich in important vitamins and minerals, while many are well adapted to local growing conditions and able to withstand stresses such as heat, drought, pests and diseases. Expanding their production and consumption offers an opportunity to improve diets, diversify farmers’ incomes and build greater resilience into local food production, while helping Eswatini reduce its dependence on imported vegetables.
The national Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) for Traditional African Vegetables is helping turn that potential into practice by connecting farmers with buyers, improving access to seed and production knowledge, and coordinating production around market demand.
Launched in 2025, the platform recently established regional groups in all four regions of Eswatini – Shiselweni, Lubombo, Hhohho and Manzini. Through these groups, farmers can register as members, take part in training, share information about production and contribute to local decision-making. By taking the platform into all regions of the country, the aim is for farmers to grow TAVs with greater confidence that there is a market for what they produce.
The platform was established under Phase II of the Taiwan-Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI), led by WorldVeg and partners, using an approach developed by the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA). It aims to strengthen the commercial potential of TAVs while increasing their consumption as nutritious, locally grown foods.
The platform brings together WorldVeg, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (through PABRA), and key Eswatini government institutions, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, NAMBoard and National Genebank. TAVI Phase II is supported by Taiwan’s ministries of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture.
There are already encouraging signs of commercial potential. Some farmer groups have begun generating consistent monthly income by supplying TAVs to regional buyers, while hotels, catering businesses, restaurants and institutional feeding programmes are being explored as routes to market for emerging producers.
Creating a route from farm to market
Despite their potential, TAVs have remained underutilized and their markets fragmented. Crops such as amaranth, pumpkin leaves, okra and African nightshade have sometimes been regarded as foods of last resort rather than nutritious vegetables with commercial value, while farmers have struggled with access to quality seed, reliable markets and affordable financing.
The MSP is designed to tackle these constraints across the value chain. It brings farmers together with researchers, seed suppliers, processors, retailers, policymakers and other partners so that decisions about what and how much to grow are better connected to what buyers and consumers want.
Digital tools are helping make those connections more practical. Dedicated WhatsApp groups and monitoring dashboards allow farmers and other partners to share information about what is being grown and in what quantities, forecast production volumes, coordinate deliveries and aggregate produce from different farming communities.
The platform is also focusing attention on crops with particular market potential. For example, pumpkin leaves are already attracting strong demand, while amaranth is valued for its nutritional value. Okra offers another potential higher-value market but requires careful harvesting and consistent quality to meet buyers’ requirements.
Building demand as well as supply
The approach aims to better connect production with market demand. By bringing farmers together with buyers and other actors across the value chain, the platform can help coordinate what is produced and strengthen routes to market.
Building demand means identifying markets that farmers can realistically supply. Rather than immediately targeting large supermarket chains, the MSP is exploring hotels, restaurants, catering businesses and institutional feeding programmes, including school meals, as potentially more accessible markets for emerging producers. This gradual approach allows farmers to establish reliable supply relationships and build experience before attempting to meet the volume and quality requirements of larger retailers.
Early experiences suggest this can translate into income. Some farmer groups are already earning regular monthly income from supplying regional buyers, providing an indication of what stronger coordination between production and markets could achieve.
At the same time, TAVI is working to build consumer demand through cooking demonstrations, nutrition campaigns and community outreach highlighting the nutritional value of TAVs. Farmers are encouraged to consume some of what they grow as well as sell it, while training in harvesting, handling and preparation techniques aims to preserve important nutrients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc and improve product quality for consumers.
By linking production with nutrition, seed systems and markets, the approach aims to make TAVs a more regular part of both Eswatini’s farms and its food economy – giving farmers more opportunities to earn from crops that have long been grown locally while making nutritious vegetables more widely available.
Taiwan-Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) Phase II is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan. Its work connects to the WorldVeg Action Areas on Vegetable Biodiversity and Healthy Diets in the WorldVeg Global Strategy 2026-2033. (Download｜Flipbook)
