**7. Participation of different stakeholder of TAV**

### **7.1 Farmers and traders**

The global market of vegetables is still predominantly local because only about 5% of vegetables grown worldwide are marketed internationally [50] (Sumalan et al., 2021). According to Sumalan et al. [50] "the total volume of exports of vegetables reached at 47 million tonnes with a value of 42.3 billion US\$ in 2018." In the same year, 64% of total vegetable exports were contributed by Netherlands (6.1 million tonnes), Mexico (5.8 million tonnes), Spain (5.1 million tonnes), China (4.3 million tonnes), France (3.5 million tonnes), Germany (2.7 million tonnes) and the United States (2.4 million tonnes). It was noted the exports were increasing at an average annual rate of 1.7%. Vegetable imports have also kept upward trend due the emergency of some countries with high vegetable requirements. In Tanzania, the Traditional African vegetables are mainly produced for subsistence and few for cash. The study carried out in northern and central part of Tanzania to investigate participation of farmers and traders in relation to gender in vegetable production and trading, found farmers reporting more balanced intra-household labour arrangements paired with less-balanced income and expenditure shares, while traders indicated less-balanced labour contributions which went hand in hand with more balanced shares of benefits [51]. The participation of farmers and traders in vegetables shows opportunities to farmers who benefit from trade by selling surplus produce and purchasing needed goods and services [52]. Benefits and challenges to market participation faced by vegetable farmers include lack of information about the markets and high transportation and transaction costs, among others, which do not allow traditional vegetable farmers to efficiently participate in markets [52]. African traditional vegetables if given interest can offer an important entry point which provides an important economic pillar upon which women's livelihood can be supported to improve welfare in rural areas.

### **7.2 Consumers**

Consumers in many parts of the world derive a major portion of their diets from vegetables of which 70% are sold as fresh (unprocessed) hortcultural products [50]. Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) are an affordable and relatively inexpensive source of vitamins, essential minerals, dietary fibber, and various phytochemicals which have a role in reduction of malnutrition, stunting growth and poor health among consumers in different areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, these vegetables are often neglected and underutilized. The food basket regions of Tanzania lack of dietary diversity which is key factor causing hidden hunger in because the population consumes mostly maize. Women and children can use the traditional African vegetables to get an excellent means to complement maize for better nutrition. In order to increase consumption of traditional African vegetables, there is a significant role to be played in order to promote attitudes of consumers towards increasing the amounts of TAVs in their diets.

#### **7.3 Research institutes and seed banks**

The Traditional vegetables have received low priority of research and production, poor seed distribution and availability, and lack of awareness on their values (URT 2015). Researches on TAV in Tanzanian context are mainly in the fields of food and nutrition potential [19, 20, 37, 53], livelihood [14, 25, 35, 48], diversity and conservation [30, 31, 54], environmental conservation and resilience [37]. The work of institutions such as AVRD and affiliates in collaboration with stakeholders such as Universities, TARI, farmers and consumers must not go unnoticed, collection of germplasms of traditional vegetables [37] (Dinssa et al., 2016) is important for conservation and establishment of seed systems and marketing of TAV [16, 48] is vital for commercialization. This looks the same as other most of Sub Saharan African countries which have not prioritized these TAVs in their crop research, training and development programs. There are innovative ways required for conducting researches on TAV' varieties and promotion through posters, campaigns and other online and printed publications. Increased research and production of TAVs will offer multiple economic opportunities, reduce unemployment and poverty.

The gene bank is a reservoir of biodiversity that acts as a source of genes which are used in breeding programs [50]. The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) genebank of traditional African vegetables currently has 2500 accessions which originated from germ-plasm-collecting mission with national partners across Africa in early 2000s [55]. This genebank conserves, screens and distributes the germplasm to support plant breeding to agricultural research institutes and seed companies. Between 2013 and 2017, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda received 42,514 seed kits (containing an average of four seed samples of different vegetable crops and varieties) and 183,193 seed samples from WorldVeg [55]. The genebank offers a huge diversity and variability of vegetables to researcher for breeding and genetic modifications.

### **8. Conclusion**

Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) are among the horticultural crops whose natural habitat originated in Africa. The prospect of TAVs lies on the effort of researchers to revive the once perceived as an important group of food for cultural identity of rural communities which in turn were utilized, conserved and the knowledge passed from one generation to another. Several studies have shown that TAVs have high market potential and can contribute substantially to food and nutrition security, and climate change adaptation. Their production in Tanzania has the potential to be highly profitable, provide employment opportunities and generate income. There are number of challenges that hinder the production of the traditional vegetable in Tanzania including but not limited to high perishability; unavailability of quality seeds; high price and post-harvest losses, and lack of will-structured and organized market linkages. The traditional vegetables constitute a valuable genetic pool of gene diversity, which can be exploited both in breeding programs for obtaining new commercial varieties with targeted traits. Thus, more effort should be kept in characterization of existing TAV germplasms both morphologically and genotypically so as to first understand the extent of genetic diversity existing within the species but also to exploit genetic potentials of these species especially wild relatives so as to maximize production. Emphasize must also be on the marketing of TAV in order to elevate the livelihoods of rural families that grows these species. To realize

*Perspective Chapter: Traditional African Vegetables Agrobiodiversity – Livelihood Utilization… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109070*

the potential of TAVs, the value chain actors must improve the competitiveness of their vegetable production and marketing commodities to increase market share and profits.
