World vegetable summit with the theme power on your plate was held from 25th-28th January 2021 at Gran Melia Hotel, Arusha Tanzania. The main objective was diversifying food systems with African Traditional Vegetables to increase health, nutrition, and wealth.
Power on your plate was about a call for joining hands for high investment and better policies to promote research, production, and utilization of African Traditional vegetables into Africa’s and global food systems. African traditional vegetables are superfoods enriches with piles of human nutrients therefore they can play a vital role in solving the emerging issues related to malnutrition and long-term poverty alleviation and economic growth.
There is a huge potential in African traditional vegetables that has to be transformed into tangible jobs, nutritional improvement, and production for economic growth. A great gap exists especially on political will to promote and support the research initiatives on African traditional vegetables. Our role as a department is to work on germplasm collection but also seed systems for these important Traditional African Vegetables.
A group photo of members from the Department of Crop Science and Horticulture and the Retired Prime Minister Hon.Mizengo Pinda during the opening of the summit.
“Eat your vegetables, have a positive outlook, be kind to people, and smile”- Dan Buettner
