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African Wild Harvest

Seeds of some traditional food plants grown by one of the rural communities in Kenya participating in the African Wild Harvest project. Photo: R. McBurney.

African Wild Harvest (AWH) started in 2002 following feedback from relief and development organisations and a survey of dryland legumes in Africa undertaken by the Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) project. Both indicated a need for reliable information on the role of wild food plants in nutrition in developing countries.

The aim of AWH is to promote the sustainable utilisation of traditional food plants for diet diversification and improved nutrition in Africa.

There is a concerted international effort by many organisations to collect and conserve germplasm of plant species. Species with actual or potential ‘economic’ uses are high on the list for both in situ and ex situ conservation. For numerous and diverse reasons, the conservation of the technical information (i.e. indigenous knowledge) that ultimately makes these species ‘economic’ has been neglected, and in many cases is on the verge of disappearing. The parallel conservation of germplasm and indigenous knowledge relating to them is key to ensuring that ‘economic’ species remain so.

AWH is working together with the National Museums of Kenya, Kenyan Academics and NGO's to fulfill the needs of partner communities for the conservation and sustainable use of traditional food plants. The pilot phase which is just finishing, involves the conservation of indigenous knowledge. For this we developed a set of minimum standards for the collection of information relating to techniques of seed management, agronomics and food use. this ensures that enough information is collected for the plant to be used sustainably. So far, we have collected (and conserved) indigenoud techniques for 22 plant species. We are, with our community partners, producing farmers'  extension manuals documenting the sue of these plants for food. These manuals will be based on seed management, agronomy, and food use available through the SEPASAL and PROTA projects.

The next stage is to work with the Seed Collection Department, based at RBG KEw and Seeds for Life partners in Kenya to train and facilitate communities in seed management techniques. Then they will be self sufficient in their germpolasm needs. During this stage, community resource centres will be developed around the community seed banks, ensuring free access to both germlasm and the technical skills on its use for food.

AWH contributes to the Millennium Development Goals and Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, through the eradication of poverty and hunger; the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, through in situ and ex situ conservation of germplasm and indigenous knowledge; and the Convention on Biological Diversity through reducing the loss of biodiversity components and the fair and equitable sharing of its benefits. AWH also addresses many of the recommendations for action in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s ‘cross-cutting initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition’.

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