AFRICAN INDIGENOUS VEGETABLES INSTITUTE

Overview

The African Indigenous Vegetables Institute (AIVI) is an interdisciplinary academic institute at MUAST dedicated to promoting the sustainable production, consumption, and industrial use of African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) and other traditional crops for food and feed in Zimbabwe. The institute collaborates with various faculties, related directorates, and external partners to address issues associated with AIVs. AIVI focuses on a variety of AIVs, including but not limited to the spider plant (nyevhe/ulude), amaranth (mowa/imbuya), black jack (mutsine/umhlavangubo), African eggplant, black nightshade, okra (derere/idelele), and cowpea (munyemba/dinawe). In addition to indigenous vegetables, the institute also emphasizes traditional crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, chickpeas, groundnuts, Bambara groundnuts, and pigeon peas. This work contributes to the enhancement of local agricultural practices and aims to improve food security

Vision

To become the leading institute of research, innovation, and commercialization of AIVs and AIV-based technologies in Zimbabwe and the region.

Functions of AIVI

• Advance innovative research in AIVs through research fellows, as well as Master’s and Doctoral students.
• Foster sustainable production of AIVs at both community and commercial levels.
• Offer expert technical guidance on AIV production to communal and commercial farmers.
• Enhance per capita consumption of AIVs through initiatives focused on value addition and commercialization.

Units in our Institute

• Plant Breeding and Seed Systems Unit

  The overall objective of this work package is to collect, characterise, develop, evaluate and release improved varieties of AIVs and traditional grains for commercial use in Zimbabwe.

• Agronomy Unit

  The overall objective is to develop optimal agronomic practices for the sustainable production of high-quality leaves and seeds from selected AIVs. This aims to enhance food and feed security and improve nutrition in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas of Zimbabwe. Specifically, this work package focuses on developing fertilizer recommendations to maximize leaf and seed yield and quality of these selected AIVs.

• Crop protection

  The overall objective of this work package is to identify weeds, arthropod pests and diseases associated with indigenous vegetables and to develop environmentally friendly biological, chemical and cultural management options against them.

• Value addition and processing

  This work package is aimed at value addition and development of new and innovative AIVs based food and feed products in order to promote the industrialization and commercialization of AIVs and to increase their acceptance and consumption.

• Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship

  The main objective of this work package is to establish appropriate business model(s) for promoting the indigenous vegetables value chain in a sustainable manner.