Conserve and screen premium value indigenous plant biodiversity and products on women smallholder farming systems of East Africa

Abstract

Various interventions for promoting the premium value of indigenous plants (IPs) are being adopted to enhance their status in the food sub sector. The project aims to enhance women smallholder farmers’ capacity in target Lake Victoria Basin sites of Kenya and Uganda, to conserve and promote premium indigenous plant biodiversity for value added processes, and provide a basis for policy formulation on promoting IPs with a potential market value. The project involves mapping IPs in relation to land-use types, and characterization of physicochemical and nutraceutical attributes of screened IPs. The study involves a survey; rural participatory appraisal; focused group discussions; laboratory methods viz.: Near Infrared Reflectance spectroscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy, as rapid techniques for screening the IP germplasm and soil samples; and high performance liquid chromatography and UV spectroscopy reserved for establishing the nutraceutical value of the screened IPs.