Abstract:

In both countries indigenous vegetables were found to play an important role in both income generation and subsistence production. All the surveys provided evidence that indigenous vegetables offered a significant opportunity for the poorest people to earn a living, as producers and/or traders, without requiring large capital investments. Indigenous vegetables are also a very important commodity for poor households because their prices are relatively affordable compared with other food items. Indigenous vegetables have also provided an important source of employment for those outside the formal sector in peri-urban areas of cities such as Yaounde because of their relatively short, labour intensive production systems, low levels of purchased input use and high yields. During the economic crisis experienced by Cameroon in the late 1980s the production of these vegetables was increasingly targeted as a livelihood strategy as the level of urban unemployment rose.