On Monday 5 and Tuesday 6, August 2024, the stakeholders’ consultation workshop for the BOLDER Initiative (Building Opportunity for Lesser-known Diversity in Edible Resources) was held at the Nobila Airport Hotel in Cotonou, marking an important milestone in the promotion of opportunity crops (also known as orphan crops) in the Republic of Benin.
The first day was marked by the presentation of the BOLDER project (Building Opportunities for Lesser-known Diversity in Edible Resources) by Dr. Nora P. Castaneda-Alvarez, Scientific Project Coordinator at Crop Trust. This was followed by the presentation of the workshop objectives by Dr. Tchamba Albert from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). This ambitious project, which brought together producers, processors, consumers, scientists, academics, policy-makers, genebank managers, and the media, aims to improve the nutritional security of vulnerable populations in West and East Africa.
Prof. Enoch Achigan-Dako, Dr Dèdéou Tchokponhoué, and Prof. Nadia Fanou also gave some talks on the “Contribution of crop diversity to the plan to transform the country’s food system”, “Work in progress in Benin on the conservation of neglected-underutilized crops”, and “Work in progress in Benin on promoting the consumption and use of neglected-underutilized crops” respectively. From the three talks, it became clear that (i) there is a paradigm shift in opportunity crops, (ii) there are four major poles of conservation of the opportunity crops, (iii) there is a need to improve the connection between gene banks and end-users, (iv) the opportunity crops have the ability to improve consumer composition tables.
On the second day, the different stakeholders work in groups to select the four major crops on which the BOLDER will focus on in the Republic of Benin in the coming years.
This consultation workshop represents a significant step forward in promoting the opportunity crops in Benin. Prof. Enoch Achigan-Dako thanks Crop Trust for the BOLDER project and congratulates all participants on their participation and dedication during the workshop.
