This study documents the impact of a gender-sensitive home garden project initiated to mitigate the food and nutritional insecurity of 114 households in seven Mbororo communities in Cameroon’s Northwest region. Key lessons learned regarding the empowerment of the Mbororo women; socio-economic and nutritional health benefits derived by Mbororo households from the cultivation of nutrient-rich, high market-value, and indigenous vegetables; and challenges faced during the project lifecycle are outlined. It is envisaged these lessons will support public, private, and civil society actors initiating similar home garden projects to address the food and nutrition insecurity of other minority groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 20% of plant species assessed are threatened with extinction. Most of these plants have food security implications, especially in developing countries. Traditional seeds and cutting propagation techniques cannot counter the loss rate, and tissue culture provides a fast alternative to conventional propagation techniques. However, tissue culture has been considered too expensive for developing countries negatively impacted by food insecurity. A gelling agent is the costliest media component in plant tissue culture. This study aims to assess different gelling agents to find suitable ones with low cost and acceptable gelling properties for developing countries, especially in rural areas. Plantain explants were propagated on 16 starch-based substrates to evaluate their suitability as tissue culture gelling agents. This study compared the cost of various substrates and their gelling properties, such as clarity, toxicity, and texture, with agar as a reference gelling agent. Some substrates, such as xanthan, had good gelling properties, but their cost was too high (5.98 Euro L −1 ) to be considered low-cost. Other substrates, such as cassava starch, did not have suitable gelling properties; however, the cost was low (0.99 Euro L −1 ). Two of the substrates, mung bean and Isabgol, had suitable gelling properties and cost less than one euro. Therefore, smallholder banana and plantain farmers in resource-poor countries can undertake tissue culture operations with mung bean and Isabgol as gelling agents with minimum cost.

Purpose Limited data are available in facilitating nutritional interventions in developing countries. The objective of this study is to assess the mean dietary diversity score (DDS)of Mbororo minority women in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Design/methodology/approach The study used the random sampling technique within the Mbororo minority communities (Adorates). A questionnaire on dietary diversity, including 461 Mbororo women, provided information on food consumed using the 24-h dietary recall method. Findings Various socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the Mbororo women affected the nutrient level of their diet. Moreover, starchy staples, vitamin-A rich vegetables and palm oil and milk and milk products were consumed by more than half of the Mbororo community. Family herd size showed a positive influence on the dietary habit of the Mbororo population. The mean DDS significantly increased (p = 0.001), as herd size increased from below 50 (3.9 ± 1.1) to above 100 (4.8 ± 1.2). Practical implications Most of the diet consumed by the Mbororo women were low in iron, making them susceptible to nutrition anemia. The diet of the Aku women was more deficient in micronutrients than their Jaafun counterpart. These results indicate suitable areas of intervention for any nutrition program that targets the Mbororo minority group of Northwest Cameron. Social implications DDS can be used in assessing and classifying the population in rural communities according to the deficiencies in micronutrients of their diet. Originality/value The use of DDS to assess the nutrient quality of diets is frequently used to evaluate the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies but has never been applied to Mbororo minority women.

Increasing population pressure, coupled with the effects of climate change manifested by longer dry seasons, wildfires, and conflicts, threatens the food systems of minority communities. In the case of the Mbororo minority community of Northwest Region of Cameroon, these threats are exacerbated by already existing problems of marginalisation. This study assesses agricultural risks in the global context of food distribution and gross domestic product that also poses a specific threat to the food system of the Mbororo people. The study aims to (1) assess the types of agricultural risk encountered by the Mbororo community, (2) examine the likelihood and severity of these risks, and (3) appraise local risk management strategies adopted to minimise the negative impacts of these risks on the food system. The study makes use of a mixed method approach for data collection. Findings have revealed animal diseases (83 %), absence of infrastructures (83.6 %), price variation (76.6 %), and drought (75.8 %) as the most encountered risks in the case study area. Especially, drought, political insecurity, pest and rodent, farmer-grazer conflict, and crop and animal diseases emerged as the highest intensity or priority risks with the need for urgent management strategies intervention. Agricultural risk assessment is frequently used to assess and prioritize risks but has hardly been used in the case of minority groups such as the Mbororo community of Northwest Cameroon.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, indigenous vegetables are being threatened by the cultivation and marketing of vegetables with higher market value such as leeks, celery and carrots. Moreover, most farmers in developing countries are switching toward mono-cropping production systems to meet the growing global demand for high-value vegetables as, for example, chili pepper in Sub-Saharan Africa countries such as Cameroon. In this region, unfortunately, staple crops but not indigenous vegetables are promoted to fight food insecurity. However, Bioversity International and the International Fund for Agricultural Development have been working on the promotion of indigenous, underutilized crops in South America. Based on their results, we initiated a home garden project in 2017 in the Northwest region of Cameroon as a case study region for Sub-Saharan Africa. The specific project aim was to improve the nutrition and income of the indigenous Mbororo women in seven communities, involving 114 women as beneficiaries. The project gardens included three groups of vegetables: Nutrient-rich (e.g. amaranth), high-value (e.g. chili-pepper) and indigenous (e.g. jute mallow). Interviewing the Mbororo woman during the three years of working with the project gardens showed that indigenous vegetables were clearly the preferred food choice and enhanced their nutrition security. However, the limiting factor was the availability of seeds in sufficient quantities and at specific qualities to meet the project demand. The availability of seeds is an important precondition for the cultivation of indigenous vegetable species. The results of this project are helping to promote diversity of indigenous vegetables with high nutritional quality and potential health benefits towards farmers of rural areas and, thereby, may help to establish a well-balanced diet and food security.

Malnutrition is a severe public health as it leads to increase mortality and morbidity. The cheapest intervention used to improve nutritional intake and outcome has been food-based approaches like home gardening, bio-fortification, and keeping of small animals. The project, “Eco-sustainable Gardens Empowering Mbororo Minority Women” is a home garden project in the North West region of Cameroon designed using the concepts of nutritionsensitive agriculture. Though these home gardens grow vegetables rich in micronutrients such as iron and vitamin A, they most often do not often translate into the micronutrients of the beneficiaries. Iron deficiency anemia has several consequences on the immune and mental function, as well as general wellbeing of every individual. Women, in particular, have increased iron demands due to menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation. This study aimed at assessing if the home garden project “Eco-sustainable Gardens Empowering Mbororo Minority Women” had an effect on anemia amongst the beneficiaries. A case-control study design was used in the study to assess nutritional anemia amongst mbororo women with similar socio-economic characteristics. Hemoglobin levels of Mbororo women in the home garden project community ongoing for two years versus those without the home garden were measured (using a Urit 12 hemoglobinometer) to depict iron deficiency anemia and values compared. There was no significant difference between hemoglobin levels of the Mbororo women with the home gardens and those without. Both communities were anemic. Although home gardens address the problem of food insecurity, other sources of micronutrients such as animal sources and supplements should be considered in these communities.