The Nation story on Prof Mary Abukutsa-Onyango being crowned with the prestigious 2025 Africa Food Prize in Dakar Senegal brings to life media’s significance in telling the African tale of support for indigenous foods.
The September 9 story titled, ‘Kenya researcher wins 2025 Africa Food Prize in Dakar,’ explained the professor of horticulture and food security’s journey researching on African indigenous vegetables, positioning their role in food and nutrition security amid modern lifestyle diseases and climate change challenges.
“For over three decades, Prof Abukutsa-Onyango has championed vegetables, once dismissed as poor man’s food, proving their immense nutritional value and resilience,” the Nation reported.
She was conferred with the prestigious award along with Nigeria’s Dr Mercy Diebiru- Ojo, a seed breeder.
The media reported former Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, the chair of the prize committee, stating that Prof Abukutsa-Onyango’s lifelong dedication has transformed public perception of indigenous vegetables while improving farmer livelihoods and food systems across Africa.
Remarking during the event that the recognition would help people to view traditional vegetables as a gold mine for Africa and the world, she revealed her next vision as establishing African centres of knowledge in various countries to document and revive indigenous vegetables for food and nutritional security.
Prof Abukutsa- Onyango’s food and nutritional security research, which has led to identification of indigenous foods, is a great opportunity for journalists focusing on food, science and technology development to highlight the agribusiness opportunities within the indigenous food systems.
The awareness on the high nutrients level in the African indigenous foods including herbs, and their documentation, has reduced the ignorance about African indigenous foods, and modern generations are realising the health price they have been paying for discarding them.
The media should support researchers with information dissemination on breeding of indigenous foods, and where they are ideal for planting. Consequently, this will help to spread the right information to audiences regarding Africa’s rich food sources and their ability to provide nutrients to control and prevent diseases.
In addition, the preservation of this knowledge will help the next generations to pick up the values of Africa feeding habits, and to identify the dignity of Africans in their food sufficiency within their environment.
The science of indigenous foods preservation would encourage environmental and ecosystems conservation, contributing to climate change interventions. Journalists would find it quite intriguing, integrating these factors within the scope of food security systems. Other areas should be on indigenous food value addition, food processing and marketing, including export.
