Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) form a significant component of many families' diets in Tanzania. Traditional African Vegetables contribute to reduction of malnutrition, stunting and poor health among consumers by providing vitamins and essential minerals in family diets. However, the consumption of vegetables is still below the per capita per day intake level recommended by World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization, causing millions of deaths annually due to nutrientdeficiency related diseases. This study examined the factors that influence the nutrition knowledge, frequency intake and farming households' attitudes towards consumption of traditional vegetables. The Standard Poison and the Generalized Poison models were used for analysis. Factor analysis was used to assess the attitudes towards TAVs consumption. Data were collected from randomly selected 63 households in Arumeru District of Tanzania in the months of July to November 2015. Generalized Poison model results showed that gender of the respondent, years of schooling, age of the respondent, household size and TAVs farm size influenced farmers' nutrition knowledge. Frequency intake of TAVs is influenced by the farmers' age, annual household income, household size, TAVs farm size and market price of TAVs. Factor analysis results indicated that medicinal properties of traditional vegetables positively influenced farmers' intake of vegetables. The "health factor" accounted for 31.4% of the total variance in the principal components analysis. 'Personal perception factor' accounted for 13.79% whereas 'personal taste factor' accounted for 12.71% of the total variance. It was concluded that rural farming households consume traditional vegetables majorly because of their health attributes. Thus, there is need to improve medicinal and nutritional knowledge of these crops among households. These findings imply that consumption of TAVs can be enhanced by educating households on nutrition importance and medicinal attributes of TAVs. Besides, farmers need training on simple but user-friendly technologies that could prolong storage and preserve freshness as well as nutritional contents of traditional vegetables.

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This study assessed how socioeconomic and attitudinal factors affect adoption of Non-Transgenic Soybean in Zambia. The study used quantitative primary data collected from 160 smallholder farming households in Chipata district. The Double Hurdle model was used to analyse both the factors determining adoption and the extent of adoption, while factor analysis was used to identify latent dimensions underlying the different variables that measured respondents' attitudes towards Non-Transgenic soybean adoption and production. Parametric results showed that the decision to adopt Non-Transgenic soybean was affected by the age of the farmer, household size, livestock ownership and access to agricultural extension services of the households. Results further showed that the decision on the extent of adoption was largely influenced by presence of off-farm income, land size, livestock ownership, and access to credit services, gender and the marital status of the respondent. Further, Factor analysis results pointed out that the key attitudes were related to improved seed access, output pricing and marketing, as well as gender mainstreaming issues during promotion of production, marketing and consumption of soybean. The study concluded that Non-Transgenic Soybean adoption in Zambia is low despite the numerous socioeconomic prospects of the crop. The study further established that farmer attitudes towards the crop are negative. Hence there is minimal contribution of the crop to poverty alleviation and malnutrition. Ziko Kahenge ABOUT THE AUTHORS Ziko Kahenge is a Senior Agriculture Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Zambia. His research interest includes themes on agriculture extension and technology adoption.

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Indigenous and traditional African vegetables are receiving increasing attention because of their potential to contribute to food and nutritional security as well as enhance livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. Traditional African vegetables are important sources of nutrients like iron and calcium and also vitamins A, B complex, C, and E. The consumption of vegetables in sub-Saharan Africa, however, falls way below the recommended levels by the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization. This situation has led to micronutrient deficiencies and widespread nutritional disorders among the low-income and food insecure populations. This study explored the factors that determine the nutritional knowledge, frequency of intake, and attitudes of traders towards consumption of traditional African vegetables. Data were collected from 65 purposively selected households of traders in Manyire, Embaseny, and Bangata markets in Arumeru District of Tanzania from July to November 2015. Generalized Poisson and factor analysis were used in the analysis of data. The results showed that education, age, and annual income influenced traders' nutritional knowledge. The consumption of traditional African vegetables was influenced by education, household size, occupation, nutritional value, and preparation time. Factor analysis results indicated that knowledge of health benefits, taste, preparation time, and perception influenced consumption of traditional African vegetables. These findings imply that the consumption of traditional African vegetables can be enhanced by educating traders about the health benefits of these commodities as well as the taste-preserving preparation techniques. The study recommends inclusion of the health attributes of traditional African vegetables in promotional campaigns.