Cornell Chronicle [2015-09-16]:
Horticulture associate professor Phillip Griffiths launched a multidisciplinary project in sub-Saharan Africa in 2012. Griffiths, a vegetable breeder, was particularly interested in East Africa’s staple fresh vegetable: a type of kale called sukuma wiki, which is filled with nutrients and commonly grown by subsistence farmers. But like many cruciferous vegetables, it is highly susceptible to black rot.
The Cornell team carried out field trials with the goal of developing more diversified, culturally acceptable sukuma wiki varieties that can resist black rot. The team’s breeding process crosses sukuma wiki with related but more resistant vegetables like cabbage. The challenge is that local appetites favor the traditional vegetable, so cooks and consumers may not be receptive to new types.
“We’ve been able to make the first steps in selecting and testing materials with resistance to black rot in a sukuma wiki type of plant,” Griffiths said, “but there is still work that needs to be undertaken with breeding before these varieties would be acceptable in African communities, because of the color, appearance and eating quality.
“Farmers in rural communities were a little suspicious of some of the control kale varieties like Tuscan kale, as they look so different from what they are used to growing.”