The Status of Vegetables Research in Malawi, Capacity, Progress, Gaps, and Way Forward—A Scoping Review

Abstract

Vegetables are key to nutrition and economic security, especially for developing societies. Research in vegetables has been historically key. From early domestication efforts to modern-day breeding and value addition, research has enabled vegetable productivity to support the nutritional and economic needs of societies. Impactful research, however, requires competent research capacity and a guiding framework, in a continuously changing socio-climatic world. Vegetable research appraisal in Malawi, especially regarding capacity, focus, and a guiding framework, is lacking. By using 5 search engines and 506 analyzed publications, this review sought to first examine the existing research capacity in Malawi and assess the vegetable research focus in terms of both value chain analysis themes and specific vegetable tax. This approach allowed for the isolation and flagging out of key emerging issues from existing research that positively contextualize future vegetable research direction in Malawi. It has been found that Malawi has adequate institutional and expertise capacity to further vegetable research. The identified challenges include local funding and infrastructural capacity to leverage donor funding. Three key emerging issues of climate change, modeling, and biofortification in vegetable crops have been identified. It is suggested that, with Malawi facing the climate change challenge, research focus in these areas, will enhance not only nutritional and economic security, but also overall climate change readiness. Key to climate change readiness is the involvement of indigenous vegetable production. As a package, vegetable cultivation can play a critical role in contributing to the achievement of pillar 1 of the Malawi vision 2063, which seeks to leverage agricultural productivity and commercialization with a focus on climate change resilience.