Afokpe was recognised for combining scientific plant breeding with farmer training and market development, including the creation of the Sika Gboma variety of a traditional West African leafy vegetable that has been adopted by thousands of smallholder farmers in Benin neighbouring ring countries.
Afokpe recognized the untapped potential of crops with proven nutritional value, deep cultural significance and established consumer demand. She not only built a research station from scratch to address this need, she pioneered a commercial market across West and Central Africa, leading to the sale of thousands of tons of vegetables that the global seed industry had largely neglected.
Her research also precipitated East-West Seed becoming a Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) Champion. This global partnership recognizes “opportunity crops,” including traditional African vegetables, as critical to climate resilience and nutrition, a policy shift that Afokpe’s field work has helped validate. She led the effort for East-West Seed to join the African Vegetable Breeding Consortium headed by the World Vegetable Center, and she was selected as a 2024 One Planet Fellow by African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) in recognition of her research leadership in helping Africa’s smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate.
Afokpe and her mentor, the late Simon Groot (2019 World Food Prize Laureate), shared the vision that high quality seeds, combined with knowledge of good agricultural practices and connection to markets, are the most effective tools for smallholders to improve their livelihoods. Afokpe extended this conviction to vegetables that Groot’s mission had not yet reached, leveraging groundbreaking research and development for oft-overlooked opportunity crops to give growers a resilient, high-yielding future.
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