The Tree Crop Programme
Indigenous fruits and livelihood security
in SA
In Southern Africa, acute food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition
are common for many rural dwellers. Poverty is associated with
low income, poor nutrition, low food intake, low educational
standards and poor (sometimes deplorable) health conditions.
There is also increased vulnerability to diseases, especially
HIV/AIDS, and high economic risks. Food security means access
to food for productive and healthy lives, i.e. ability of households
to produce, purchase, or acquire an adequate amount of food
to meet biological requirements. It also means that people do
not have to rely solely on staples such as maize, rice, cassava
and potatoes. The problems confronting the rural poor are far
more complex than simply increasing crop yields in order to
combat hunger; they involve maintaining biodiversity and addressing
the intransigent problem of poverty, poor health and malnutrition,
especially in a region where HIV/AIDS still maintains a strong
foothold.
A ‘win win’ intervention.
Fruits at a market in Malawi. |
Vitamin deficiency is reported to affect
school children worldwide and has caused eye damage to about
14 million people. Therefore, the deficiency of vital micronutrients
and vitamins in the dietary system are a form of ‘hidden
hunger’ that could be addressed through availability of
fruits and fruit products. To attain an acceptable level of
food production, income and/or livelihood security for rural
dwellers is still largely an ambitious goal in the region. Integrated
approaches to combat food insecurity and poverty tap into unconventional
livelihood options and crop diversification with high value
trees. Investing in high value fruit trees, especially developing
the indigenous fruit trees (IFTs) into a small-scale commercial
enterprise, is a ‘win-win’ intervention that could
help households mitigate poverty, malnutrition and hunger. This
can make a tremendous impact and have a high probability of
success.
The tree crop programme
/ domestication
Alternative approaches are required to help farmers and their
communities move beyond dependency on maize, food aid, free
seed and fertiliser handouts. High value fruit tree cultivation
has the potential to bridge the gap in cyclic food supply,
characterised by sufficiency during the harvest season and
deficiency in periods of crop cultivation (Figure 1).
Socio-Economic Factors in the Collection and Use of Indigenous
Fruits in Zimbabwe (Dagmar Mithöfer and Hermann Waibel)
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High |
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Medium |
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Low |
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J |
F |
M |
A |
M |
J |
J |
A |
S |
O |
N |
D |
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Months |
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 Income
Flow  Labour
Burden |
Figure 1:
Labour burden and income flows in the course of a year, Takawira
resettlement area.
Source: ICRAF-SA Household Monitoring Survey 1999/2000.
Tree domestication is occasioned by the need
to supply tree products as wild sources decline due to genetic
erosion, over-exploitation, deforestation and/or difficult
access. The need to meet growing demand for tree products
as the population increases and new or external markets develop
also justifies domestication. Fruits and processed fruit products
from the miombo indigenous fruit trees are an important source
of food and cash in Southern Africa. Most of the harvests
are obtained from the natural forests. Many of the fruits
found in the region and their oils have potential for market
and home consumption. They have strong, sweet flavours and
are rich in minerals, vitamins and essential amino acids.
Opportunities for smallholder
farmers
The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Southern Africa Programme
has opened up new opportunities for small-scale farmers to
diversify into higher value production enterprises that involve
production, processing and commercialisation of fruits from
indigenous fruit trees (IFTs) and their products.By linking
farmers and communities to markets, their capacity to learn
and adopt new innovations is enhanced. Currently ICRAF-SA
is rigorously addressing the first mover challenges of developing
innovations, increasing dissemination to enhance the scale
of country and regional reach, creating regional and global
footprints and building core and grass-root capabilities.
Simultaneously, we are forming strategic alliances with key
research and development partners.
Wild fruit tree improvement (clonal
selection, propagation and cultivation)
Farmers’ preference of IFTs:
Research work on indigenous fruit trees, lasting close to
a decade, has started to generate useful lessons: Uapaca
kirkiana, Parinari curatellifolia, Strychnos cocculoides
and Sclerocarya birrea have been
identified by farmers and stakeholders as priority species
for domestication in the Southern Africa region. Additional
country-specific selected species are: Vitex
mombassae for Tanzania, Anisophyllea
boemiii for Zambia, Azanza gackeana
for Zimbabwe and Flacourtia indica
for Malawi.
Farmers have also indicated the important fruit
and tree traits requiring improvement. The three most identified
traits for improvement through domestication research are:
- How to reduce the long juvenile phase (precocity),
i.e. time required before the first fruiting.
- Manageable tree size, i.e. farmers wanted
shorter trees that would be easy to harvest.
- Bigger fruit sizes, especially with greater
pulp content.
Participatory selection
for big fruit size
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Propagation:
Farmers previously held the view that wild fruit trees
are planted by God and cannot be cultivated. This was
mainly due to lack of knowledge on the biology and propagation
of wild trees. That view is quickly changing. ICRAF-SA,
working closely with farmers, has now developed efficient
propagation systems and nursery practices for production
of quality germplasm of wild fruit trees. Grafting seems
to be the most handy and promising propagation technique
in the programme. |
(Variation in fruit
size of Uapaca Kirkiana) |
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An IFT nursery at
Makoka, Malawi. |
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With
good nursery practices, relatively high graf_take values
have been achieved for most priority IFTs: 83% for baobab
(Adansonia digitata), 80% for masuku
(Uapaca kirkiana), 90% for masau
(Ziziphus mauritiana) and 70% for Strychnos
cocculoides. These achievements compare favourably
with 97% for mangoes, an exotic fruit. Management of pest
and diseases plays an important role in the production
of quality rootstocks as well as in the collection of
scions (budwood). The life of a tree starts from the nursery!
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Grafted IFT seedlings
at Makoka, Malawi
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Tree
improvement and cultivation:
The approach adopted for domesticating the indigenous
fruit trees involves systematic and participatory selection
of superior phenotypes from the wild, propagation and
cultivation. Working with the rural communities, village
heads, school children and fruit vendors, the individual
fruit trees with superior traits were identified, named
and collected. The underlining assumption is that large
natural variability in fruit and tree traits exists in
IFTs. This variability can guide in the identification
of putative (superior) cultivars of wild trees. To effectively
capture these traits, the indigenous knowledge of the
different user groups is combined with qualitative and
quantitative analyses.
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Provenance selection
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Significant
gains in fruit yield and yield components can be achieved
if superior trees are properly captured from the wild
using participatory clonal selection. Tree precocity (reduced
time-to-maturity) can be enhanced using clonal propagation
of matured mother trees from the wild. Our research so
far has resulted in reduction of the fruiting period of
Uapaca kirkiana from 10 –
15 years to 3 – 4 years. We regard this as a major
breakthrough in our research on precocity of ITFs and
enhancing the food function of indigenous fruit trees. |
Managing a clonal
orchard of indigenous fruit trees |
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