The role of indigenous fruit trees (IFTs) in addressing malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was examined, and farmers were trained in IFT domestication as a means to encourage the cultivation of IFTs. 

The Problem

Deficiency of iron and vitamin A is prevalent in most parts of SSA. Low intake of vitamin A is considered to be Africa’s third greatest public health problem after HIV/AIDS and malaria. Vitamin C from fruits is essential for absorbing iron, an important mineral that is present in significant quantities in green leafy vegetables. Fruit consumption in sub-Saharan Africa, however, with a daily average of only 36 g per person in Eastern Africa and about 90 g in Western Africa – is far below the recommended daily amount of 200 g per person. In SSA, about 30 per cent of inhabitants, most of them women and children, suffer from malnutrition. Fruits offer not only easily available energy, but also micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals necessary to sustain and support human growth and activity. There are, however, a variety of factors that constrain fruit consumption and production in Africa such as:

• Lack of consumer awareness regarding the health benefits of regular fruit consumption.
• Change of consumer preferences and loss of the traditional nutrition systems based on local agricultural biodiversity, which leads to erosion of both the plant genetic resources and the related traditional knowledge.
• Degradation of natural vegetation used for collecting indigenous fruits in the past.
• Lack of sufficient tree domestication techniques and their dissemination, especially of vegetative tree propagation methods.
• Lack of fruit processing facilities, which leads to high post-harvest losses.
• Poorly organized fruit marketing pathways along the value chain.

The Project

In 1995, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) conducted a farmers’ species preference survey in the humid tropics of West and Central Africa. The priority species identified for domestication and improvement by research were mainly indigenous fruit, nut and medicinal species with a high value for nutrition and income generation. Indigenous fruits in Cameroon were found to be highly valued by farmers and consumers, however the number of these trees was found to be decreasing due to deforestation and over-exploitation, among other reasons.

In 1999 a domestication program was put in place, and pilot farmers in selected rural communities were assisted by teams made up of scientists and extension staff from both government and non-governmental organizations in selecting superior mother trees with the desired traits. 

Next, innovative farmers managing pilot nurseries were trained in participatory tree domestication techniques and their nurseries were upgraded to ‘Rural Resource Centers’ (RRCs), which serve as collection points and marketing centers for tree products. Each RRC is equipped with a nursery, meeting and training facilities, motherblocks and demonstration plots, and fruit drying/storage facilities, if appropriate. RRCs are also holding a register for newly-developed farmers’ fruit tree varieties, so that local domesticators can assert their rights over selected cultivars. Interested innovative farmers from the villages nearby are trained at the RRCs to become nursery managers and to start ‘satellite nurseries’ on their farms. The trainees are then equipped with a starter kit of high quality germplasm and will construct simple nursery structures with local material at their farms.

• Around 50 per cent of local adopters integrated 10 fruit trees on average in their farms and reported to have increased their fruit consumption, 30 per cent also mentioned increased income.
• Tree nurseries that had received technical support (E.G. training on management and marketing techniques) supplied a wider range of fruit trees and propagated in more appropriate ways and with higher purchaser satisfaction than those nurseries that had not received assistance.
• The RRC approach for integrating participatory tree domestication with a broader set of rural services (e.g. training in nursery management and sustainable farming) was awarded an Equator Prize in 2010.