Cultivating 'Cinderella' trees

A collaborative programme in the humid zones of West Africa has been assisting farmers to cultivate improved types of wild fruit trees, such as the Bush Mango and African Plum. The project has identified the value of these indigenous fruits as a source of income and household nutrition. The quite considerable scale of planting of these trees shows that farmers also recognize their value. Although many fruits are still collected from the wild, farmers have begun to domesticate selected desirable varieties on-farm and researchers believe that there is potential for further improvement to produce higher yielding varieties or cultivars in order to build on local and export demand for the fruits.

The ability of indigenous fruit trees to contribute significantly to local food security has led Dr Roger Leakey, whilst Director of Research at ICRAF, to define them as 'Cinderella trees' (see Focus On Agroforestry). Dr Leakey has long believed in the potential of these trees to provide food security but feels that, until recently, they have been overlooked by the scientific community. The Bush Mango for instance, is used, depending on the variety grown, either as a sweet tasting fruit or, using the kernel, as a thickener for soups and stews. The African Plum is also a convenient staple food and, although the fruit is available for only 3-4 months of the year, it provides an important source of money at a time when there is no other income readily available to pay for school fees and uniforms. In Cameroon, the fruit trees also generate an alternate source of income during periods of low market commodity prices as the trees are grown as companion crops to provide shade for cocoa and coffee plantations (See Investing in intercropping). In contrast, in Nigeria, the trees tend to be grown in home gardens.

Selecting the best

Where farmers chose to grow their trees was not the only difference observed by researchers: the farmers were noted to select trees for the characteristics that were locally important. For instance, some trees have good qualities in terms of the flesh and fruit characteristics whereas other trees exhibit different kernel properties. This difference in local selection raises an interesting question over whether researchers should assist in selecting the best trees to distribute them to farmers everywhere or whether the best trees should be selected for each particular region. As Roger Leakey explains, the latter seems to be the most appropriate option, "Our results have shown that the best strategy would be for each community to domesticate and produce its own best trees as cultivars at a village level. This not only ensures a broad genetic base to the cultivated population but also allows the villagers to make the selections for their own benefit, which enables them to retain their indigenous rights to the trees."

In villages in Cameroon and Nigeria, farmers are currently being taught to set up their own nurseries and to create selected cultivars by vegetative propagation. The techniques being taught have been developed over many years of research in order to provide simple and effective methods to enables farmers to not only successfully create new cultivars of the fruit trees but to also use the techniques for propagating other species that may be useful on-farm.

Sustainable support

Whilst researchers are on hand to help the farmers set up nurseries, effective extension advice is needed to provide long-term support. However, as in other regions in Africa, it has been found that farmers involved in the project have had limited contact with extension agents and, even where extension services are available, the cultivation of trees on-farm is expertise that extension agents are frequently unable to provide. Agroforestry tends to fall between the remits of agriculture and forestry although, in Cameroon, extension services are in the process of being integrated to provide advice on livestock, agriculture and forestry. Dr. Kate Schreckenberg, of the Forest Policy and Environment Group of the Overseas Development Institute, explains how the next phase of the collaborative project will support extension services in the region. "This development provides an opportunity for us to support training of extension staff to provide more effective advice to help farmers establish appropriate trees species, not just fruit trees, on-farm."

Expanding markets

Extension, however, is not the end of the story - developing markets for farmers and helping to improve transportation and storage will also be important. In Cameroon during 1999, African Plum had a national market of over seven million dollars. Surprisingly, and encouragingly, researchers have revealed that up to 75% of the final value of the product gets back to the producer and retail and wholesale traders also benefit from healthy weekly profits. But, although there is potential to develop the market further, existing legislation will have to be improved if cross-border trade is to increase. There is also potential to build on the export market, particularly in European cities with large West African communities.

Although the project has concentrated on indigenous fruit trees of the humid zone of Cameroon and Nigeria, Kate Schreckenberg feels that the research has implications for growing trees on-farm in other regions. "In any system there are niches on-farm that are suitable for trees, whether they are planted within hedgerows or as a companion crop. What farmers need is advice on labour requirements, and processing and marketing of products in order to achieve the greatest benefits from the trees they want to grow."

Note: This DFID-funded forestry research project involved a number of partners both in the UK and West Africa including: ODI - Overseas Development Institute, CEH - Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association, ICRAF - International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, IRAD - Institut des Recherches Agricoles pour le developpement, CIFOR - Centre for International Forestry Research, Mount Cameroon Project of Limbe Botanic Gardens, four regional NGOs, and the Cameroon Extension Service.

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