DOMESTICATING PRIORITY MIOMBO INDIGENOUS FRUIT TREES AS A PROMISING LIVELIHOOD OPTION FOR SMALL-HOLDER FARMERS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Most countries in Southern Africa are experiencing acute malnutrition, food insecurity, and low income among the rural and peri-urban population, and these culminate in deforestation and loss of biodiversity. The Miombo woodlands are known to have over 75 indigenous fruit trees (IFTs), which bear edible fruits. The fruits are rich in minerals and vitamins, sold for cash income and constitute important food sources during famines and or emergencies. This paper provides an overview of some efforts to domesticate the IFTs identified by farmers and users as priority species, as an important step to provide opportunities for resource-poor farmers to cultivate and generate income from sale of fresh and processed products, and to conserve the genetic potential of these species. The approach used involves four basic steps: 1) identification of priority species by communities and other users, 2) participatory selection of superior trees and naming them in situ, 3) propagation and cultivation of trees as fruit orchards, and 4) dissemination and adoption. 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. Germplasm of Uapaca and Sclerocarya were collected, exchanged among countries, and tested in multilocational provenance trials. Over 5000 farmers in four countries are involved in on-farm testing of IFTs in the field and homesteads. A new domestication strategy is developed for the participatory domestication of Uapaca kirkiana, using the rapid clonal selection approach. A strong network of stakeholders and farmers has shown strong enthusiasm, commitment, and participation in the domestication of IFTs. Creation of an enabling environment through policy reforms and market development will be essential to achieve socioeconomic empowerment of the resource poor farmers in the region through domestication, utilization and commercialization of fruits and products. There is need for product development research, private sector involvement and strong policy support, in order to have tangible impact. BACKGROUND The world today faces urgent food and nutritional crisis, and the FAO Shah and Strong (1999) report has estimated as many as 840 million people face chronic or perpetual hunger and 19,000 of the 40,000 infants and children die of malnutrition (World Health, cited by CGIAR, 1999). A major preoccupation of the development and scientific communities in the last 50 years has been how to resolve the conflict between increasing demands for food and the degradation of the environment. The major challenge in the new century is in devising ways of integrating scientific breakthroughs with indigenous knowledge to develop tangible livelihood interventions that are applicable on farms, so as to ensure food and income security at the household levels and future prosperous small farming enterprises. Food security implies access to foods for a productive and healthy life (Shah and Strong, 1999), i.e. ability of households to produce, purchases, 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. Development agendas must be set that will help farmers prosper and live a healthy life and not just to Proc. XXVI IHC – Citrus, Subtropical and Tropical Fruit Crops Eds. L.G. Albrigo and V. Galan Sauco Acta Hort. 632, ISHS 2004 Publication supported by Can. Int. Dev. Agency (CIDA) 16 survive at subsistence level. Therefore the problems confronting rural poor is far more complex than simply increasing crop yields, it will also involve maintaining biodiversity and addressing the intransigent problem of poor health, especially in a region where HIV/AIDS still maintains a strong foothold (World Bank, 2000). 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. Vitamin deficiency has been reported to affect at least 125 million school children worldwide and has caused eye damage to about 14 million people (Shah and Strong, 1999). Approximately 85% of human food comes from only 20 species, which are currently undergoing serious genetic decline. Furthermore, it has been estimated that 24% of the existing 250,000 plant species are under the danger of extinction (Barbosa, 1996). In Southern Africa a worsening crisis in the availability of food for the fast growing population is unfolding. The food production capacity in the region is being pushed to the limit, with resulting over-cultivation of fragile soils and loss of soil quality. Periodic droughts aggravate the situation, but even in years of favorable rainfall, most farm families cannot produce enough food to feed themselves. Many farmers in Malawi and Zambia had indicated that they exploited fruit trees as a coping strategy for hunger in the years of famine, as in 2001 and 2002 (Fig. 1), most of these were collected from the wild. IFTs have nearly disappeared in some regions making fruits and firewood difficult to obtain. The situation is predicted to become more severe in the coming decades. To address these daunting problems, a suite of technologies is needed including agroforestry. One of the promising agroforestry technologies discussed in this paper is the domestication of indigenous fruits (IFs). The Miombo IFs are an important source of food and cash in Southern Africa region and they are widely consumed fresh as well as in processed form. The fruits are sold in both rural and urban areas. Over 50 fruit tree species have been identified in the Miombo woodlands, many of which bear widely used and marketed edible fruits (Maghembe et al., 1998). These under-exploited fruits are rich in sugars, essential vitamins, minerals proteins, oils and fiber, and serve as important food reserves for humans especially during seasonal food shortages (Saka and Msonthi, 1994; Saka et al., 2002; Kwesiga et al, 1998, Kwesiga et al, 2000). With such a valuable resource, IFTs can contribute to the local needs for food and other related products. As the rate of deforestation increases in sub-Saharan Africa with only 9.25% of the total area under forest (UNEP, 2001), IFTs are threatened with extinction. This means that the livelihood of the poor rural people who are largely dependent on this natural resource is also threatened. Therefore, considering the benefits offered by these fruits and the threat to their survival, there is strong justification to domesticate them. It has become obvious, that greater integration of trees such as IFTs into farming systems could contribute towards achieving sustainable land use. According to Huxley (1999), regional and local self-sufficiency are likely to be important in the foreseeable future, and IFTs can contribute, especially to the local needs for food and related products. In the Miombo woodlands of southern Africa, the cultivation of more than 75 wild fruit tree species, which are eaten and sold, is hampered by limited knowledge of their biology, propagation and management (Maghembe et al., 1998). ICRAF and its partners in Southern Africa have instituted a systematic approach to bringing these indigenous but less-known fruit trees into wider cultivation by small-scale farmers in order to enhance their food security, human nutrition and cash income. In order to achieve this goal, ICRAF has been examining the constraints to domestication, identifying priority species and improving the germplasm of these fruit trees through provenance and traits selection and cloning for the benefit of small-scale farmers in the region. This paper provides a regional state-of-the-art from experiences with one decade of research and development efforts on IFTs domestication and commercialization. It intends to highlight the achievements, constraints and the next steps.