Domestication of Indigenous fruit trees and Medicinal Plants:An Innovative approach from the Congo B

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Domestication of Indigenous fruit trees and
Medicinal PlantsAn Innovative approach from the
Congo Basin

• Zac Tchoundjeu
• Regional coordinator
• ICRAF African Humid Tropics, Yaounde Cameroon

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Outlines

• About ICRAF
• The Congo Basin
• Domestication Strategy
• Conclusion

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ICRAF OBJECTIVES

• REDUCE RURAL POVERTY
• INCREASE FOOD AND NUTRITIONAL SECURITY
• ENHANCE ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE IN THE TROPICS
  THROUGH IMPROVED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS

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Number of farmers involved
1987
1990
1994
2000
Time
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CONGO BASIN
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CONGO BASIN FACETS

• Congo Basin second biodiversity reserve
• Agriculture 70 total labor, main source
  livelihood poor people
• Poverty is extensive and everywhere
• Number of tree species threatened 534
• Constant fluctuation in cash crop prices (cocoa,
  coffee)
• Little work on fruit trees medicinal plants of
  the region
• Deforestation rate continuously increasing
• Absence of culture of planting trees
• Local population long time excluded from
  protection of their environment

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Change in Human Population Density (Land-use
Intensity)
1990
Reid et al. (2000)
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Change in Human Population Density (Land-use
Intensity)
2020
Reid et al. (2000)
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Change in Human Population Density (Land-use
Intensity)
2040
Reid et al. (2000)
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Why Fruit and Medicinal Trees for Africa?

• Home consumption and income roles
• Accordance with millennium goals
• Goal 1 Poverty and Hunger
• Goal 4 Reduce Child Mortality
• Goal 5 Improve Maternal Health
• Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS and Malaria
• Goal 7 Environmental Sustainability

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Our opportunitiesEconomic Potential of
indigenous fruit trees and medicinal plants
Table 1 Market details of four non-timber forest
products in Cameroon over a period of 6 months
(Ndoye, 1995).
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APPROACHParticipatory tree domestication

• Conventional or Classical approach
• Progeny trials
• Biophysical and phenological assessments
• ICRAF approach
• Priority setting (farmer participation)
• Germplasm collection priority species
• Selection via vegetative propagation techniques
• On-station and on-farm evaluation of selected
  species
• Marketing options for maximizing farmer family
  income
• Capacity building

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How to multiply the selected species rooting
cuttings
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(No Transcript)
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African Plum
Creation of a cultivar
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Scale of cultivation
The world market requires about 5 million trees
of Prunus africana in cultivation to satisfy the
demand
will this come from 1 farmer growing 5
million trees 10 farmers growing 500,000
trees 100 farmers growing 50,000
trees 1000 farmers growing 5,000
trees 10,000 farmers growing 500
trees 100,000 farmers growing
50 trees 1 million farmers growing
5 trees
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Conclusion

• More than 2000 farmers in Cameroon, Nigeria,
  Equatorial Guinea, Congo, Democratic Republic of
  Congo and Gabon
• Network of NGOs, NARS, Universities,extension
  services.
• Technology well developed, farmers selling plants
  already
• TD better tool for biodiversity conservation,
  forest management and income generation
• Thanks to IFAD, DFID and different governments
  for funding the project.