Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
takes many forms; the techniques implemented here were particularly simple and
inexpensive, and ranged from rooting of leafy stem cuttings to air-layering and
grafting. Air-layering (or marcotting) is often used to produce the first set of clonal
plants from sexually mature trees with desirable traits, and when established as
stock plants these are a valuable source of cuttings or scions for multiplication by
rooting or grafting. Robust techniques for root cuttings using non-mist
polypropagators (as described by Leakey
et al
., 1990) were used for the vegetative
propagation of top-priority species, and appropriate protocols were refined for
Irvingia gabonensis
and
Gnetum africanum
(Shiembo
et al
., 1996a, b),
Ricinodendron heudelotii
(Shiembo
et al
., 1997; Ngo Mpeck
et al
., 2004),
Dacryodes edulis
,
Prunus africana
(Tchoundjeu
et al
., 1999, 2002), and
Pausinystalia johimbe
(Tchoundjeu
et al
., 2004).
Farmers enthusiastically adopted these techniques and made further
refinements to the design of the non-mist polypropagator (Mbile
et al
., 2004).
Techniques for marcotting were also improved. This led to an increase in the post-
severance survival of
Irvingia gabonensis
(from 10% to 50%) and
Dacryodes
edulis
(up to 70%). This increase was attributed to the use of a giant humidity
chamber for weaning marcotts. Techniques used for vegetative propagation also
depend on species. For example,
Garcinia kola
has proved difficult to marcott, but
it is being successively multiplied (50-60%) using grafting techniques. Grafting
also provided a good success rate for
Irvingia gabonensis
(50-60% graft take).
9.4 Implementation of Participatory Tree Domestication
The innovative approach used to domesticate indigenous trees and bring them
into wider cultivation was welcomed by resource-poor farmers. ICRAF staff and
associated non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based
organizations and national agricultural research systems offer assistance in the
form of training that facilitated the domestication of indigenous trees and the
establishment of pilot village nurseries for tree propagation. Pilot nurseries were
established between 1998 and 1999 in the villages of Nkolfep, Ting Melen and
Ngoumou within the forest zone and Belo in the humid savannah zone of
Cameroon (Table 9.1). The farmer groups approached ICRAF to establish
these nurseries, which played the role of school nurseries, farmers coming from
a distance of 10-15 km for training. Since then, farmers have been acquiring
the necessary skills to create satellite nurseries in their own villages. In order to
reach out to villages that were unfamiliar with ICRAF activities, NGOs that were
already working with these communities were used. These groups typically
began with 20-30 farmers and as time passed the group declined to a core of
15 to 20 members who were committed to the training programme. As fruit,
spices, barks, leaves and other vegetables are usually sold by women, they
constituted about 25% of trained farmers.
During meetings held with farmers to agree on the concept and strategies for
tree domestication, it was made clear to farmers that tree domestication was an
opportunity to increase and diversify their income through self-employment, not
an opportunity for employment by ICRAF. It was also agreed that once farmers'
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