Domestication, Utilization and Marketing of Indigenous Fruit Trees in West and Central Africa - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 181

● Capture of the attributes of 'plus trees' within genetically diverse wild

populations by vegetative propagation, so avoiding the long, slow process
of tree breeding.

● The use of low-cost propagation systems appropriate for use in village rural

areas.

● The circumvention of problems of poor and/or erratic seed supply by

multiplying stockplants vegetatively.

● Incentives for farmers via early-fruiting materials.

● The use of vegetatively propagated cultivars to provide traits required by

the markets.

● Empowering of farmers through a participatory approach to the acquisition

of their rights to indigenous knowledge regarding the use of indigenous
species, as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The problem of protection of the intellectual property rights of the farmers
developing the cultivars is still to be resolved. Up to now, all marcotts and scions
collected from farmers' field are labelled with the name of the farmer and a clear
identification of their village. Records are also kept of the exact position of the
mother tree and its characteristics, and all these 'passport data' are kept by
ICRAF for future reference in case a need rises for a farmer to seek plant
breeder's rights or some other form of protection of intellectual property rights.
Despite all these advantages, an immediate concern could be that large-
scale companies may be involved in the establishment of newly domesticated
crops, thus undermining the actions of smallholders. Moreover, action should be
taken to prevent any reduction in the genetic diversity of the species by the
widespread proliferation of a few cultivars and the consequent increase
in susceptibility to pest and disease outbreaks. Taking all these precautions
into consideration, it is believed that participatory tree domestication could
significantly reduce poverty in rural areas while preserving the fragile ecosystems
of West and Central Africa.

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