Improving Rural Livelihoods through Domestication of Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Parklands of the Sahel - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 186

10 Improving Rural Livelihoods

through Domestication of
Indigenous Fruit Trees in the
Parklands of the Sahel

A. K ALINGANIRE , 1 J.C. W EBER , 1 A. U WAMARIYA 2 AND
B. K ONE 1

1 World Agroforestry Centre, West and Central Africa Region, Bamako, Mali ;
2 Consultant in Agroforestry and Environmental Management BP 570,
Bamako, Mali

10.1 Introduction

The West African Sahel, a semi-arid landscape stretching from Niger to Senegal, is
characterized by high temperatures throughout the year, with a low and highly
unpredictable rainfall pattern (400-1000 mm/year), occurring during a 3-month
period, and a 9-month dry season. The population growth rate is high, life
expectancy is low, particularly for infants and children, and illiteracy is endemic,
especially among women. Burkina Faso and Niger rank lowest on the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) human development index. Improving
peoples' livelihoods is, therefore, a challenge for Sahelian countries (UNDP, 2003).
Rural people have developed strategies to adapt to this harsh environment and
reduce their vulnerability to risks. Nevertheless, the rate of growth in food crop
production - about 2% - is not commensurate with the population growth rate of
about 2.5% per year (World Bank, 2004). More than 70% of the 44 million
people in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal live in rural areas. How the rural
population will continue to survive given the current food crop production is a
daunting question. Part of the answer lies in the diversity of native trees and shrubs
that people have used for generations in the parkland agroforestry system.
Parklands are mixtures of trees and shrubs that farmers select for certain
functions and cultivate together with staple food crops, such as millet and
sorghum. It is the principal agricultural system used by subsistence farmers in the
Sahel (Bonkoungou et al ., 1997; Boffa, 1999). In Mali, for example, parklands
occupy approximately 90% of the agricultural land. Parklands are managed to
fit environmental conditions and to fulfil specific functions, so they vary in
species composition and density within and among countries in the region.