Setting Priorities among Indigenous Fruit Tree Species in Africa: Examples from Southern, Eastern and Western Africa Regions - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 5

were asked which species were most important to them and why. They also
ranked them in order of importance and provided information on managing,
utilizing and processing indigenous fruit. Finally, they specified the fruit and tree
traits they wished researchers to improve.
Focus group discussions were also conducted with traditional leaders,
children and other key informants. Participatory tools were used in the group
discussions, such as village maps to show the locations of indigenous fruit trees,
and seasonal calendars to show the times that fruit trees flowered and were
harvested. The data were analysed by country so that the priority species of
each could be identified and compared. Two measures were used to indicate
the degree of species importance (importance and preference are used
interchangeably in this chapter): the percentage of farmers mentioning the
species as important, and the average preference score (10 = most preferred, 9
= second most preferred, etc.). Average preference scores were computed only
for those mentioning the species as important. The scores thus measure the
degree of preference among those who find the species important.
1.2.4 Product prioritization
Here, tree products and services are ranked in order of their current and
potential importance and value to clients. Participants used information about
trends and market opportunities, including some that most farmers were
probably not aware of. In the humid lowlands of West Africa, this exercise was
conducted in a stakeholder workshop (Franzel et al ., 1996). In the other two
regions, product prioritization was not conducted because the priorities were
only being set for indigenous fruit trees.
1.2.5 Identification of key species
In addition to information on clients' preferences, participants in the priority-
setting process needed additional information for identifying priority species. In
the humid lowlands of West Africa, participants refined their list further by
ranking species according to three other criteria:
1. Their 'researchability', that is, the potential of research to achieve impact in
domesticating the species.
2. Expected rates of adoption, based on ease of regeneration, adaptability
across the region, and commercial potential.
3. The degree to which women in the community were likely to benefit from
domestication of the species.
1.2.6 Valuation and ranking of priority species
In the humid lowlands of West Africa, researchers conducted household surveys to
collect detailed data from farmers and markets to estimate the value of products of