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 6

the remaining species and to update the information on farmer preferences,
researchability and adoption. The survey involved 152 farmer interviews in
Nigeria and Cameroon. These surveys were not undertaken in the Sahel or in
southern Africa because they were considered too costly to undertake.
1.2.7 Choice of species to focus domestication efforts on
Here, the results of each of the regional priority-setting exercises were synthesized
in a workshop and the choice of priority species was reviewed and approved.
1.2.8 Choice of commercial products on which to focus research and
development activities
This step was not included in the original priority-setting procedures but was
added to the process in southern Africa in 2003. In that year, researchers
organized a workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, of stakeholders from the private
sector, NGOs, and academia to determine the fruit species and products they
preferred to process. Next, workshops were held in Magomero, Malawi, for local
fruit-processing groups from Malawi and Zambia, and in Tabora, Tanzania, for
groups there to assess their preferences among fruits and products to process.
Participants set priorities among all fruits in the Malawi and Tanzania workshops
but only among indigenous ones at the Harare workshop (Ham, 2004). A total
of 97 people, mostly women, attended the three workshops.
The product prioritization process for the Harare workshop was based on a
process developed by FAO (Lecup and Nicholson, 2000) in which products are
evaluated according to indicators in four categories:
1. Ecological , including availability of trees, ease of regeneration, pest
resistance, variation in fruit taste between trees, and willingness to plant trees.
2. Socio-economic , including suitability for community processing, experience
with processing, opportunities for adding value, employment creation potential,
and gender impact.
3. Market , including extent and quality of existing information, market
demand, market readiness of the product, financial viability, and competition.
4. Technical , including ease of processing, availability of equipment and infra-
structure, product shelf life, availability of skills, personnel, and packaging material.
1.3 Regional and Country Priority-setting Results
1.3.1 Humid lowlands of West Africa
Farmer preference survey
There was considerable variability among farmers' priority species within and
between the countries surveyed: Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana (Table 1.2).