Economics of On-farm Production of Indigenous Fruits - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 243

supports the finding of Price and Campbell (1998). In Murehwa, avocado trees
were the first choice among several species to plant; on average households
would choose five seedlings from 12, whereas in Takawira households would
choose four mango trees from 12. Overall, households chose on average many
fewer IFTs, amongst which they would plant the highest number of U. kirkiana .
The reasons for choosing to plant exotic or indigenous trees varied and
also differed between the two locations. In Murehwa, farmers planted EFTs to
produce fruits for home consumption, or for sale as well as home consumption.
Looking towards the future, 91.9% of households intended to plant more EFTs,
their main reason being to increase in the variety of fruits available at their
home. Farmers had not planted more IFTs because they lacked knowledge on
how to plant them; the trees grow naturally, the trees are sufficiently available
in the communal areas, and the seeds fail to germinate. Fewer than half of
households (43.9%) intended to plant more IFTs in the future, mostly to have
the fruits directly at home; 39.4% of the farmers would start to plant the IFTs if
the sale of their fruits from trees in the communal areas was not permitted but
was only allowed from planted trees. In order to enforce this, fruits from
plantations could be certified. However, in the current, rather informal,
marketing system, this would most probably not be feasible. According to
Ramadhani (2002), the majority of local leaders support the idea of legalizing
the sale of fruits from planted trees.
In Takawira, most farmers planted EFTs for home consumption and sale,
or purely for sale. Some had not planted more of them due to unavailability of
seedlings. The majority of households (86.6%) intended to plant more EFTs in
the future to generate cash income. On the other hand, farmers had not

Table 13.1. Share of households who planted exotic and indigenous fruit trees and number
of trees planted if households received twelve seedlings free of charge.

Households who Species planted if given

planted (%) a 12 seedlings b

Murehwa Takawira Murehwa Takawira

Avocado 81.9 - 5.1 (2.3) -

Peach - 68.3 - 2.8 (1.3)

Mango 92.8 64.6 3.2 (1.6) 3.8 (1.6)

Guava 84.2 67.1 1.7 (1.2) 2.8 (1.4)

Lemon 15.4 4.9 - -

Uapaca kirkiana 1.8 1.2 1.3 (1.5) 1.4 (2.1)

Strychnos cocculoides 0.9 0 .2 0.4 (0.6) 0.9 (1.1)

Parinari curatellifolia 0.5 1.2 0.4 (0.7) 0.3 (0.7)

Azanza garckeana 2.3 9.8 - -

a Murehwa n = 221, Takawira n = 82.
b Question: If you were given twelve seedlings free of charge, how many would you choose
for each species? Households who referred to a different number of seedlings from which to
choose were dropped from this analysis. Thus, Murehwa n = 190, Takawira n = 62; figures
are means (standard deviation in parentheses).
Source: Mithöfer (2007).