Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
indigenous fruits and trees located in the communal forests near villages, fields
and homes is an important aspect and needs a closer look. This is because lack
of access might influence the preference towards the development of markets for
the fruits. The profitability of investment in IFT cultivation is strongly influenced
by property rights on trees and tree products. In many of the countries in
southern Africa, indigenous trees and products are regarded as a common
property and so incentives for private investment in their improvement is low.
Incentives and profitability of planting IFTs will increase if there is a modification
of the institutional issues governing the collection of fruit trees (i.e. legalizing the
sale of only those fruit trees that come from plantations). Studies from
Mozambique (Unruh, 2001) indicate that in the developing world, economically
valuable trees are among the most common and valuable forms of customary
evidence for claiming ownership of land. These valuable trees are generally
permanent or perennial trees that are there to assure long-term evidence of land
ownership. Due to their enduring nature, trees can be evidence that a land is still
owned even though it is left fallow. In many cases, a claim to possession of
valuable trees is the single most important piece of evidence for defending or
asserting rights to land, irrespective of the average number of trees planted.
Trade and markets
Where local groups are well organized and can control forest access, rural
enterprises tend to fare better. A clear sense of group identity, cooperative
behaviour and established rights to the resource can all help. Despite both
financial and social benefits enjoyed by the fruit traders, rigid by-laws limit the
marketing of indigenous fruits and affect the market supply of the fruits. For
example, traditional chiefs in some communities in Zimbabwe enacted by-laws
that any indigenous fruit that was collected within their communities cannot be
taken outside their chiefdoms. Their reasoning is that such indigenous fruits are
God's gift to provide food and nutrients from the wild to every member of the
community during yearly hungry seasons between December and February
(before food crops are ready for harvest) and such a natural gift should not be
commercialized.
The nature, extent of variation, quality, characteristics and uses of IFT
products largely affects their trade. IFT markets are ephemeral in nature and
have to face stiff competition from cheaper substitutes, such as from cultivated
sources (FAO, 1991). IFT products are usually based on local rural enterprises,
small-scale in nature and associated with traditional uses and low technology.
The policies do not usually support such enterprises, as they are regarded as
less important. Most IFT enterprises hardly receive any loans from credit
institutions. There is a general tendency to disregard products that do not make
significant contributions to national economies.
There are wide disparities in prices, with big differences between the price
paid to the collector and the final price for the commodity. It is estimated that,
for most IFTs, the local producer receives a minimal percentage of the price
that they are sold at in developed-country markets (FAO, 1991). The price
difference supports the traders and middlemen who want to maximize profits
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