Germplasm Supply, Propagation and Nursery Management of Miombo Fruit Trees - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 341

19 Germplasm Supply,

Propagation and Nursery
Management of Miombo
Fruit Trees

F.K. A KINNIFESI , 1 G. S ILESHI , 1 A. M KONDA , 2 O.C. A JAYI , 1
J. M HANGO 3 AND T. C HILANGA 4

1 World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF, Lilongwe, Malawi ; 2 Zambia-ICRAF
Agroforestry Project, Chipata, Zambia ; 3 Mzuzu University, Mzuzu, Malawi ;
4 Bvumbwe Agricultural Research Station, Limbe, Malawi

19.1 Introduction

The improvement and domestication of indigenous fruit tree germplasm constitute
a component of agroforestry in southern Africa. Yet the germplasm base is
currently being eroded as forests all over the region are cleared and the remaining
miombo woodland is under increasing pressure (Kwesiga et al. , 2000). Several
studies have shown that it is possible to augment income for smallholder farmers
through the domestication of high-value tree crops (Leakey et al. , 2005; Akinnifesi
et al. , 2006; Tchoundjeu et al. , 2006). Germplasm improvement of miombo fruit
trees entails the application of silvicultural, tree breeding and horticultural skills to
obtain the most valuable fruit trees as quickly and as inexpensively as possible.
The participatory selection and propagation approach adopted by the World
Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) for the domestication of indigenous fruit trees has
been described (Leakey and Akinnifesi, Chapter 2, this volume).
One of the major challenges to the widespread adoption of agroforestry is
the availability of high-quality planting stock of priority trees. The production of
high-quality planting stock is even more critical to the domestication of
indigenous fruit trees, as farmers have neither the knowledge and skills needed
for their propagation nor the appropriate technologies for nursery manage-
ment. According to Carandang et al. (2007), there is much interest in
producing planting material of indigenous fruit trees but activity is constrained
by the availability of suitable planting material, the distance from seed sources,
the lack of propagation technologies, and the lack of awareness among farmers
of the potential and niche of indigenous fruit trees on the farm. Interest is
further constrained by the lack of technical skills among potential nursery