Accelerated Domestication and Commercialization of Indigenous Fruit and Nut Trees to Enhance Better Livelihoods in the Tropics: Lessons and Way Forward - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 395

cultivation and improvement by researchers has been limited in the past,
as is also the case for many Amazonian fruits that have not been cultivated
(Chapter 6) and for Uapaca kirkiana (wild loquat) in Zimbabwe (Mithöfer,
2005). Mithöfer (2005) suggested that farmers would require tree
improvement incentives that are not really technically feasible in order for
spontaneous adoption of indigenous fruit trees to take place, because the
collection of IFTs from the wild is still attractive and profitable. On the other
hand, a similar study in Malawi indicated that, if awareness is created,
smallholder farmers would readily adopt IFTs such as U. kirkiana , even
with little or no improvement as incentives. This is due to greater resource
depletion in Malawi compared with Zimbabwe. In the Zimbabwe situation,
a consistent supply would be in terms of developing fresh market fruit
ideotypes that would meet consumers' needs in terms of size, colour, taste
and uniformity.

● Conservation of biodiversity . Biodiversity is often ignored as a reason for

domesticating trees on-farm. Teklehaimanot (Chapter 11) has highlighted the
potential of Cordeauxia edulis (yehib), the most preferred IFTs in the dry
region of East Africa. The fruits are used in Somalia and Ethiopia as a
drought food. Its leaves are also a source of cordeauxiaquinone, which is
used for dying and in medicine. It is the most threatened tree species
identified by the IUCN (Chapter 11). Genetic diversity can be conserved
through 20 generations of improvement (Cornelius et al. , 2006). However,
there is fundamental conflict between genetic gain and genetic conservation.
No improvement programme can conserve all the genetic diversity of
landraces. However, domestication can help to preserve biodiversity and
genetic resources on-farm. It can also help to elevate the genetic gain and
diversity of a few species with high impact potential. Adequate genetic
diversity of IFTs can be maintained through conservation of wild sources,
regular introduction of new clones, and generation of new genotypes
through hybridization (Chapters 2, 8 and 9).

● Novel foods and food additives . Providing novel foods and creating products

with niche markets, which can constitute important export commodities, is
another benefit of domestication. Examples include camu camu ( Myrciaria
dubia ) for vitamin C (Chapter 6), marula cream and oil from Sclerocarya
birrea (Chapters 8 and 14), Allanblackia spp. for oil butter (Rompaey, 2005),
solid butter from Vitellaria paradoxa (Teklehaimanot, 2004; Chapter 10, this
volume), white chocolate from cupuaçu ( Theobroma grandiflorum ), among
others. Domestication can help avoid the boom-and-bust economy that
typically occurs when products are harvested from the wild (Penn, 2006).
Farmers must have access to superior stocks if they are to capitalize on the
benefits of IFT cultivation.

● Public goods and services . Domestication can also help provide international

public goods and services including carbon sequestration, biodiversity
conservation, erosion control, etc., which benefit both the present global
community and also future generations (Leakey et al. , 2005).