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 396

21.2.2 Domestication: from extraction to cultivation
Despite more than two decades of research on IFTs, 90% of the marketed
products still come from the wild. A species is considered wild when it
grows spontaneously and naturally without human intervention. The term
'domestication' has been accepted since the 19th century as a dynamic term
referring to a process rather than a state of existence of wild or semi-domesticated
trees (Chapter 4). This acceptance is evidenced by the number of scientific articles,
meetings and conferences where the term has been used without explanation.
Dubois (1995) observed three stages of historical interventions by the
Brazilian Amazon forest-dwellers, namely: (i) simple harvests without
intentional management; (ii) enrichment of long-duration tree-fallow; and (iii)
systematic enrichment of forest stands with planted trees, usually high-value
trees, resulting in an agroforest. Domestication of indigenous fruits has been
extensively documented in the literature, especially in agroforests (Wiersum,
2004; Chapter 4, this volume) and homegardens (Kumar and Nair, 2004), and
the patterns seem to be similar in Asia (Chapter 4) and Latin America (Chapter
6), and in the cocoa agroforests of humid west and central Africa (Lodoen,
1998; Chapter 9, this volume).
The process of coevolution between forest trees and fruit production has
been illustrated by the durian fruit tree ( Durio zibethinus ) in South-east Asia
(Chapter 4) as an intermediate form of domestication for multifunctional
production systems. The production systems research of which domestication
should focus on was discussed in Chapter 4, and has favoured a landscape
domestication approach. The different interpretations of domestication by
biologists and agroecologists have been described in Chapter 4. Biologists tend to
understand domestication as involving alterations in biological processes at the
species and individual tree level, which leads to adaptation and changes in
genetic make-up. On the other hand, agroecologists emphasize the processes
operating at the landscape level involving people-plant interactions.
21.2.3 Nexus between collection and cultivation
Since trees do not usually require open land, or a vast area of land, and can be
conveniently incorporated into a farming system with the conditions necessary
for production of fruits, the trajectory of domestication involves a gradual
modification of production conditions from forest to agricultural crops (Michon
and de Foresta, 1997; Wiersum, 2004; Chapter 4, this volume). Michon and de
Foresta (1996) approached domestication as a change in wild harvesting or
exploitation systems. No matter how it is viewed, both processes of wild or
semi-wild fruit tree conservation and management, and deliberate selection
and cultivation, are important in domestication that aims to increase returns to
farmers in a sustainable way. The processes of adaptation of people and trees
from extractivism to cultivation warrant further exploration.
Clearly, fruit trees, whether exotic or indigenous, can be grown in a variety
of different production systems, including: (i) natural forests where fruit trees