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 410

other regions such as Latin America, Asia and the humid parts of West Africa.
On the other hand, the market for Ziziphus mauritiana in southern Africa is
unreliable. In a study conducted in Malawi, Kaaria (1998) observed that:
(i) market participants are dictated by access to and distance from the market;
(ii) rural markets are dominated by women, whereas the men dominate and set
prices in urban markets; (iii) marketing margins were higher in rural than in
urban markets, rural market information systems and infrastructures still limit
the markets, and there is a need to develop packaging and value-addition.
There is a common finding in western (Teklehaimanot, 2004), southern
(Kadzere et al. , 1998; Chapter 13, this volume) and eastern Africa, as well as in
India (Pareek, 2001), that most sellers of indigenous fruits are women and
children. Low pricing, poor infrastructure and lack of quality standards have
jeopardized the market opportunities for IFTs in the region (Chapters 8, 13 and
14), as well as legal prohibitions on sale of products in Zimbabwe (Chapter 13).
Across the southern African region, unfair barter trade often occurs during
times of food shortage, especially in Zambia and Malawi. Limited availability of
fruits of acceptable quality standards, lack of a standard processed product,
market information systems, and market infrastructure are general factors
limiting the trade of Z. mauritiana fruits in Asia and Africa (Pareek, 2001).
Allanblackia spp. has recently been identified as an important African oil
tree that holds potential for smallholder farmers. ICRAF and Unilever have
initiated a joint public-private partnership called Novella which aims at
stimulating greater supply and triggering a market for Allanblackia oil in
Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. Unilever has guaranteed to buy seeds
at US$150/t from smallholder farmers ( ICRAF Transformations , Jan/March
2007, Issue No. 8).
Another important source of income comes from the internationally traded
cosmetic products made from shea butter or karité ( Vitellaria paradoxa ) in the
African Sahel and drylands of western and eastern Africa (Chapter 11). In the
Sahel region of West Africa, V. paradoxa produces solid fat that is at a high
premium for the chocolate and cosmetic industries, is a very important export
earner in many parts of West Africa, and was the third most important export
for Burkina Faso in the 1980s. Annually, almost 90,000 t is exported from that
country to Europe and Japan.
Reports from central and western Africa showed some market potentials
for priority fruit trees (Leakey et al. , 2005; Tchoundjeu et al. , 2006). Ndoye et
al. (1997) has valued the annual trade of five key AFTPs, mostly fruits, at
US$7.5 million per year in Cameroon, and exports of US$2.5 million annually.
Farm-level production of three priority IFTs and nuts in southern Cameroon
have been reported to contribute an average of US$355 per year to the local
economy (Ayuk et al. , 1999); each tree can be worth US$50-150 per year (for
an average area of 1.7 ha), and can provide an annual income of
US$300-2000 per household (Leakey et al. , 2005). Several other indigenous
fruit trees in West Africa command substantial regional or even national
markets, e.g. Irvingia gabonensis , Dacryodes edulis and Chrysophyllum
albidum (Leakey et al. , 2005; Tchoundjeu et al. , 2006). A tree of unimproved
D. edulis averages only US$20 compared with US$150 for an improved tree