Challenges to Stimulating the Adoption and Impact of Indigenous Fruit Trees in Tropical Agriculture - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 55

Product quality and consistency of quality are major factors in the
successful marketing of products. Different fruit crops have different
characteristics and different uses, even in the same country. Therefore the
utilization (including the addition of value), processing and marketing strategies
and consumer requirements will be different, and for many small-scale
producers, these remain unknown. Farmers will often sell the excess produce
from indigenous fruits for extra income, but they have to depend on the market
chains because of the present limited commercial uses for these fruits. By
combining well-established principles and appropriate equipment with good
standards of quality and hygiene, small-scale food processing enterprises can
produce high-quality and marketable products (ICUC, 2006).
3.2.7 Financial limitations
Lack of access to credit is also commonly cited as a constraint to small-scale
production. The majority of small-scale farmers and processors, especially
women, face a variety of problems when seeking credit, including lack of
information, high interest rates, lack of collateral, bureaucratic difficulties and
misunderstandings, prejudice against women and small-scale farmers and
processors, and lack of government support in accessing credit (Azami, 2002).
However, progress in domestication and appropriate village-level product
development may overcome these problems of financial limitation (Tchoundjeu
et al ., 2006). Better utilization of indigenous fruit trees will provide opportunities
to improve family diets and to raise household income by trading and
processing.
3.2.8 Poor agricultural policy
There is a need to develop a strategy for the wider-scale cultivation of
indigenous fruit trees. Attention has been given to conservation and better use
of the botanical diversity in traditional agroecosystems and natural forest
systems, but support (both technical and financial) for sustainable production,
product development and marketing at the regional, national and international
level has been very limited. Policy guidelines (Wynberg et al ., 2003) and the
development of AFTP domestication programmes by the World Agroforestry
Centre (ICRAF) and other organizations (Leakey et al ., 2005a), will encourage
policy makers to take account of recent progress. Williams and Haq (2002)
have suggested that for any strategic development to succeed, the socio-
economic well-being of the farmers and communities needs to be taken into
account, and agricultural policy linked to forestry and export policy, which
currently provides huge incentives for local people to cut down indigenous tree
species for veneer and timber production stimulated by the demands of the
furniture industry. Recent studies have examined the impacts of the
commercialization of indigenous forest products (including indigenous fruits) on
the natural, social and cultural aspects of rural livelihoods and have identified a