Africa indigenous fruit trees offer major benefits
INDIGENOUS fruits have been collected from the wild for centuries for human consumption and other purposes. Across the African continent, indigenous fruit trees are valuable assets for local communities.
But the natural habitats of trees are being lost, mainly to widespread deforestation resulting from population growth. Industrial agriculture is also contributing to their loss.
Indigenous fruit trees provide vital nutrients that may be scarce in other food sources. They are naturally adapted to local soils and climates, can enhance food and nutrition security and often adapt and survive environmental stresses better than exotic species.
Indigenous fruit trees, which occur across different ecological zones in Africa, are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, protein and valuable phytochemicals.
They also have recognised medicinal value and are used as therapeutic remedies by many people especially in rural areas with limited access to orthodox health care.
The value chain of underutilised fruit trees should be increased. This could contribute to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and other stakeholders. In addition a multidisciplinary approach is needed to provide incentives and encourage the domestication, commercialisation, and agro‐processing of fruit trees.
The availability of fruits from these trees is guaranteed because of the different fruiting periods. This means they are able to meet the food and nutrition needs of the local communities.
A recent study also reported a rich phytochemical and nutritional content across the selected trees. These included fibre, minerals, carbohydrates, organic acids, fats, proteins, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc and vitamins.
Many of the fruits contain wellknown phytochemicals.
There is still a scarcity of research investment and development for the improvement of underutilised fruit trees in Africa. Many still only grow in the wild. This limits their potential for higher yield and growth.
Other challenges identified were the inadequate baseline data on the nutritional properties, low-level acceptability and accessibility. Indiscriminate and illegal use of the trees is also a problem.
Africa’s key to future food-nutrition security may depend on the untapped potential of indigenous fruit trees. Particularly, the rich nutritional composition of indigenous fruits revealed a potential contribution to human diet.
Conversation