Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania: priority fruit species and products for tree domestication and commercialisation I mproving the well being of rural groups and other stakeholders were dwellers in the miombo ecosystem consulted regarding the fruit species through improved domestication, and products that they prefer to Notes utilisation and commercialisation of process, and other aspects such as indigenous fruit trees and their products is training, marketing and general a key goal of a collaborative regional constraints. project coordinated by The World A total of 97 people attended three Agroforestry Centre. This "Domestica- workshops at Magomero in Malawi, tion and Marketing of Indigenous Tabora in Tanzania and Harare in Fruit Trees of the Miombo for Im- Zimbabwe. Processing groups from KI proved Nutrition and Income in South- Malawi and Zambia attended the ern Africa" project is a sub-component Magomero workshop while process- of the World Agroforestry Centre's ing groups from the Tabora district in "Zambezi Basin Agroforestry for Tanzania attended the Tabora work- Sustainable Rural Development" shop. The Harare workshop was programme. attended by a variety of stakeholders, The World Agroforestry Centre, the including, research organisations, http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/default.htm Southern Alliance for Indigenous Re- NGOs and private enterprise. sources (SAFIRE) and the Commercial The product prioritisation process for Products from the Wild (CPWild) Group the Harare workshop was based on from the University of Stellenbosch the ecological, marketing, socio- (www.cpwild.co.za) conducted product economic and technological aspects priority setting workshops among local of market analysis and development. processing groups in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Each category has several indicators Zambia and Tanzania to determine tree against which each product is evalu- species and product preferences amongst ated. The process followed for the processing groups in these countries. Harare workshop was further refined No. 94 This would assist in developing July 2006 agroforestry commercialisation strategies that would aim to improve processing IK Notes reports periodically on group operations. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa and occassionally on such initiatives outside the region. It is published by Priority setting workshops the Africa region's Results and Learning Center as part of an In collaboration with partners, the World evolving K partnership between the Agroforestry Centre established a World Bank, communities, NGOs, number of fruit processing groups in development institutions, and Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanza- multilateral organizations. The views expressed in this article are those of World Bank nia. These groups are actively involved in the authors and should not be the processing of products such as wines attributed to the World Bank Group or and jams and sell their products in their its partners in this initiative. A respective districts (Akinnifesi et al., webpage on IK is available at: //www.worldbank.org/afr/ik 2006). During 2003 a number of these 2 for the Tabora and Magomero workshops. This was done strongly dependent on the regional distribution and availabil- by combining the methodology for the Harare workshop ity of the different fruit tree species. with community level methods suggested by Franzel et al. (1996). Socio-economic evaluation The socio-economic evaluation determined how beneficial these products would be to development and if it could be Discussion used as vehicles for development. The commercial processors attending the Harare workshop rated the high Preferred species and products value oil products as most beneficial to socio-economic During the workshops at Magomero and Tabora partici- development with jam and jelly products as the least pants were asked to focus not only on indigenous fruits. It beneficial. The community processors who attended the was found that they listed a substantial number of exotic Magomero and Tabora workshops rated the lower value fruits as well. Mango was highest on the list of preferred products as having a higher socio-economic potential than species followed by indigenous fruits such as masuku the high value wine and juice products. The reason for this (Uapaca kirkiana) and baobab (Adansonia digitata). discrepancy could be in the levels of experience in process- Many exotic fruits included in the priority lists raise the ing the different products. question about the need to include exotic fruit trees in Mango, guava, groundnut and tomato products were indigenous tree domestication programmes. Exotic fruits rated the highest by community processors. The reasons such as mango could be used as a driver for domestication for this could be that the fruits are easily accessible and and commercialisation programmes and indigenous fruits abundant and that people would be more familiar with the could be introduced as complementary products. processing of these fruits than with indigenous fruits. This Marula (Sclerocarya birrea) products were strongly again highlights the need to focus not only on indigenous promoted by the more commercial orientated participants fruits but also exotic fruits in domestication and of the Harare workshop. However, marula products commercialisation programmes. received a much lower rating by the community processing groups who attended the Tabora and Magomero work- Market evaluation shops. The Harare workshop focussed on an international and The participants from the Harare workshop also fo- regional marketing perspective. This workshop rated cussed strongly on oil products, but the Tabora and marula products the highest. Marula is one of the best- Magomero participants did not list oils as preferred prod- known natural products in the southern African region ucts. This could possibly be attributed to the higher level of made popular by the Amarula Cream liqueur of Distell technology required for commercial oil processing that is Corporation in SouthAfrica. not available at rural community level. The markets for oils The community groups in the Magomero and Tabora seem to be mostly export orientated and community groups workshops rated marula products last. These community are not aware of these markets or do not have access to groups also rated high value products such as wines much them. lower than lower value jam products. This indicates a need for a differentiation in marketing strategies when dealing Product evaluation with the marketing of fruit products at local and regional/ Ecological evaluation international level. The ecological evaluation was conducted to determine the impact of harvesting on the fruit supply and to look at Technology evaluation aspects such as fruit availability and ease of harvesting. The technology evaluation shed some light on the reasons The results show a large difference between the commu- for rating high value oil and wine products lower than low nity groups who attended the Magomero and Tabora value juice and jam products by community groups. It workshops. At the Magomero workshop exotic fruits such seems in most instances people are aware of the value of as mango were rated highest, whereas the Tabora work- these products but they do not have access to the skills and shop participants preferred indigenous fruits. technology required to process wine and oil products. It The Harare as well as Magomero workshops gave the also seem that people are more familiar with the technolo- lowest ecological ratings to marula products. It seems gies required to process exotic fruit products than indig- however that there is no clear correlation between ecologi- enous fruits. cal preferences of the different workshops. It could probably be assumed that ecological preferences are 3 Overall rating rural communities. The selection of products focussed mainly on jams, juices The overall product rating for Magomero indicated that and wines. Wines can be seen as high value products but mango products were the most preferred. Only one the wine products were consistently rated lower in terms of indigenous product i.e masuku juice, was rated amongst the social, marketing and technological aspects than most other top five products from Magomero (see table 1). products. Jams and juices had the highest ratings in terms In the case of Tabora, zambarau (Syzygium guineense) of community value adding and employment creation juice was rated as the overall most preferred product with potential. two other indigenous products, namely ntonga (Strychnos The exercise dealing with technology and skills showed cocculoides) juice and ntalali (Vitex mombassae) jam, that the participants had less knowledge about the produc- amongst the top five products. In both instances marula tion of wines and juices than of the making of other and baobab products did not receive a very high rating. products such as jams and dried fruit. It can probably be The Harare group rated the high value oil products concluded that the participants see products such as wines overall behind masawu (Ziziphus mauritiana) fruit leather and juices as high value, high-income products but they and marula jelly. Therefore, jam and jelly products are the currently lack the skills and knowledge required for the most preferred products overall. production of these products. Mango and tomato products were consistently rated Table 1: Species and products identified at the three higher than the indigenous fruit products in the Magomero workshops, in order of preference. workshop. Reasons for this might be that these fruits are generally more available and accessible. This preference Magomero Tabora Harare for exotic fruits is must be kept in mind in future domesti- Mango jam Zambarau juice Masawu fruit leather cation strategies. Tomato jam Guava jam Marula jelly An enterprise development model based on high value Mango dried Ntonga juice Marula oil preferred products such as wines and juices could form the Mango juice Ntali jam Parinari oil basis for support to enterprise groups. Within such an Masuku juice Groundnut butter Masuku jam enterprise development model the following strategies Baobab juice Mango juice Ntonga jelly Masuku wine Marula wine should be considered: Baobab wine Parinari wine · Combine indigenous and exotic fruit trees in domestica- Marula juice Baobab juice tion and commercialisation programmes. Marula wine Flacourtia jam · Focus on training in the processing of high value products such as wines and oils. · Support processing groups in acquiring appropriate Constraints to processing technology. · Support processing groups in finding markets for their The Magomero and Tabora workshop participants indi- products. cated that a lack in processing equipment and packaging · Link processing groups with commercial enterprise materials, insufficient capital to acquire processing equip- partners who could assist them in producing preferred ment and a lack of markets are the main constraints faced products of acceptable quality and the right quantities. by rural processing groups. Seen in the context of the Strategies related to the commercial processing of fruit product priority setting exercise, these constraints effec- products could be coupled with support in terms of pro- tively prevent rural processing groups from focussing on cessing materials, training and micro-financing. the production of higher value products such as wines and oils. Conclusions Strategies The three workshops have highlighted the differences in perceptions regarding fruit trees and fruit products between When the Magomero and Tabora workshop participants commercial and community processors, as well as between were asked to select the species important to them, they processors in different areas of southern Africa. Evidently, selected a combination of indigenous and exotic species as communities involved with the processing of fruit, prefer to well as tree and non-tree species. This selection illustrates utilise both indigenous and exotic species. the integrated nature of agroforestry as implemented by In developing agroforestry strategies it would be critical 4 to consider these differences between processing groups. Franzel, S., Jaenicke, H. and Janssen, W., 1996. Choos- The focus should be on a range of tailor-made domestica- ing the Right Trees ­ Setting Priorities for Multi-purpose tion and commercialisation strategies for different pro- Tree Improvement. ISNAR Research Report No. 8. cessing groups, levels of commercial development and Kadzere, I., Chilanga, T.G., Ramadhani, T., Smart, L., geographic regions. Such a strategy could present Malembo, L.N., Rukuni, D., Simwanza, P.P., Rarieya, M. regional development agencies an opportunity to concen- and Maghembe, J.A., 1998. Choice of Priority Indigenous trate on smaller more focussed projects instead of large Fruits for Domestication in SouthernAfrica: Summary of regional initiatives that are difficult to manage. Case Studies in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In: Selecting indigenous trees for domestication in southern Africa: Priority setting with farmers in References: Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Edited by Maghembe, J.A., Simons, A.J., Kwesiga, F. and Rarieya, Akinnifesi, F.K., F. Kwesiga, J. Mhango, T. Chilanga, A. M. Nairobi: International Centre for Research in Mkonda, C.A.C. Kadu, I. Kadzere, D. Mithofer, J.D.K. Agroforestry: 1 -16. Saka, G. Sileshi, P. Dhliwayo and R. Swai (2006). To- wards Developing the Miombo Indigenous Fruit Trees as The full report on these priority setting studies is Commercial Tree Crops in Southern Africa. Forests, available on the Commercial Products from the Wild Trees and Livelihoods 16:103-121. website ­ www.cpwild.co.za This IK Note was written by Cori Ham, CPWild, from the University of Stellenbosch, and Festus Akinnifesi, World Agroforestry Centre. For more information contact: fakinnifesi@africa-online.net or coriham@mweb.co.za.