A fruit for all seasons

For people in the semi-arid Sahel, Ziziphus mauritiana – locally known as ber or pomme de Sahel – has always been an important source of food, during times of scarcity and famine, as well as a nutritious component of the diet during better times. Its fruit is rich in vitamin C, sugars and carotene; the leaves make good fodder for livestock and are also used for medicinal purposes.

Until recently, Ziziphus was largely overlooked by scientists, but it is now starting to come into its own thanks to a participatory tree domestication programme led by the World Agroforestry Centre and its partners. The programme is helping to improve productivity and the tree’s ability to cope with drought, and it is doing so by taking the best traits of local accessions and blending them with Asian accessions.

The fruits of West African Ziziphus trees are tiny compared to those from Asian trees. For example, the mean weight of fruit from trees sourced in Senegal was 85 times less than fruit from a Ziziphus variety from Thailand. Production also tends to be lower in local varieties. However, local varieties also have advantages, being more drought-tolerant and less vulnerable to attacks by pests and diseases. Using promising accessions introduced from Asian countries and others collected in the Sahel, the domestication work has involved field trials to evaluate the germplasm. Working with local farmers in Mali and neighbouring countries, scientists led by Antoine Kalinganire, have selected trees for desirable traits such as large fruit size, sweetness and resilience to drought.

“So far, over 50 accessions of Ziziphus have been tested and 10 have been adopted by farmers in the Sahel,” says Kalinganire. Similar participatory research has also been used to develop improved varieties of tamarind, baobab and shea. More than 2500 extension agents and farmers are being trained each year in tree nursery techniques, including vegetative propagation, to take advantage of the domestication programme.

One of the aims of the programme is to make fruits available throughout the year. Creating improved accessions of Ziziphus by combining the best traits of native and exotic trees is helping to prolong the months during which it produces fruit. Ziziphus is now the only major fruit tree in the West African Sahel which produces fruit in October and November, provided it is grown under irrigation.

Reference
Kalinganire A, Weber JC and Coulibaly S. 2012.Improved Ziziphus mauritiana germplasm for Saheliansmallholder farmers: First steps toward a domestication programme. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods. Available at: http://bit.ly/1M8ivNA