Linkages between domestication and commercialization of non-timber forest products: implications for agroforestry

People throughout the tropics have depended on their indigenous plants for foodsecurity and a host of everyday products, from medicines to fibres. The study of theseuses is the domain of ethnobotany, while their place intrade is that of economic botany.Trees, in particular, have been an important group of plants meeting the needs ofhunter-gatherers, subsistence and small-scale farmers. Too often scientists have over-looked the needs of people for these products, and considered that ‘access by farmersto modern inputs such as improved livestock, crop varieties andhybrids, fertilizers,and pest control measures, as well as credit, technical assistance, andimproved farmmanagement practices are essential components of a successful strategy to meetfoodproduction and development goals’ (Pinstrup-Anderson 1993).With the ravages of deforestation the overlooked indigenous plant resources have comeunder severe pressure, made worse by the growing numbers of people in tropical coun-tries, many of whom depend upon these sources for fulfilling some of theirbasic needs.These pressures have led to the concept of domesticating many of these indigenous plants(Leakey & Newton 1994a, Leakey & Jaenicke 1995, and the papers of this volume)andincorporating them in agroforestry systems (Sanchez 1995, Sanchez & Leakey in press)primarily for the ben.efit of small-scale, resource-poor farmers. This represents a newparadigm for feeding the world. Instead of focusing on a limited number of highly domes-ticated crops, often grown in monocultures, this new paradigm is based on a much greaterdiversity of plants, including many partially domesticated tree crops providing an array ofproducts for consumption and trade. Is this a viable option

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