Tag: adansonia digitata
Potential to harness superior nutritional qualities of exotic baobabs if local adaptation can be conferred through grafting
Baobab leaves form an important part of the local diet in Sahel countries and elsewhere in Africa. Existing leaf nutritional data and agroforestry performance information are based solely on Adansonia digitata L., the baobab of continental Africa. The introduction potential of Adansonia species from the center of diversity in Madagascar and from Australia remains untapped. To assess this potential, the mineral contents and B-1 and B-2 vitamin levels of dried baobab leaves were determined for five-year old trees of A. digitata, A. gibbosa (A. Cunn.) Guymer ex D. Baum, A. rubrostipa Jum. & H. Perrier (syn. A. fony Baill.), A. perrieri Capuron and A. za Baill. grown in an introduction trial in Mali. Nutritional data were evaluated against survival and vigor to identify promising germplasm. Leaf vitamin and crude protein contents were highest in the Madagascar species, especially A. rubrostipa (B-1 88 mg 100 g(-1), B-2 187 mg 100 g(-1), protein 20.7% dry weight). However, the local species far outperformed the introductions in survival, tree height, basal diameter and resistance to termites. We suggest grafting as a way of harnessing the vigor of well-adapted local baobab varieties to the superior nutritional profiles of A. rubrostipa and others. Cross-species grafting tests in Adansonia were successful, thus creating new agroforestry possibilities with different scion/rootstock combinations.
The market potential of parkland trees
The article reports on a study by ICRAF scientists, in the sahelian region on the commercial value of some of the trees found in the parkland systems in the region. It indicates that more than 30 products from 17 woody species were identified. The principle species were Adansonia digitata, Vitellaria paradoxa, Parkia biglobosa, Tamarindus indica, and Borassus aethiopum. The products from these trees are sold in the markets and they are an important source of income to the people of the region.
Agroforestry: a decade of development (ICRAF’s tenth anniversary 1977-1987)
Throughout the world, at one period or another in its history, it has been the practice to cultivate tree species and agricultural crops in intimate combination. The examples are numerous. It was the general custom in Europe, at least until the Middle Ages, to clear-fell derelict forest, burn the slash, cultivate food crops for varying periods on the cleared areas, and plant or sow tree species before, along with, or after the sowing of the agricultural crop. This “farming system” is, of course, no longer popular in Europe. But it was still widely followed in Finland up to the end of the last century, and was being practised in a few areas in Germany as late as the 1920s (King, 1968). In tropical America, many societies have traditionally simulated forest conditions in their farms in order to obtain the beneficial effects of forest structures. Farmers in Central America, for example, have long imitated the structure and species diversity of tropical forests by planting a variety of crops with different growth habits. Plots of no more than one-tenth of a hectare contained, on average, two dozen different species of plants each with a different form, together corresponding to the layered configuration of mixed tropical forests: coconut or papaya with a lower layer of bananas or citrus, a shrub layer of coffee or cacao, tall and low annuals such as maize, and finally a spreading ground cover of plants such as squash (Wilken, 1977).
The African baobab (Adansonia digitata, Malvaceae): Genetic resources in neglected populations of the Nuba Mountains, Sudan
Premise of the study: Adansonia digitata L. is one of the most important indigenous fruit trees of mainland Africa. Despite its signifi cance for subsistence and income generation of local communities, little is known about the genetic and morphological variability of East African populations of A. digitata , including those of Sudan. The aim of the current study, therefore, was to analyze genetic and morphological variability of different baobab populations in Kordofan, Sudan and to estimate the effect of human intervention on genetic differentiation and diversity.