Ethnoecological Knowledge for Identifying Elite Phenotypes of the Indigenous Fruit Tree,Uapaca kirkianain the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa

Abstract

This study integrates ecological knowledge and scientific principles in selecting superior Uapaca kirkiana phenotypes in Malawi andZambia through focus-group discussions. Fruit collectors and roadside marketers provided locations of superior phenotypes (fruit load, size, and sweetness). About 73% of phenotypes were on cultivated land in Zambia, 66% were on forest reserves, and 15% were on cultivated land in Malawi. Phenotypes ranked superior by communities were indeed superior by scientists' criteria. Local knowledge on superior phenotypes resides with community fruit collectors. Combining local ecological knowledge with scientific approaches in a complementary manner facilitated superior phenotype identification within a relatively short period.

The Future of Food: Domestication and Commercialization of Indigenous Food Crops in Africa over the Third Decade (2012–2021)

“…The Miombo Woodlands contain about 75 indigenous fruit trees, which have provided highly nutritious edible fruits for hunting-gathering communities [16,472] long before settled agriculture [473]. They have supplemented the diet of rural families by providing essential micronutrients, antioxidants, polyphenols, and health benefits, especially for mothers and children.…”

“…They have supplemented the diet of rural families by providing essential micronutrients, antioxidants, polyphenols, and health benefits, especially for mothers and children. They also serve as an alternative for income (cash and barter), especially during times of food scarcity and economic hardship [16,78,[473][474][475][476][477], as such they play an important role in reducing the vulnerability of rural households to hunger and poverty in southern Africa [472]. In Zimbabwe, indigenous fruit trees can reduce this vulnerability by 33% during critical periods in the cropping season [473], also providing a coping strategy for farmers in Zambia and Malawi during periods of drought.…”

“…However, fuelwood, traditional medicines, windbreaks and homestead decoration were considered secondary benefits [480]. In recent times, farming and non-farming households with access to these nutrient-rich indigenous fruits had managed to live above the poverty line throughout the year through sales of fruits when agricultural labour demands were high [473]. With the worsening food crisis, high levels of population growth, and increasing rural and urban poverty levels in southern Africa, there is growing recognition of the importance of indigenous fruit trees.…”

“…In southern Africa, the participatory, more decentralised domestication approach to domestication has been gaining attention in the last decade due to the failure of topdown approaches and the complexity of natural resources management, conservation, and utilisation within rural communities [473,478]. The approach was developed through close collaboration between scientists and farmers, where the farmers and local communities are involved in selecting species [478].…”

Weaving place‐based knowledge for culturally significant species in the age of genomics: Looking to the past to navigate the future

“…For example, Isiwan farming practices and local ways of classifying biodiversity enabled the formation of hypotheses and sampling strategies to assess crop evolution and diversity and verified molecular genetic analyses, which in turn, resolved gaps or uncertainties in local knowledge; (2) Improved quality and breadth of genomic data through opportunities to collect fresh tissue or blood, to access restricted or private sites, or to include treasured samples or populations with unique histories (e.g., Collier‐Robinson et al, 2019); (3) Improved selection and quality of environmental predictors and fitness parameters in efforts to characterize local adaptation (e.g., for environment‐association analyses, EAAs, or genome‐wide association studies, GWAS). Namely, IPLC have identified measures of fitness poorly defined in Western scientific literature (e.g., sexual dimorphism in kōkō or tūī Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae ; Wehi et al, 2019), including culturally desirable characteristics (e.g., superior fruit load, size, and sweetness in wild loquat Uapaca kirkiana in Malawi and Zambia; Mng’omba et al, 2015). Place‐based knowledge can also reveal fine‐scale, stochastic, or changing selection pressures not readily captured by climatic (e.g., temperature and precipitation) or macro‐ecological predictors such as elevation (Herse et al, 2020; Hoban et al, 2016).…”