Africa’s indigenous food plants, often neglected in favour of the more exotic mainstream varieties, can hold the key to meeting Africa’s food needs particularly in the face of climate change. But breeders of such plants need government support to succeed.
In the words of UN Special Coordinator for development in the Sahel, Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, “You do your economics based on your initial conditions, if you are given lemons you make lemonade and if you are given grapes you make wine, but you can’t take grapes and make lemonade and vice versa”.
At a plant breeding forum I attended, a renowned African botanist asked, “What chance do African producers have against Brazil in producing soybean?” Africa may not be able to match the South American country in the production of soybean, it has the Marama bean (Thylosema esculentum) which also has highly significant protein content (40%) and can serve as an alternative.
Africa can actually resolve the food insecurity and malnutrition challenges plaguing the continent by simply tapping into the indigenous crop species that are adapted to the environmental conditions.
In the wake of global warming the climatic conditions are increasingly becoming unsuitable for the production of exotic crops such as wheat, rice, maize and potato in Africa. This will further exacerbate the food shortages on the continent. A feasible option is to expeditiously and significantly integrate the indigenous plant species into our diets so as to augment our food supply. The role of plant breeders in taking this paradigm shift can never be over-emphasised.
Most farmers who are interested in producing these ‘orphan crops’ like pearl millet, sorghum, teff, Bambara nuts, Ensette (False banana), finger millet, etc. complain of limited access to quality seed. However, just as the Chinese write the word ‘crisis with a two-stroked brush, one stroke for ‘danger’ and the other for ‘opportunity, this seemingly formidable challenge may actually be a lucky chance for the African plant breeders.
Conscious efforts need to be made towards developing elite varieties of these crops. As climate induced droughts are becoming more frequent in the region, this strategic move will see the African seed-houses protecting their interests.
Indigenous Species neglected
Inasmuch as the indigenous plant species are adapted to the environment and are quite resilient to drought conditions, they tend to have meagre yields. This is so because very little investment if any at all has been channeled towards orphan crops to improve their traits.
Most plant breeders therefore tend to direct their attention towards the ‘mainstream crops’, mainly exotic, which receive funding at the expense of the orphan crops. Hence, funding models specifically designated for indigenous crops should be developed, thus supporting the endeavours of plant breeders who pledge to venture into the improvement of this category of plants.
This will see them improving crucial traits such as yield components and quality aspects. The quality parameters are an important issue because producers bemoan marketing challenges due to the fact that most of the indigenous crops by virtue of being less advanced in terms of quality traits are not suitable for machine processing.
It is therefore imperative that the plant breeders produce plant varieties that can be easily machine processed. The obtaining of high yielding varieties (HYVs) of the indigenous crops with superior quality traits will certainly usher a new phase of the green revolution in Africa.
One of the ways of changing the farmers’ perception of the indigenous plants, thus stimulating demand is to engage the African governments such that they join the bandwagon and support this agenda by providing subsidies for the production of indigenous crops, providing guaranteed markets and developing frameworks that spearhead the adoption of these crops by the farmers.
The African plant breeder has a duty to perform to ensure that this becomes a reality. As the breeders take up the initiative to improve indigenous crops, they will need adequate statistics and information to court and convince investors as well as policymakers.
Moreover, as part of the collection of different cultivars and landraces of these orphan crops for various breeding objectives, the indigenous knowledge surrounding these plant species is safeguarded.
These efforts will lead to the development of well-structured value-chains for these crops. A demonstration of action towards this goal is the effort being made by African plant breeder, Professor Enoch A. Dako who advocates for the development of the Sisre berry market. He and his team in Benin managed to reduce the crop development cycle (when it reaches acceptable yield) of this plant from seven years down to 2 years.
The partnership between the African Baobab Alliance and the Dairiboard of Zimbabwe can have extensive implications that can lead to considerable improvement of the baobab plant in terms of yield and quality. The partnership has already resulted in the production of a baobab-based juice / beverage thus ensuring consistent demand as well as continued improvement of this plant species.
The sum and substance of this discourse is that the endeavours of African plant breeders are indispensable to fostering climate-resilient agrifood systems. This initiative will ultimately culminate in attaining food security and achievement of UN sustainable development goal number 2 (Zero Hunger) in Africa.