Objective
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are among the poorest in the world and food security problems are severe. Fruit trees are essential in the diets of rural people in these countries, providing: nutrients and vitamins to diets otherwise dominated by cereals; foo d, at times where stocks of annual crops are low; sources of income through commercialisation. Despite the generally accepted importance of trees, most food security programmes focus on cereals. The potential of fruit trees is under-utilised. The SAFRUIT p roject aims to increase food security and livelihoods for people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, through facilitating access to knowledge about fruit trees and access to germplasm. The project has a holistic approach involving researchers from social (inc l. economic) and natural sciences. The aim of improving food security through increased use of fruit trees will thus be obtained through studies of : 1. institutional constraints and opportunities for use of trees 2. marketing of fruit tree products 3. int eractions (competition and synergy) between fruit trees and annual crops 4. appropriate technologies for vegetative propagation at village level 5. genetic variation of the selected species, enabling selection and development of superior genotypes 6. alter native pathways for distribution of tree germplasm The project will focus on four important tree species in the region: Adansonia digitata (baobab), Parkia biglobosa, Tamarindus indica and Ziziphus mauritiana. The project will have a strong dissemination c omponent reaching a wide range of stakeholders, including farmers, technicians, scientists and policymakers. Participation of farmers, low-tech solutions and sustainability are keywords in the project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciences
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturefruit growing
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturegrains and oilseedscereals
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
FP6-2003-INCO-DEV-2
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
STREP - Specific Targeted Research ProjectCoordinator
COPENHAGEN K
Denmark