Rome, Italy
Ocotber 27, 2021
Rome, Italy, 27 October 2021 – The FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) have released two publications with key strategic sets of characterization and evaluation descriptors for wild species conserved in situ of two African indigenous fruit trees, Safou and Monkey orange.
Both publications, Key descriptors for Dacryodes edulis (Safou) and Key descriptors for Strychnos cocculoides (Monkey orange), provide an international standard to ensure consistency in the way data about plant material conserved in situ is documented and exchanged around the world. They are particularly helpful for researchers, plant breeders, and conservationists worldwide, in addition to national focal points of the International Treaty.
Dacryodes edulis, also known as Safou, is an oliferous fruit tree found in humid tropical forests. The geographical distribution extends from Angola, through Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, to Sierra Leone in the West, Uganda to the East, and to northern Zimbabwe. It is also cultivated in Malaysia. It has a long history of cultivation in Africa because of its fruits.
Strychnos cocculoides, also known as Monkey orange, is a tree with distinctive corky bark, leaves without sharp tips and large, green, cannonball-like fruits, and it occurs naturally in tropical Africa deciduous woodland habitats and its natural range of distribution stretches from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique to Kenya.
The descriptor lists are based on preliminary characterization datasets developed by the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the FAO International Treaty. The descriptors have been integrated with evaluation traits. Special attention has been given to the inclusion of descriptors related to climate change challenges and nutritional components of particular importance. Those included in these key sets have been chosen because of their worldwide use and global impact.
“These publications aim at facilitating access to and utilization of these African indigenous fruit trees. They are evolving documents designed to be user-friendly global data exchange tools. For each descriptor, the lists provide a brief explanation of content, its coding scheme, and a suggested field name. The descriptors proposed in these booklets constitute the minimum initial list for characterization and evaluation data exchange”, said Mr. Kent Nnadozie, Secretary, International Treaty.
“World Agroforestry is ensuring that African fruit trees, which are treasures of humanity, can be conserved, improved, and brought into the mainstream food culture. Trees such as Safou and Monkey orange have mass support at local level with untapped potential to improve nutrition, reverse degradation, support responsible commercialization and livelihoods. We at the World Agroforestry are on a constant journey of rediscovering such treasures from the old world and contribute to their documentation, enumeration, and popularization. This small effort of defining phenotypic descriptors will go a long way in bringing them on to the global stage and food platter,” said Mr Ravi Prabhu, Deputy Director-General, CIFOR-ICRAF.
These descriptor lists, which follow the international standardized documentation system for the characterization and study of genetic resources, promoted by the International Treaty in the context of the Global Information System, are expected to support studies focusing on genetic and morphological diversity of Dacryodes and Strychnos conservation, domestication and to increase production and use of its products. The domestication and improvement of traditionally used wild indigenous fruit trees hold great promise in agroforestry development.
The publications address the gaps and the lack of coherence in the documentation methods for species conserved in situ. They are the result of global surveys conducted by the Secretariat of the International Treaty in 2020 and 2021, consolidating earlier work done by ICRAF, and considering inputs received from several authoritative experts from different regions of the world.
In partnership with leading research organizations, the Secretariat is developing other similar descriptors for crop wild relatives, revising old descriptors for food crops and creating new ones to fill the gaps identified by the scientific community.
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