Browsing by Subject "indigenous fruit tree"

Food production in densely populated areas needs to adjust to the pivotal challenges of an increasing population and urbanization. Particularly, this applies for Africa, which will face the highest population growth of all continents within the next 30 years. This is why in the future peri-urban agroforestry is expected to play a more important role in this area of the world. Homegardens which are part of agroforestry systems are seen as one of the ways to improve people’s food security and nutrition security. For households fruit trees offer a variety for the daily diet. Besides the fact that fruits contain various vitamins and other nutrients which help to prevent diseases, selling fruits can additionally offer a source of income for some households. This study found out what kind of fruit tree species people are growing in their homegardens, in the peri-urban area of Dzivarasekwa (Harare), Zimbabwe. The study investigated how households use fruits whether they sell them or use them as a part of daily nutrition. The material was collected by interviewing local people in their homegardens in the fall of 2015. 34 interviews were conducted and 5 descriptive maps of homegardens were drawn. The study found in total 16 different fruit trees, from which the most common were mango, avocado, guava and peach. Also 4 different indigenous fruit tree species were grown in the homegardens. From the interviewed households all of them used fruits as a part of nutrition and eight households also sold fruits to get income. The strongest limiting factor in the cultivation of fruit trees was the small size of the homegardens. However, people would be interested to grow more fruit trees, even indigenous ones, if they had the seedlings available and enough space. People were also interested in better varieties if they would be available. The results show that fruit trees grown in the homegardens can produce fruits for the household for the daily diet all over the year. In addition, fruit sales can bring an extra income for the households.