Allanblackia, a new tree crop in Africa for the global food industry: market development, smallholder cultivation and biodiversity management

The seeds of Allanblackia trees produce edible oil with significant global market potential. Consequently, a private-public partnership involving Unilever and known as 'Novella Africa' is engaged in the development of Allanblackia as a new crop in a number of African countries. The purpose...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests, trees and livelihoods trees and livelihoods, 2010, Vol.19 (3), p.251-268
Main Authors: Jamnadass, Ramni, Dawson, Ian K, Anegbeh, Paul, Asaah, Ebenezar, Atangana, Alain, Cordeiro, Norbert J, Hendrickx, Harrie, Henneh, Samuel, Kadu, Caroline A.C, Kattah, Cyril, Misbah, Maha, Muchugi, Alice, Munjuga, Moses, Mwaura, Lucy, Ndangalasi, Henry J, Njau, Chrispine Sirito
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allanblackia
Clusiaceae
commercialization
commodity exchange
cooking fats and oils
domestication
farm credit
food marketing
forest trees
germplasm
germplasm delivery system
globalization
household income
international trade
livelihood
market access
market supply chain
multinational corporations
new crops
nontimber forest products
Novella Africa
participatory research
Private-public partnership
private-public partnerships
profitability
rural communities
rural resource centers
seed oils
small-scale farming
supply chain
sustainable development
sustainable forestry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The seeds of Allanblackia trees produce edible oil with significant global market potential. Consequently, a private-public partnership involving Unilever and known as 'Novella Africa' is engaged in the development of Allanblackia as a new crop in a number of African countries. The purpose of this partnership is to build a profitable and sustainable initiative for harvest, marketing and cultivation. Rural communities are directly involved and a participatory approach to domestication is being followed to maximise farmers' livelihood benefits. This is the first time a multinational company has partnered in such an approach, and the initiative represents an example for the domestication of other new tree crops. Investing in good communication between partners is considered to be essential to success by ensuring trust and a common understanding of priorities. Progress to date has involved the establishment of market supply chains for oil, based firstly on wild harvest, and the initiation of cultivation by smallholders. Further work will involve the development of rural resource centres to deliver improved germplasm to growers. At the same time, these centres will provide other services such as market information, credit and access to buyers. Through this strategy it is foreseen that there will be progress towards the development of a market value chain which removes producers' constraints to profitable involvement. Furthermore, the diversification of farmers' cropping systems should have positive impacts for biodiversity and provide resilience in the face of climate change. Currently, the most important activity under the initiative is the promotion of Allanblackia planting, so that production constraints do not hamper market development.
ISSN:1472-8028
2164-3075
DOI:10.1080/14728028.2010.9752670