Trees for Food and Nutrition“Managing Forests for Food”

Ramni Jamnadass PhDWorld Agroforestry Centre

http://www.worldagroforestry.org/

Statistics

• 842 million people hungry globally; highest prevalence in Africa and then Asia

• Lack of diversity in the diet is associated with deficiency of essential vitamins and minerals -known as hidden hunger; more than 2 billion people worldwide suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies, primarily iodine, iron, vitamin A and zinc, with important health consequences

• An estimated 80 per cent of the world’s stunted children live in just 14 developing countries. Stunting can kill opportunities in life for a child and kill opportunities for development of a nation due to poor development of cognitive faculties.

• Hidden hunger causes nearly 45% of deaths in children under five - 3.1 million annually; 66 million attend classes hungry -23 million in Africa.

• Women and children most vulnerable; around half of all pregnant women in developing countries are anemic causing over 200,000 deaths during child birth each year.

• Research confirms that in the hands of women, an increase in family income improves children’s health and nutrition

Proposed SDG goal 2 and 3

1.6 billion people depend in part or fully on forests and tree resources for their livelihoods.

Direct and indirect roles of forests in food systems

Indirect roles • Income• Bioenergy• Ecosystem Services

Direct• Nutrition and Health – Food and fodder– Medicinals

Challenges and opportunitiesFertilizer treesFMNRSustainable use and conservation

Working title: ‘Managing Forests for Food’

Meta analysis and reviews:

Contribution of forest, non-forest and tree crop income to household budget Poverty and Environment Network (PEN)

Importance of NTFPs for rural communities in the tropics. Belcher et al., 2005

Examples of tree-species-rich agroforests in Africa, Asia and Latin America, with information on tree uses (with particular reference to possible human food use). Steffan-Dewenter et al., 2007

The management of tree genetic resources and the livelihoods of rural communities in the tropics: non-timber forest products, smallholder agroforestry practices and tree commodity crops. Dawson et al., 2014

State of World’s Forest Genetic Resources FAO 2014

Function Africa Oceania South America

South Central

Asia

Southeast Asia

West Asia & Middle

East

Total regions

Apiculture 177 (50) 84 (31) 83 (39) 108 (31) 121 (38) 34 (47) 607 (40)Erosion control 175 (54) 70 (29) 57 (40) 120 (48) 117 (48) 32 (53) 571 (47)

Fibre 141 (40) 93 (38) 60 (33) 133 (45) 149 (45) 32 (56) 608 (42)

Fodder 295 (55) 101 (30) 96 (45) 217 (52) 191 (47) 61 (57) 961 (49)

Food 295 (54) 124 (35) 119 (43) 220 (49) 225 (49) 62 (55)1,045 (48)

Fuel 357 (53) 147 (35) 126 (42) 243 (45) 249 (47) 62 (56)1,184 (47)

Medicine 390 (57) 159 (36) 144 (40) 298 (50) 314 (50) 67 (55)1,372 (50)

Shadeshelter 281 (51) 131 (40) 104 (42) 193 (44) 202 (48) 46 (57) 957 (47)Fertilize soil 194 (51) 83 (33) 73 (45) 143 (42) 154 (45) 26 (46) 673 (45)

Timber 419 (53) 192 (38) 158 (42) 313 (49) 347 (50) 70 (51)1,499 (48)

Total (functions)

2,724 (53) 1,184 (35) 1,020 (42)

1,988 (47)

2,069 (47)

492 (54)

9,477 (47)

Stunting: chronic malnutrition

Highest stunting prevalence: SSA & SA

UNICEF Report 2013: Improving child nutrition, the achievable imperative for global progress

Case Studies : e.g. Western Kenya(i) Document fruit tree species diversity and fruit consumption of

farming households;(ii) Understand perceptions of men and women regarding fruit

production and consumption

370 households (HHs) (basic data, fruit production + consumption, perceptions); fruit tree inventories in 100 HHs; market surveys; focus groups discussions (separately for males/females)

9Examples of surveyed farms in humid (left) and dry (right) environments in Western Kenya

Results: Consumption data

• Availability: 78% have a homegarden, 85% grow vegetables, 80% fruits, 89% have livestock

• Only 28% of HHs had fruit the day before (8% vitamin A-rich fruit)

• Typical diet:Cereals, oil/fat,beverages, vegetables,sweets/sugar

10

Cereals

Oil and fats

Spices, condiments, beverages

Other vegetables

Sweets

Dark green leafy vegetables

Milk and milk products

Fish

Legumes, nuts, seeds

Other fruits

White tubers

Vitamin A rich fruits

Flesh meats

Vit A rich vegetables/tubers

Eggs

Organ meat

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100% of HHs that consumed the food the day before

English name Species name Jan Feb MarApril May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Vit C Vit A

Tickberry Lantana camara Pawpaw Carica papaya + +++Mango Mangifera indica + +++Banana Musa x paradisiaca Loquat Eriobotrya japonica +++

Mulberry Morus alba (+)Tamarind Tamarindus indica Waterberry Syzygium spp. +++Custard apple Annona reticulata (+)Guava Psidium guajava +++ +Pomegranate Punica granatum White sapote Casimiroa edulis (+)Wild medlar Vangueria madagascariensis Lemon Citrus limon +Orange Citrus sinensis +Chocolate berry Vitex payos +++Avocado Persea americana Passionfruit Passiflora edulis +Jacket plum Pappea capensis Desert date Balanites aegyptiaca (+)Bush plum Carissa edulis

Available species 2 4 6 4 4 5 4 2 3 1 2 2

Hunger gap

Fruit tree portfolio for vitamin supply Vitamin A and C

supply possible year-round

By cultivation of 8-13 fruit tree species on each farm

Sources: Freedman (1998) Famine foods.

Fodder for livestock systems

• Protein supplementation • Supplement shortages in times of extreme

climatic conditions e.g. droughts as they are deep rooted. • Fodder trees are easy to grow, require little land,

labor or capital, • Can sequester carbon through biomass and

improve soil carbon • Evidence on increased milk yields and income

Seré and Steinfeld (1996)

Review would be appropriate as there are no comprehensive reviews or statistics on the use of fodder trees.

FAO has a database on forages, including some fodder trees, but it is very incomplete. Animal Feed Resources Information System (AFRIS) and has been rechristened as Feedipedia – Animal Feed Resources Information System.

INCOME FROM FORESTS/ AGROFORESTRY PRODUCTS

The global export values of tree/AF-based products stood at US $228 billion in 2011 (FAO), growing on average 15%/year. The figure still may under-estimate the smallholder contribution – over 90% smallholder contribution in coffee, cocoa production in Indonesia. In turn, unlike PEN on forest/NTFP, systematic studies on HH income contribution of AF products are lacking, except separate reports - 30% by mango AF in Bangladesh, 32% horticulture income in Kenya.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Global Latin America Asia Africa

rela

tive

inco

me

(% o

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tal)

natural forest

plantation forest

non-forest environment

Forest/non-forest income contribution to total income (Anglesen et al.2014)

Income contribution to household budgets of rural people is widely varied from 10%-80%, depending on contexts, with the higher contribution among the poorer groups. PEN systematic study reveals on average 22% of incomes from forest and 6.4% from non-forest wild lands is mainly f or food, woodfuel, structure & fiber.

Benefits of woodfuel in sub-Saharan Africa

2.5 billion people depend on biomass energy for cooking -87% is wood based (IEA 2006).

In SSA, 90% of the population rely on woodfuel (firewood and charcoal) (IEA, 2006).

Charcoal industry annually in Africa is worth >US$ 11 billion employing >7m people in 2030 will be US$12 billion and 12 million people (World Bank, 2011, FAO, 2014,)

In Kenya >Ksh32 billion (US$427m), compares -Ksh35 billion (US$467m) from tea industry

Negative health effects (i) household IAP- 4 million annual deaths globally from respiratory infections affecting mostly women and children. (Lim et al, 2012).

Traditional cooking practices in India & Kenya and sourcing firewood in Kenya

(ii) sourcing firewood -head, spinal injury to women and children, time and calorific energy expenditure.

Impacts of woodfuel on health and enviroment

At the same time, more literature on health/nutrition without energy links

Serious knowledge gaps on woodfuel-food security/nutrition links!

energy-food security/ nutrition hypotheses discussed ?

if discussed, main focus?

if discussed, mainly woodfuel?

if discussed, empirical evidence?

if discussed, income/ wealth differentiation considered?

if discussed, gender perspective considered?

29% 50% 67% 33% 67% 83%

Preliminary result* of a mini-review on literature on bioenergy/food security by SIANI (SEI-CIFOR-ICRAF)

Resource degradation Low agric. productivity

Woodfuel scarcity Inferior cooking practice Food insecurity/malnutrition

More time for collectionLess investment in productive activities

Ricketts, 2004. Conservation Biology 18, 1262-1271

Environmental Services: Forests/Agroforests and Income20% increased coffee yields

within 1 km

Soil Fertility: Trees and shrubs for increased crop production

In terms of planting of trees and crops, more than 160,000 Zambian farmers now grow food crops under Faidherbia trees. More than 200,000 farmers in Malawi have recently been testing tree-maize intercrop systems.

Public Private partnershipsIncome generation and nutrition sensitive value chains

Challenges and Opportunities: Biological, Economic and Social

Lack of information/data (common methodology):– Nutritional quality of tree food products – Consumption – Income in informal and formal markets – Knowledge gaps on woodfuel-food security/nutrition links! – Building on data on geneflow, pollinators, physiology..etc. – No comprehensive reviews or statistics on the use of fodder trees, fuelwood with respect to

nutrition. – Etc.

Attention required– Improved management of tree genetic resources i.e. paying attention both to domestication if local

nutritious tree foods; development of cultivars for farming lands– Nutrition sensitive value chains….private and public sector– Supporting systems by which improved germplasm is delivered to farmers and hence communities

( market systems)– For tree commodity crops, more attention is needed on the valuation of wild and semi-wild genetic

resources so that better methods for conservation that recognise value can be implemented. – Interdisciplinary and systematic research that deals with different scales and perspectives– Policies to promote dietary diversity where local/national tree foods are considered as well– Etc.

Ian DawsonKatja Kehlenbeck

Miyuki IiyamaStepha McMullin

Sammy CarsanDaniel OforiMary Njenga

Jens-Peter Barnekow Lillesø