African
Botanical Heritage for New Crop Development
The
African continent is rather poor in plant biodiversity when compared to other
continents on
and
around the equator. Nevertheless, lots of useful plant species have been
domesticated from
Sub-Sahara
Africa material. Ethnobotanical research offers the possibility to collect
information
on
the use and utility of wild plant species from traditional peoples often living
in or close to a
challenging
natural environment. This type of information then allows us to find new
candidates
for
domestication and subsequent crop development for income generation and
increased food
security.
The case of Gnetum africanum illustrates the practical implications of
developing a lesserknown
species,
and highlights the institutional problems that go together with niche crop
development.
The
latter are subsequently presented and discussed in extenso, and solutions
proposed in a
second
part of this review text.
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