Cultivating Interest in Allanblackia

1. Cultivating Interest in Allanblackia Tony Simons, ICRAF, Kenya SII Training Course, October 2006

2. Cultivating Interest in Allanblackia • Planting • Managing • Trials • Pilot tree planting

3. 1. Planting • What to plant (cuttings, seedlings, size) • Where to plant (farm, forest, community land) • (shade/sun) • 3. How to plant (design, planting holes, timing) • 4. Motivation to plant

5. Young tree with fruits 4.0m height 12cm dbh 5 years 20 fruits

6. Where to plant?

7. Dry site Wet site

8. Planting grafted seedlings no yes

9. Field planting designs • Single scattered trees • (in crop fields, mixed tree systems, enrichment) • 2. Line planting • (borders, contours, crop fields) • 3. Block planting • (corner of farm, under-utilised land, community land)

10. Single tree broad crown Block of trees narrow crown

11. Single tree narrow crown Block of trees narrow crown

12. Single tree broad crown Single tree narrow crown Allanblackia

13. 2. Management of trees We have no concrete information on Allanblackia needs - spacing - thinning - watering - pruning - fertilising - shading - microsymbionts • What can we learn from similar species? • What is our expert opinion? • What do we want to investigate as we scale up?

14. 2. Management of trees Similar species Botanically – Clusiaceae (e.g. Garcinia) Phytogeographically –Treculia Tree form – Durio Fruit size – Pouteria, Artocarpus

15. Durio zibethinus

17. 6m x 6m spacing

19. Annona

20. Manilkara

22. Treculia africana

23. Artocarpus heterophyllus

26. Kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of crop land Cameroon – 4 kg/ha Ghana – 3 kg/ha Nigeria – 9 kg/ha Tanzania – 10kg/ha

27. Nutrient content (kg per ha) for cocoa and AB 23% assumes 625 AB trees per ha, 30 fruit per tree, 3 fruit per kg seeds 1 - Ghana national cocoa average (Joeffre, 2006) 2 – Allanblackia stuhlmanii average of 12 fruit; (Munjuga & Mwaura, unpubl.)

29. Yellowing in wildings • No fine roots • - mycorhizae?

30. Evaluation trials • Trials cost in terms of both time and money, so: • Why is the trial needed? • How many treatments do I need/have? • What do you plan to measure? How often? • Has anyone else researched this before? • How long is the trial envisaged to last? • What will the trial lead to? • Can it be done satisfactorily on farm?

31. Advantages of work on station • Ease of access, more frequent monitoring • Nursery is usually closer, planting done quicker • Better control of the conditions (water, weeds, etc) • Need for fewer replicates as less variable site • Better security (theft, interference, fire) • Fewer constraints on what is permissible • Gain understanding before going on farm • Trials can be larger and/or more complicated • Visitors can see many trials in one place • Often historical records (field and climate) • May have a conservation role (don’t over play)

32. Disadvantages of work on station • May be unrepresentative of farmers’ conditions • - lead to false conclusions for on farm work • - farmers don’t relate to it • - the control treatment may be misleading • Can be expensive to maintain • Researchers can be reluctant to close trials • Default time fillers for labourers

33. Types of trials • Species trials • Species/provenance trials • Provenance tests • Provenance/family trials • Family (progeny) tests • Clonal trials • Management trials

34. Provenance tests • expect 2-5 fold differences between provenances • ensure seedlot has broad genetic base • (>30 parent trees) • depending on objectives and species, then • need 100-400 trees • is the material well documented? • can you get more seed if it is needed? • do you plan to convert the trial to a seed stand? • where most G x E tests are done (interpret/use?) • hard to do on farm

35. Family (progeny) tests • Used for calculating genetic parameters (s.e.) • - these are age, site, population, trait specific • Used to identify best families (backward seln - cso) • Used to identify next parents (forward seln) • Used for phenology studies, breeding system • Require >30 families, many more for family seln • Generally require >20 trees per family

36. Clonal trials • To observe clonal differences for selection • To determine clonal repeatability • To determine any “c” effects • Can be used for clonal seed orchards, if rogue • Can be used to set up mother blocks, if rogue • Good for mating system experiments

37. Clonal Trials

39. Square plots (measured trees/total) 3 x 3 (1/9) 4 x 4 (4/16) 5 x 5 (9/25) 6 x 6 (16/36) 7 x 7 (25/49) 8 x 8 (36/64)

40. Management trials • careful to ensure relevance to on-farm conditions • can investigate individual factors and interactions: • - spacing • - thinning • - watering • - pruning • - fertilising • - shading • - microsymbionts • - topworking, grafting, budding • - nursery carry-over experiments

41. It is desirable if you can carry your blocking through from the nursery to the field.

42. Who is the farmer?

43. Farmer surveys, Tanzania, TFCG (Aug 2004) • 5 villages around Amani Nature Reserve • all 110 households surveyed know the tree in Msambu • 79% of farmers have trees on their farms • 21% no trees • 60% 1-10 trees • 14% 11-20 trees • 5% > 20 trees • only one farmer raising seedlings • 83% willing to plant if seedlings were available (at price US$0.05 to US$0.20) • all villages had small-scale nurseries • other tree species included Artocarpus, Cedrela, Grevillea • most seedlings sell for US$0.10 to US$0.25, coffee up to US$0.50 • farmers who wanted to raise Allanblackia seedlings included: • 17% sell all seedlings raised • 26% only raise enough to plant on their farms • 52% plant on-farm and sell excess • 5% undecided

44. On a single farm % of early adopters or testers % who test or adopt Second expansion area Third expansion area First test area Reach with info and germplasm Say 60% Maximum final area to Allanblackia TARGET AREA = 200,000 farmers calculate

45. Village tree planting launch May 2006, Tanzania

46. Initial tree planting in areas Where communities already sensitised in collection of seeds

47. Presided over by government officials - Explained well to communities

48. District Forest Officer Did first Allanblackia planting

49. Then farmers dispersed to their farms to do the same

50. Farmer planting Allanblackia • in his/her own farm • Paid US$0.15 after 1st year • Paid US$0.15 after 2nd year • only if surviving • advised farmers they are part of • research effort, not for free