Untapped opportunities: enhancing food and nutritional security through introducing high value fruit trees in the highlands of Ethiopia

Key research activities and findings -Introducing high value trees (HVT) 5 varieties of Avocado (Percia america), Apple (Malus domestica Borkh ), 5 varieties of Walnut (Fig 4) -Testing and identifying their suitability through on farm, experimental, laboratory trial, socio economic survey, and capacity building -Effect of management practices, (watering regime, mulching, fruit thinning, root stock compatibility) on survival, growth, yield and fruit quality -Survival rate ranges (between 90 and 100%) for avocado and (between 75 and 96%) for apple across sites (Fig 3); -Nursery site established (at Sinana) to enable local partners including farmers to propagate and graft HVT in their localities (Fig 6) -300 farmers, 4 MSc and 1 PhD trained; -5 reports and 2 briefs prepared, and 3 journal articles under review – Key messages below: -Crop load of 2 fruits per spur resulted in best yield and marketable quality;  - Dynamic model estimated wide range of chill accumulation across 9 locations; i.e. from the lowest chill site (15 Chill Portions) at Debremarkos to the higher chill site (58 Chill Portions) at Debrebirhan ; -Almost all Africa RISING SI technologies had positive effects on yield, its value and sold quantity and its policy implications are dawn

---

• View source