Fruit trees can play an important role in family nutrition, as they providemicronutrients, often lacking in staple based diets. As trees have highertolerance to drought, fruit trees are particularly important at times when otherfood sources are not available. During droughts and the food scarcity seasonsbefore the new harvest (‘hunger gap’), products from fruit trees can serve asemergency food or be sold to generate income as an indirect contribution tofood security.ICRAF promotes the development of ‘fruit tree portfolios’ that can beincorporated into agroforestry systems; these represent combinations ofindigenous and exotic fruit tree species that potentially can provide year-roundfruit harvest and fill the ‘hunger gap’. To identify location specific sets of mostsuitable fruit trees, a whole array of decision support tools have been developedby ICRAF.
Publication year
2012
Authors
Bliault R J; Baines R; Kisuya L; Kindt, R.; Kehlenbeck, K.; Jamnadass, R.
Language
English
Keywords
fruits, nutrition, trees, security
Geographic
Kenya
