Onfarm tree nurseries for Tree Domestication Jonathan Muriuki

On-farm tree nurseries for Tree Domestication Jonathan Muriuki

On-farm tree nurseries; Overview • Why focus on on-farm tree nurseries ? • Nursery categories • Constraints and points of intervention • Research questions • Challenges • Nursery associations

Why focus on the on-farm tree nurseries ? • Vital information to tree domestication (species diversity, supply and demand, improvement value) • Seedling distribution and marketing strategies • Support on-going research (type 2 & 3 on-farm species trials, nursery experiments) • Quality seedling production on-farm to reflect true species/provenance potential • Income generation to alleviate poverty • Tree nursery operators as extension agents

Nursery categories Generalist Vs specialist • Ease of propagation (seed pretreatment, vegetative propagation techniques) • Area of specialisation (indigenous species or exotic, fruit, timber etc)

Central nurseries • Operated by organisations (schools, NGOs, research projects, private companies) • Staff directly employed or re-deployed hence impressive • Differ depending on institutional capacity (BAT vs a primary school) • Necessary for production of difficult and long-term species (often specialist) • Disadvantages - transport of seedlings, distribution of benefits, cash-flow fluctuations

Group nurseries • Mainly overflows of other group activities • Seen as part of social activities • Different forms e. g central group nursery or several satellite nurseries or each member has own nursery under common leadership • Generate income but rarely make profit • Good for on-farm trials especially in members farms • Constant group disintegration effects • Members use left-overs which reflect poorly

Individual (private) nurseries • Privately managed for sale or private use • More enterprising with seeds purchased and seedlings sold hence good indicators of germplasm delivery pathways • More species diversity for a basketful of options to clients (often generalist) • More competitive meaning high seedling quality but also more variable

Nursery constraints and points of intervention • Lack of basic information training and follow-up, nursery associations, collaboration links with other agencies • Germplasm supply minimal seed supply, supply information on seed dealers, contracts for onfarm seed production

Constraints cont. . • Inputs - information and cheap alternatives especially water • Marketing of seedlings Link to users of seedlings where possible, nursery associations, linkages with other agencies, training on marketing and entrepreneurship

Research Questions • How many nurseries do we need in a landscape ? • How do we address some of the constraints ? - MSc studies etc • Technical questions -Seed and seedling quality issues • Socio-economic questions - community action and marketing issues

Some challenges to development of on-farm nurseries • Community dynamics varying binding factors in community (group dynamics, nursery associations) • Operator frustrations – natural calamities, some manage, some fail; attitudes • Balance between research and development

Nursery associations • The nursery fashion of farmer co-operatives as an idea of the project • Allow transparency and better information sharing on demand forecast, bulk orders, new species, seed sources etc • Channels for collaboration and training • Share financial and marketing information • Sourcing within network • Networking with seed dealers / suppliers

Developing nursery associations Support in form of extension visits, seeds, input packages and training Group nurseries Groups break up Little support but generate Individual nurseries income - little entrepreneurial skills Link through workshops, Networks link to bulk meetings etc demand, seed sources, Nursery associations training and information on new species & markets - Area specific scale and mode of development