Hybrids sometimes look crazy... and sometimes are very beneficial..for example in Kigoma
This is a great example of what cross-pollinating can do and their benefits...
Improving a cash crop in Kigoma
On Tuesday and Wednesday we visited two of the JGI TACARE projects in small villages near Kigoma. One of the projects is an oil hybridization project, which encourages farmers to replace their poor performing oil palm trees with a highly productive hybrid strain developed by TACARE.
The first stop was in Ujiji with Mr. Amani Kingu to look at TACARE's oil palm hybridization test plot. This test plot has been in use since 1998 and receives support from the United States Agency for International Development. The goal of the program is to develop and promote the use of a high-yielding hybrid variety of oil palm. Equally, the project is designed to teach farmers modern horticultural practices to increase efficiency. Traditionally, farmers grow a local variety of oil palm which has a large seed and very little fruit. This means poor production and little income. And the farmers need to clear more and more land to make a living. Introducing a high-yield variety of oil palm and raising awareness about the importance of conserving the native vegetation will hopefully reduce the rate of deforestation.
These shots show the impressive production potential of the oil palm hybrid developed by TACARE. This hybrid produces five time the amount of palm oil per year than the traditionally cultivated variety.
Oil palm is one of the most important cash crops in the Kigoma region, used in products such as cooking oil, soap, organic cosmetics, animal feed, household products like brooms, firewood, and building material. To date, TACARE has distributed 650,000 hybrid seedlings to local farmers in 19 villages. This is the first project in Tanzania which has produced a high-yield oil palm hybrid.
The new variety produces five times the amount of oil than that of the local variety. In other words, farmers can now produce the same amount of oil ($$$) from one acre than they could on a 5-acre plot in the past. The average local tree produces four to six bunches of small fruit. I saw some of the hybrid trees producing more than 12 bunches of huge fruit. It was so impressive to see the difference. We even got a chance to meet one of the 'parent' trees, which TACARE used to get the very first hybrid seeds.
The following day Mr. Kingu took us to visit a farmer, Mr. Mankanga Ismail, who planted hybrid trees about six years ago. He has taken on the JGI method of intercropping and is now trained to teach others about how to best take care of trees. Of his eight acres, six are now planted with the hybrid trees from TACARE. He showed us trees which are only five years old and already yielding a massive crop.
Mr Ismail's life has changed in many ways since his involvement with JGI's TACARE. Not only is he more financially stable, but he is seen as a leader among local farmers, who are learning from him when they visit his farm. He also says that the profits from the oil palms allow him to send his children to secondary school, which is too expensive for most families to afford.
Thanks to Bill Wallauer for his trip to Kigoma.
Hybrid?
any pics for those hybrids?
Good article about hybrids...
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