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Soil Information as a Factor to Consider in Sustainable Tree Crop Production for Nutritional Security, Poverty Alleviation and Biodiversity Management in Africa

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Abstract

Africa, especially Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is still backward in terms of nutrition and food sufficiency, wealth creation/poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation of fruit trees and food tree crops. Agriculture, which is a means for achieving all the aforementioned objectives is still not given its pride of place. In areas where it is placed on a vantage position, certain soil factors such as stoniness, poor soil fertility status and low water holding capacity limit fruit nutritional quality, threaten biodiversity and reduce returns on input into tree crop production in Africa. In many cases, soil properties are not properly managed due to poor or inadequate soil information. This has limited the capacity for achieving sufficiency in food production by tree crops as it has led to >40% decrease in food production. Proper use and application of soil information to tree crops production in order to enhance their roles in nutrition/food security, poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation and economic development in Sub Saharan Africa needs urgent attention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Bernard Ndubuisi Okafor & Akeem Abayomi Olaniyan

  2. Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Oluwabunmi Aderonke Denton

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  1. Bernard Ndubuisi Okafor
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  2. Akeem Abayomi Olaniyan
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  3. Oluwabunmi Aderonke Denton
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  1. Food Security and Safety Niche, North-West University, Mmabatho, South Africa

    Olubukola Oluranti Babalola

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Okafor, B.N., Olaniyan, A.A., Denton, O.A. (2021). Soil Information as a Factor to Consider in Sustainable Tree Crop Production for Nutritional Security, Poverty Alleviation and Biodiversity Management in Africa. In: Babalola, O.O. (eds) Food Security and Safety . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50672-8_18

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