Native plants could benefit African farmers

Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) reveals how native plant species can improve African farmland.

African legumes can handle dry
conditions and high salinity.
Source: Planet Earth 

Indigenous African legumes could provide an alternative to less suitable plant species introduced from abroad, to help combat hunger, poverty and ecological devastation on the continent.

During the twentieth century, foreign legume species were introduced to Africa. These include soybeans and peanuts, also known as groundnuts - the latter were brought in under a British-backed project in the middle of the century.

Despite their heavy yields and worldwide popularity, such imports aren't necessarily best suited for African conditions, and Janet Sprent, Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Dundee, believes native species could be bred to create better crops before too long.

"This needs to be done on a local level - we should be finding out which crops are suitable for specific areas,' Sprent says. 'The world is getting drier, and in some areas farmers need plants that can handle dry conditions and high salinity. We have to find better options to help African farmers cultivate marginal land."

Sprent and two senior African colleagues published a paper recently on the subject in the Journal of Experimental Botany. The study gives several examples of native plants that could provide alternatives to widely-grown foreign species, particularly if more effort were made to support crop improvement programmes using selective breeding and genetic analysis. As well as improving food security, these crops could bring other benefits such as increasing the amount of carbon held in soils, and adding to the diversity of microbes living there.

For example, the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is widely grown in Africa as a multipurpose crop, providing grain, edible leaves and forage for animals. It doesn't need as much fertiliser as rivals, and some types have a large, vigorous root system that provides good resistance to dry conditions.

Sprent believes that working with local farmers and providing them with the tools of modern plant science is crucial. "We still have a tendency to tell local farmers they must do this or that, but they have a lot of knowledge and ingenuity - whenever I go to Africa I learn a lot more than I teach' she says. 'If we work with local people we can put that knowledge to work."

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in Planet Earth online.