African bush butter, oil bean seeds, soursop fruits, bush mango, African bread fruit, African star apple, bitter cola… Do you know there are many edible fruits in Africa and they are socio economically important for indigenous people and farmers? In Nigeria, 20 to50% of rural household income comes from selling these forest fruits, especially during hungry seasons when farms are planted with cash crops. Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP) have cultural importance for rural dwellers, as well as medicinal values. For example, kernels of wombulo, a special tree seeds in West Africa, can be processed into flour, margarine, cooking oil, soup and cosmetic products. Jonathan Onyekwelu from Nigeria shared his research on domestication of socio-economically important forest food tree species. However, forest fruit tree species are facing challenges such as deforestation and forest degradation. In Nigeria, mother trees are in extinction and ageing situation. Also, there is a lack of domestication and conservation measures to preserve these fruit trees. For post-harvest management there is a lack of appropriate storage facilities and technology. In Nigeria many of the NTFP can be collected by farmers in native forest and farmers also start to plant these forest fruit trees in their own farms in combination of agroforestry system, which can diversify food sources and income. Facing aging tree problems, farmers have started to replant and replace old trees with new seedlings. More on NTFP from FAO: http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6695e/x6695e02.htm