2014 Mar: Baobab seedlings get big ideas!

In November last year EcoProducts did a workshop with 50 rural women harvesters in how to grow and conserve baobabs.  Each woman was given a seed and a planting bag to take home.  Well, when I visited the village this week, some of the women took me to see their so- called seedlings.  They had successfully germinated and had grown very fast into strapping little baobab trees!  They need another year or two before they are tall enough to survive goat browse and then we will plant them out. This is all part of a wider baobab tree conservation program. Here's a photo of Blessing with her little tree. 

 

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AT WHAT AGE DO BAOBAB TREES START TO PRODUCE FRUIT?

AT WHAT AGE DO BAOBAB TREES START TO PRODUCE FRUIT?

Flower and fruit production usually only takes place once a tree is a certain size. Baobab tree growth is dependent on access to water. Where trees grow in high rainfall areas (+1000mls …per year) baobabs can reach maturity much more quickly than in arid areas. We have worked out that in Venda where rainfall is […]

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A data-check for Kuduland’s Bao Mama

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“I often get asked to assess large baobab trees, either for their size or their health,” says Dr Sarah Venter, founder of the Baobab Foundation. “This Greater Kuduland Reserve’s Baobab is one of the biggest ones I have ever measured”. With a circumference of 25 m, height of 12 m and crown diameter of 24 […]

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Film maker Greg Cameron: do less, do it better, make it matter more

Film maker Greg Cameron: do less, do it better, make it matter more

Recently, Greg Cameron was commissioned by PhytoTrade to make a film on baobabs in which he records the stories of the baobab fruit collectors and how baobab fruit help them improve their lives. Here, Itai Chibiya, PhytoTrade's Monitoring and Research Evaluator is being filmed while being interviewed.   EcoProducts was chosen as the site for the interviews.  Sarah […]

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