Training to assess Baobab resources in Zimbabwe

Dr Sarah Venter recently trained a group of ecologists on doing tree-health assessments in Zimbabwe. “We were looking at various aspects of baobab health that include the impact of elephants on baobab trees, bark harvesting and diseases.  This work took us all around Zimbabwe including the Hwange National Park, where the assessment team measured over 900 baobabs” she says.

“I worked with Gus Le Breton the African Plant Hunter and an organisation called Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe (BIZ), a non-profit innovation hub, driving research and facilitating knowledge-sharing around existing and potential commercial applications for indigenous under-utilized plants”.

A short video of some of the action in Zimbabwe can be seen here.

Says BIZ’s website: “Our goal is simple. There are many locally available plant species that could be used by small-scale farmers, especially in the drier parts of Zimbabwe. Our job is to find them, study them and develop them into marketable products, thus transforming them from potential revenue sources into actual revenue sources. We don’t get hung up on theory. We want to see farmers generating real cash from these underutilized plants. Otherwise, we’re wasting our time”.

 

Continue reading....

Find more interesting articles below

Pre-School Christmas Gifting

Pre-School Christmas Gifting

Santa came early for these pre-school little ones!

Read more
Dung Beetles and Baobabs

Dung Beetles and Baobabs

Baobab seeds are relatively large,but it’s not an impossibility that that germinating Baobab seedlings could use the manure buried by dung beetles to boost the growth of its first few shoots!

Read more
Congratulations to our winners!

Congratulations to our winners!

Wow! It’s been tough choosing winners, people! So many great comments – so first of all a big THANK YOU to all of you for participating. It’s been wonderful to hear from each and every one of you and we’re grateful for your input. It gives us a very good idea of the kind of skin […]

Read more