PEOPLE in rural Malawi’s diet could be improved if fruit trees are grown on farms, according to research by the University of Stirling.
Around 20% of the African country’s population is undernourished, and far more suffer from hidden hunger. This means they consume enough calories but lack essential micronutrients like iron, zinc, and vitamin A.
Around 80% of Malawians are involved in smallholder agriculture, and much of the food they consume comes from their production.
However, conventional agri-food policies continue to promote the increased production of staple cereal crops and rarely promote the benefits of fruit trees.
Dr Charlotte Hall of the University of Stirling was behind the research, which examined how having on-farm trees can directly benefit people’s diets.
She examined this relationship using data from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) for Malawi.
Dr Hall, a lecturer in environmental geography, said: “One of the major dietary problems in Malawi is insufficient intake of fruits and vegetables as diets are heavily based around maize.
“Fruits and vegetables tend to be rich in micronutrients that are often deficient in Malawian diets but are also important for other aspects of health such as reducing the risk of chronic diseases.
“We found that households who have trees on their farm have significantly higher fruit and vegetable consumption than households who do not own trees.
“Specifically, households who have a diverse range of tree species have significantly improved fruit consumption.
“These results have implications for strategies to improve diets in Malawi as conventional agri-food policies continue to promote the increased production of staple cereal crops, and very rarely attend to the benefits of trees.”
Dr Hall collaborated with research coauthors at the University of Copenhagen, the University of Manchester, and the Department of Forestry at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and natural resources in Malawi.
Dr Hall added: “We argue that trees should be better recognised in agri-food policies given that the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes could contribute to multiple goals, such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation and improving food security.”
The paper, Trees on Farms Improves Dietary Quality in Rural Malawi, hypothesises that having trees on farms can enhance fruit and vegetable consumption through three key pathways.
These pathways are individuals consuming fruits directly from their trees, individuals selling tree products at markets and using the income to buy other fruits and vegetables; and on-farm trees improving agricultural production, which leads to greater fruit and vegetable consumption.
The European Research Council funded the research under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
The paper was published in the journal Conservation Letters.
