FRUIT AND CROPS\u2014A mango tree in a maize field in Chiradzulu District<\/b>By <\/b>Liz Kimbrough: <\/b><\/p>\n
Planting fruit trees on farms improves dietary quality, according to new research that tracked nearly 1,000 households in Malawi over 10 years.<\/p>\n
The study, published in Conservation Letters, found that families who had trees on their farms ate more fruits and vegetables than those without trees.<\/p>\n
The research examined data from 936 households across Malawi between 2010 and 2020, using surveys from the World Bank\u2019s Living Standards Measurement Study.<\/p>\n
Families with trees on their farms had a 3 percent increase in vegetable consumption compared with those without trees. For every additional tree species a household owned, fruit consumption increased by 5 percent.<\/p>\n
– Advertisement –<\/p>\n
While these percentages may seem modest, they represent meaningful progress given the extremely low baseline consumption levels. The World Health Organization recommends eating 400 grams (14 ounces, or five servings) of fruits and vegetables daily, but the study found rural Malawians averaged only 51 g (1.8 oz) of fruit per person each day.<\/p>\n
Many people in sub- Saharan Africa don\u2019t eat enough fruits and vegetables. In Malawi, about 18 percent of the population is undernourished, and vitamin deficiencies are common.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are small effect sizes, but the positive relationship demonstrates that having on-farm trees may improve fruit and vegetable consumption for rural smallholders,\u201d Charlotte Hall, the study\u2019s lead author and a lecturer at the University of Stirling in Scotland, told Mongabay.<\/p>\n
An important caveat of the study is that most households were surveyed during the dry season when fewer trees produced fruit.<\/p>\n
– Advertisement –<\/p>\n
However, researchers \u201cstill found a relationship between having trees on the farm and fruit and veg consumption,\u201d Hall said. \u201cI would expect that if we did the same study again, and all the households were surveyed through the rainy season, you\u2019d see a much stronger relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four ways trees help diets<\/p>\n
The researchers identified four pathways through which trees can improve what people eat. The most direct way is when families eat fruits from their own trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a mango tree in your backyard, and there\u2019s plenty of mangoes falling off that tree, you\u2019re very likely to eat some of them,\u201d Bronwen Powell, an associate professor at Penn State University, U.S., who studies the relationship between forests and nutrition but was not involved in this research, told Mongabay.<\/p>\n
Trees also provide ecosystem services that help other crops grow better, such as improving soil quality when leaves decompose and protecting fields from extreme weather. With their deep roots, trees are better equipped to survive droughts and storms than regular crops, so they can provide food when other plants fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrees can act as a real buffer and prevent [crop loss] from happening because they\u2019re kind of binding the soil together,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
During a visit to Malawi, for instance, her team reported seeing entire crop fields washed away during a cyclone while areas with trees remained protected.<\/p>\n
Trees can also generate income when families sell their produce, though this study found little evidence of that pathway. Finally, trees provide fuel for cooking, making it easier to prepare nutritious foods.<\/p>\n
ADVOCATING FOR AGROECOLOGICAL FARMS\u2014Powell<\/b>Declining diet <\/b><\/p>\n
Despite finding positive effects from trees, the study revealed troubling trends. Fruit and vegetable consumption declined by 42 percent and 25 percent, respectively, over the 10- year study period.<\/p>\n
Hall attributed this decline to several interconnected factors. Rising food prices have made nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables increasingly unaffordable. The country has also experienced dramatic currency devaluation, making food even more expensive for families with limited income.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most recent report from the FAO on the state of food insecurity found that for Malawi, 92 percent of the population can\u2019t afford a healthy diet,\u201d Hall said. \u201cThey just don\u2019t have the income.\u201d<\/p>\n
Climate change has added another layer of difficulty. Extreme weather events like cyclones can disrupt food supplies, affecting perishable items like fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, families facing economic hardship tend to prioritize calorie-dense staple foods over more nutritious but expensive produce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest factor is rising food prices,\u201d Hall said. \u201cMore nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables and perishables have become much more expensive, and so consumption is understandably lower.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Solutions and obstacles <\/b><\/p>\n
Experts say addressing seasonal gaps in nutrition requires strategic planning. Powell and Hall highlighted fruit tree portfolios, or combinations of different tree species that produce fruit at different times of year to provide nutrition throughout all seasons.<\/p>\n
However, significant barriers prevent families from planting and keeping trees. For instance, trees are often cut down for fuel. At times, people must prioritize cooking grains today over harvesting fruit in a few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was taken aback when I saw a group of women at the side of the road cutting a large tree, presumably for fuel wood,\u201d Hall said. \u201cIf people have trees on their farm and they have no choice, they will cut them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other obstacles include the expense and labor required for tree planting, lack of technical knowledge about tree care and land ownership issues that prevent people from planting trees on land they don\u2019t own.<\/p>\n
Policy recommendations<\/p>\n
The researchers suggest several policy changes could help more families benefit from on-farm trees. Current tree-planting initiatives across Africa, such as AFR100 and the Great Green Wall, focus on fast-growing species for carbon storage but often ignore food-producing trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese initiatives tend to prioritize fast-growing tree species and largely overlook food-producing trees,\u201d Hall said. She recommends including fruit trees in reforestation programs and ensuring they are culturally appropriate, indigenous species.<\/p>\n
Powell emphasized that agricultural policies need to value nutrition alongside calories.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere in the U.S., we subsidize calories and not healthy foods,\u201d she said. Similar problems exist in Africa, where policy focuses on staple grains rather than diverse, nutritious foods.<\/p>\n
Both researchers stressed that while the effects found in this study were small, they demonstrate that trees on farms can contribute to better nutrition while also providing environmental benefits like carbon storage and biodiversity conservation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can find ways to incentivize family farms and small-scale farms and to value the labor that goes into diverse, biodiverse, agroecological farms,\u201d Powell said, \u201cI think that\u2019s the big conundrum to feeding the planet and meeting everybody\u2019s nutritional diet quality requirements.\u201d\u2014Mongabay <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FRUIT AND CROPS\u2014A mango tree in a maize field in Chiradzulu DistrictBy Liz Kimbrough: Planting fruit trees on farms improves dietary quality, according to new research that tracked nearly 1,000 households in Malawi over 10 years. The study, published in Conservation Letters, found that families who had trees on their farms ate more fruits and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":76165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n