The work of the World Agroforestry Centre in encouraging farmers to grow more indigenous trees is featured in an article on SciDev.Net.

If farmers grew just 8 tree species on their farms, they would have fruits available for home consumption all year round, explained Katja Kehlenbeck, a scientist at the Centre, speaking at the second International Conference on Hidden Hunger, held in Stuttgart, Germany from 3 to 6 March 2015.

Ensuring adequate nutrition is key to overcoming hidden hunger, the chronic lack of vitamins, zinc, iodine or iron, which affects more than 2 billion people worldwide and accounts for 10 per cent of the global health burden.

Participants at the conference heard how making use of local and traditional knowledge can help to address hidden hunger, and how greater effort is needed to promote the consumption of indigenous, nutrient-rich plants in poor countries.

Kehlenbeck believes this could be achieved through addressing people’s pride in their local heritage and running information campaigns that highlight the health value of a diversified diet.

A poster by Kehlenbeck and colleagues from the World Agroforestry Centre on fruit tree portfolios was awarded second prize at the conference.

Read the full story: Tapping into local resources to curb malnutrition