The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
Species and its useThe jujube tree (Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.) is an indigenous fruit species. It is found spontaneously in the Sudanese and Sahelian zones of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. The species is widely distributed in Africa and tropical South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.
A multi-purpose species, it is one of the priority species in the ICRAF-WCA / Sahel program. The species is still in the wild, except for a few cultivars from India and Thailand, introduced recently in Sahelianvillage fields.
Wild fruit, the jujube tree is used in traditional medicines and in food for populations. The roots, administered as a decoction, are a very effective tetifuge; but if ingested in high doses, the decoction could become toxic. Bark and leaves are used in various medicinal preparations:
Hemorrhages after childbirth and against phagedenic ulcers, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, vomiting, stomachaches, wounds. The twigs are anti-cancerous. Their use fights amenorrhea. It is a woody species well known to the Sahelian and Sudano-Sahelian farmers. It provides people with non-wood products such as fresh or dried fruit, either directly or in the form of a pancake. The fruits are used against rickets, anorexia, kwashiorkor, scurvy. Curdled milk with fruit pulp, mixed with rice, combats anorexia.
The fruit is the main benefit of the jujube, widely consumed by people and being the subject of an active trade involving mostly women. It is a drupe whose pulp is very rich in vitamins A and C, in phosphorus, in proteins and rich in mineral salts. The fruit of the local variety is small and the pulp sometimes not very sweet. The fruit can be transformed into flour for various food uses: dough, cake, drinks, porridge. The leaves constitute aerial forage very well appreciated by the Sahel livestock keepers and pastoralists. Jujube is also widely used as crop protection hedge, effective and uncompetitive. Termite-resistant wood is used for making tool handles and yokes. It is also a good heated wood and it produces good quality coal.
This manual has been developed to present growing techniques of jujube with an emphasis on the technique of its grafting, to improve its production in the Sahel. The document is intended for arborists, field technicians in charge of adopting agroforestry technologies and nursery growers who are actively involved in the dissemination of jujube. In addition, the book was developed to support the practical training of producers on jujube growing in the Sahel.
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