This PowerPoint document is a 2012 presentation about sustainable development from the Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Programme (PROTA). This presentation also contains information about PROTA's mission, various publications, PROTA4U online database, and pilot community projects with farmers and artisans in Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Benin, Botswana, and Kenya.

1. Keeping
Africa
Informed
PROTA’s relevance for sustainable
development
• PROTA|Your guide to the use of African plants

2. Keeping
Africa
Informed
Our mission…
Developing and maintaining a user-oriented plant
resource information system and widely
disseminating and promoting its use through key
strategic actions and partnerships.
12.5 years en route ...
... after 15 years of PROSEA
Framing the
Plant
diversity
legacy
From PROSEA
books to interactive
PROTA4U

3. Keeping
Africa
Informed Commodity groups ... State of
affairs
1: Cereals and pulses (2006)
2: Vegetables (2004)
3: Dyes & tannins (2005)
4: Ornamentals
5: Forages
6: Fruits
7(1): Timbers 1 (2008)
7(2): Timbers 2 (2012)
8: Carbohydrates
9: Auxiliary plants
10: Fuel plants
11(1): Medicinal plants 1 (2008)
11(2): Medicinal plants 2
11(3): Medicinal plants 3
11(4): Medicinal plants 4
12: Spices & condiments
13: Essential oils & exudates
14: Vegetable oils (2007)
15: Stimulants
16: Fibres (2012)
c. 9000 plant species ... Halfway

4. Keeping
Africa
Informed PROTA4U:
an interactive user-friendly database
• More than
10,000 records
• Validated articles
covering 4000
species

5. Keeping
Africa
Informed Web statistics

6. Keeping
Africa
Informed Distribution of publications
PROTA and partners have
already distributed more than
14,000 books & 6500 CD-ROMs
English and French

7. Keeping
Africa
Informed
Knowledge
synthesis
Stakeholder
Consultations
Utilization/End-
user impact
The three-step approach…for
maximum impact

8. Keeping
Africa
Informed Pilot projects on promising species
& technologies
• 6 ‘Vegetable’ projects directly reaching over 500
farmers (65% female, 35% male)
• 2 ‘Dye & tannin’ projects directly reaching over 300
farmers and craftsmen (60% female, 40% male)

9. Keeping
Africa
Informed Vegetable diversification in Kenya:
Spider plant
About 150 farmers trained in production, utilization and
marketing
High demand in urban markets

10. Keeping
Africa
Informed New commercial crop in Benin:
Dye sorghum
About 150 farmers trained in production, utilization
and marketing
DGIS-WUR partnership:
• Possibilities to increase productivity
• Inventory of diversity

11. Keeping
Africa
Informed More impact stories ...
From melon and dye plants in Madagascar to Hibiscus in
Burkina ... and teaching materials in Botswana and Kenya
See: Annual report 2010,
Promising African plants

12. Keeping
Africa
Informed What users and reviewers say ...
• ‘The PROTA books helped us to get support from the ADB for our
agricultural training programme in 5 States in Nigeria’ (Lecturer in higher
education, Nigeria)
• ‘The Rural development Agents (RDAs) took training based on the books
of PROTA. Farmers who took advice from the RDAs have shown good
improvement in their production and productivity’ (Extension worker,
Eritrea)
• ‘The yields obtained in my farm are the tangible proof of the importance of
the handbooks’ (Farmer, Benin)
• ‘... Indispensable resource ... Impressive and invaluable ...’ (Economic
Botany)
• ‘... Ambituous but immensely valuable ...’ (The Horticulturist)
• ‘The colours of Africa’ (Spore)

13. Keeping
Africa
Informed The case of some timbers ...
Information trickles down slowly
1994
published
Information
presently still
used by:
Intsia bijuga (merbau)
Gonystylus bancanus
(ramin)

14. Keeping
Africa
Informed Conclusions for Programmes like
PROSEA and PROTA ...
• long-duration ambituous programmes
• produce high-quality information that
should be safeguarded and kept user-
friendly
• Impact is huge but takes time and is
difficult to quantify

15. Keeping
Africa
Informed What we would like to start ...
Ornamentals
• c. 800 species?
• Woody plants, flowering
herbs, foliage herbs,
succulent plants

16. Keeping
Africa
Informed What we would like to start ... Fruits
• c. 600 species
• Non-timber forest product
• Domestication opportunities
• Food security

17. Keeping
Africa
Informed What we would like to start ... Root &
tuber crops (Carbohydrates)
• c. 250 species
• Important in Africa
• Food security
Dioscorea
Ensete

18. Keeping
Africa
Informed What we would like to start ...
• Insertion of PROSEA information in the PROTA
database system
• Safeguarding the interactive database ... Whatever
happens ...

19. Keeping
Africa
Informed Jan Siemonsma