Contribution à l'inventaire et à la domestication des espèces alimentaires sauvages de Côte d'Ivoire: Cas des Départements d'Agboville et d’Oumé

Abstract

Objective: The current study aims at identifying the wild edible species still present in the department of Agboville and save in collections the endangered ones that have a high communitary importance.
Methodology and Results: An ethnobotanical survey was conducted. Seeds and wildlings collected were used to produce plants (in nursery) and create a collection. The survey revealed 18 species distributed in 18 genera and 15 families. Trees represent 81.8 % of the surveyed flora and species producing edible seeds or kernels were 50%. In nursery, the emergence rate of species ranged between 60 and 100%, except for Garcinia kola and Xylopia aethiopica. In collections, at 7 years, the 4 main species assessed showed survival rates of 40.71 to 86 % and heights of 4.86 to 12.68 m.
Conclusion and Application: With only 18 species recorded in a forest area, the study revealed the high level of vegetation degradation in the surveyed sites. This shows the need for an urgent domestication program of residual species before total extinction. The high survival rates observed in nursery showed that the studied species can be propagated by seeds and by wildlings as well. Propagation by wildlings can help solve the problems of seeds seasonal scarcity. The satisfactory skills of the studied species in nursery and plantation indicate that they are suited to grow in traditional agroforestry systems, in association with cash crops (coffee and cocoa) and food crops. Nevertheless, it is important to practice seed pretreatments to remove dormancy faster. Also, vegetative propagation of priority species should be undertaken to shorten unproductive period in order to raise up a greater interest from rural populations.

Keywords: wild edible species; ethnobotanical survey; domestication.