Marula in Namibia: Commercial Chain Analysis
In the agro-silvo-pastoral farming systems of the north-central regions (NCRs) of Namibia, marula (Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra) is by far the most important indigenous fruit resource, and the one that has been commercialised to the largest extent. During a household survey conducted in the area (Den Adel 2002) 100% of households reported consuming alcoholic and non-alcoholic marula drinks, as well as using the kernels and oil. On average 40% of households also reported selling marula cider (but this varied from 0% in one area to 87% in another), while 62% sold marula kernels. This pattern of nearly universal use held true regardless of whether a household owned marula trees, or not. This paper attempts to elucidate the distribution of the benefits derived from the commercial use of marula products by analysing the commercial chains involved. The analyses exclude the very important household subsistence use and non-commercial production for sharing with friends and neighbours, as well as production of non-alcoholic marula drinks (which are currently not commercialised). Although marula jam, jelly and cordial are produced and sold on a very small scale, this is currently almost exclusively done as a form of training-with-production by development projects and is therefore not analysed here.
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Marula in Namibia_ Commercial Chain Analysis.pdf | 578.75 KB |