Cases and posters

On the second day, the floor was to the users of PROTA information (10 oral and about 40 poster presentations) highlighting cases of impact. Some examples:

• PROTA information on Gnetum africanum led the Office of the Special Assistant for Food Security to the Governor of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria to prepare an extension guide on this wild, overexploited leafy vegetable aimed at sustainable use and domestication.
  
  
• PROTA’s database of ‘grey’ literature in Ghana revealed that 95% of student thesis research is taking place on a handful of subjects and a handful of crops; the universities use the data to avoid duplication, for diversification of thesis subjects and more efficient use of scarce resources.
  
  
• The Botswana College of Agriculture made a case of the importance of PROTA information in its curriculum; this is also evidenced by the fact that Botswana is one of the top users of the PROTA webdatabase.
  
  
• The successful demonstration of 3 poorly known indigenous leafy vegetables in PROTA pilot projects in Kenya, within the context of the Farmer Field School and Self Help Group programme.
  
  
• PhytoTrade, the Southern African Natural Products Association, focuses on developing a sustainable and ethical natural products industry; it handles many enquiries on plant species for which PROTA is the number one reference material.
  
  
• The AAMPS (Association of African Medicinal Plant Standards) is developing trading standards for African medicinal plants, thus making a first step in the development of an African Herbal Pharmacopoeia; AAMPS greatly values PROTA’s overview of local information.
  
  
• The Associazione Mondo Giusto is implementing a PROTA pilot project with the objective to help a local community of silk weavers in two villages in Madagascar to set up a sustainable supply of natural dyes and tannins derived from the local dye plants Danais ligustrifolia, Labourdonnaisia madagascariensis and Indigofera arrecta.
  
  
• International Commodity Platforms, bringing together various public and private players in the supply-chain, are to use PROTA information as a promising tool for the identification of new crops and products for sustainable agricultural and commercial development.

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