Assessment on Guava Diversity, Production and Utilization in Taita Taveta County, Kenya

Abstract

Psidium guajava L. is an important tropical fruit grown for its nutritional benefits and medicinal uses. The crop mainly grows unattended; sprouting from seeds dispersed unintentionally and fruit utilization in Kenya has been low over the years due to lack of information on fruit nutritional composition and awareness of its health benefits. A survey was conducted using both closed and open-ended questionnaires to determine the production methods used by the farmers for guava production, the diverse guava flesh colours that exist and fruit utilization within four agro ecological zones; upper midland (UM 3), Lower midland (LM 4), Lower midland (LM 5) both irrigated and rain fed and inner lowland zone in TaitaTaveta county of Kenya. Research observations indicated farmers owned land that was used for agricultural purposes expect in Taveta (LM 5) irrigated region where 2.9 % did not own land. Red fleshed guava fruits were the most domesticated accession, domesticated by 95.9% of the respondents. Significant difference was observed in methods of propagation used by the farmers, Chi- square value p< 0.001. A bigger percentage (76.4%) reported the seeds to be dispersed by animals. There is no a proper market that exists thus fruits were grown for domestic consumption and over- ripened guava fruits were left under the tree to rot. Only 4.5 % of the respondents from the inner lowland zone made juice from the fruits although this did not differ significantly from the rest of the regions, chi- square value> 0.001. Farmers do not store the fruits since eating commences immediately after harvesting and in most cases the fruits are left for the children. In conclusion farmers need to be educated on production practices and the nutritional importance of the fruit. Market outlets have to be created and value addition of the fruit done.