Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

How PROTA Works

To ensure that scientific information has the greatest impact on end-user, PROTA follows a fundamental three-step approach:

1. Knowledge synthesis

a) Synthesis of the dispersed world literature on plants and the publication of comprehensive information on each useful species.
b) Stakeholder consultations to identify priority species, research and development needs, policy and conservation needs, and ready technologies for dissemination to farmers.
c) Continuous updating and development of demand-driven bilingual products to suit PROTA’s target groups

2. Knowledge dissemination

Continuous dissemination of PROTA products through PROTA4U, the handbook and CD-Rom series, key partners in Africa, agricultural extension systems, grassroots projects, targeted workshops and seminars, print media, radio and television.

3. Knowledge utilization

Proactive promotion of widespread and the best use of PROTA’s information by users - policy makers, intermediate development organizations and end-users - to influence policy, advance research, introduce ready technologies, develop value added products, for curricula development and teaching and to improve livelihoods.

So far, the knowledge synthesis has reached about 25% with the freely accessible web database at www.prota.org contains about 1,200 review articles on slightly over 2,000 species. The information is also available in six handbook volumes with accompanying CDs. The commodity groups addressed so far are Cereals and pulses, Vegetables, Dyes and tannins, Timbers Part 1, Medicinal plants Part 1, and Vegetable oils.
For knowledge dissemination, conclusions and recommendations are made (based on the knowledge synthesis) regarding promising species, development gaps, research gaps, thesis subjects, conservation needs and policy measures. This takes place through a stakeholder consultation process, which has been completed for all the six commodity groups addressed and resulted in six concise booklets which are freely and widely distributed to the stakeholders in tropical Africa.
In the knowledge utilization part promising species are being tried out in pilot projects in close cooperation with local grassroots organizations. So far eight pilot projects (six on vegetables, two on dyes and tannins) have been completed with overall positive results, and one of them (on dye-sorghum in Benin) is presently being scaled up to answer a number of socio-economic and agronomic questions.