Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

A survey of PROTA information users from Brazzaville, Congo

PROTA has made accessible the information on plants of tropical Africa, necessary to influence targeted groups such as policy makers, private sector actors, researchers and trainers and rural development practitioners, with the aim of promoting wide and best utilization of information on plants, policy.  The decisions and actions of these targeted groups affect millions of end users who depend directly on plants for their daily existence.

Interviews were conducted with a number of PROTA book users from target institutions in the city of Brazzaville, Congo targeted to find out the relevance of PROTA information to their activities, the outcomes of exploiting this information and their specific needs and suggestions for improvement of dissemination.  Many of the respondents stated that they received PROTA books from the CTA subscription.  A brief on the application of this information was given as follows by some of the respondents : 

OMBANI Alexis of ‘Service de la Commercialisation du Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Elevage’ is one of the users of PROTA information.  He accessed and used the handbooks on Cereals and pulses, Vegetables and Vegetable oils. He used the information for growing maize and peanut.   Specifically, the information on fertilizer use and time of application was the most important for Mr. Ombani. He has launched a test on a field of corn and peanuts. The experiment was still ongoing by the time of  our visit.

MESSO innocent, from the 'Association pour le Développement Agricole et Rural (ADAR).
He acknowledged the importance of the information in PROTA books, particularly the uses, propagation and nutritional value of plants.  He received 2 Handbooks: Cereals and pulses and Vegetable oils. According to him, the most significant outcome from using PROTA information was gaining new knowledge on plant resources.  He used the information mainly for preparation of animal feed and trying out new plant propagation techniques. The literature on certain plants that he was interested in, including data on the chemical composition and nutrients enabled him to get a mixture which he composed himself and tried as animal feed. He obtained good results. His association has been able to raise a flock of 1000 hens, and produce animal feed for small-scale agricultural farmers' organizations. He still needs financial support to initiate commercial scale manufacturing of the animal feed.

NTIOU Laurent, received the handbooks on ‘Cereals and pulses’ and ‘Medicinal plants’.  He confirmed that they are his personal copies and he uses them to improve on his knowledge.  As a herbal medicine practitioner, he was more interested in publications on medicinal plants by comparing the use, revenue, local names and cultural attachments of these plants.


SAMBA Anatole from the Centre for Research and study on plant Resources (CERVE) reported that his organization has the PROTA handbooks on Vegetable oils and Medicinal plants. According to him, the information aided researchers from CERVE in the development of the national herbarium.

DIUAMOUANGANA Jean, head of the Group for the Study and Conservation of Biodiversity for Development (GECOBIDE), received the Handbooks on Cereals and pulses, Vegetable oils and Medicinal plants.  He claimed to have used the knowledge in agricultural experiments such as trials on cassava management.

All the respondents expressed satisfaction with the adequacy of PROTA information and stated that they would have liked to receive more copies, more often.  The most preferred format was the non electronic format such as books, newsletters.  It was recommended that PROTA increases the range of its subscribers using the target group address and expertise data collected by the Data collectors.