The diversity and use of tropical fibre plants in Africa: a literature review

Petr-Simeon Filippi

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Fibre crops are important part of agriculture all around the globe. Nowadays, conventional agriculture focuses mostly on unsustainable cultivation of only few of them. This thesis was done as a literature review of fibre crops cultivated in Africa. At first it focused on major cash crops that make up for most of the total production. Later it described various issues that come with growing them, such as artificial fertilizer and pesticide use. It was also discussed how continuously worsening climate change could have negative impact on the production. The idea of using genetically modified fibre crops was included into the thesis as well. It was then focused on the underutilized fibre crops and how dome of them could play a role in improving the sustainability and help to stabilize the production for African small-scale farmers. The thesis provided table which included 38 species that are utilized at least to some extend on the African continent with basic general information about each of them. Also, suggested several species which do have some significant potential, that is not yet fully used. These species are suitable for deeper research in the future.

Keywords

industrial crops, natural fibres, agrobiodiversity, agroecology, ethnobotany, textile, tropical crops, Africa

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 4. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 24. 5. 2023
• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Zbyněk Polesný, Ph.D.
• Reader: Naji Sulaiman, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme:
Tropical Agriculture