干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, originates from Africa, presumably the Kalahari Desert. The domestication process has lead to the development of various types of watermelon landraces with specific traits suitable for different uses. The common dessert type watermelon with sweet, red fleshed fruits exist in the form of landraces in Africa. However, cooking and seed type landraces with white to yellow fleshed fruits also exist in local communities. Production is usually based on farm-saved seed. The cooking type watermelons are used as a multipurpose vegetable in many African countries, and are especially cultivated in resource poor, remote areas as a food security crop. Fruits can be stored up to a year and cooked in periods with food scarcity. Seed types are used to make snacks, flour and oil in local communities, especially in West Africa. Some of the seed type landraces, selected through generations by farmers under desert conditions, have been estimated to produce a seed yield of more than 350 kg/ha in farmers' fields in Mali. These white fleshed seed types have been shown to be genetically distinct from the red fleshed dessert types. Locally adapted landraces of African watermelons have immediate potential to enhance food supply and nutrition in arid, heat-and drought-prone areas. Where intercropping is practised, watermelon may also be a good companion crop to mitigate the risk of complete crop failure under unpredictable growing conditions. Landraces of watermelons also have a potential for development of improved, added-value speciality products to generate income. In addition, African genetic resources of watermelon and other Citrullus species, possess traits of interest for future breeding programmes for Africa and beyond.