Gender and Technology Training Guidelines
Tamarind is used as a flavouring agent and also as a substitute for commercially used
beverages such as tea or coffee which are not available due to lack of money or
distance from retail outlets. Usually the ripe fruits are used, but when there are none,
women
collect the unripe fruits, soak and boil them and add ash to neutralise the acidity. It
could be used as a snack food, or could be added to cereals. As a medicine,
concentrations of tamarind may be used to cure gastro-intestinal disorders in people,
and as a cure for sleeping sickness caused by the tsetse fly in animals. The acidic
liquid from the Tamarind and other wild fruits is used to curdle fresh milk.
The Tonga women have also realised the commercial potential of the Tamarind and
other wild fruits and have started marketing the fresh fruit by the roadside and at the
bus stops.
One of the problems the women face is that though they are aware of the existence of
this market they have not yet identified the strategies for exploiting it. They are also
concerned that once large-scale commercialisation of tamarind catches on they will
lose control over the source of the fruit and this subsistence crop will move into the
control of others.
Despite the wide availability of tamarind in many rural areas, and its prime
importance in the diets of many rural families, neither the government nor NGOs
recognise the importance of the fruit. In many places they are actively promoting cash
crops.
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