Thaumatococcus daniellii (Benn.) Benth. – a Natural Sweetener from the Rain Forest Zone in West Africa with Potential for Income Generation in Small Scale Farming Yeboah, S. O., T. H. Hilger and J. Kroschel Institute of Plant Production and Agroecology of the Tropics and Subtropics, Hohenheim University, Stuttgart (Germany), Email: t-hilger@uni-hohenheim.de, Fax: +49[0]711-4592304 Abstract The sweet prayers plant (Thaumatococcus daniellii) is widely found in tropical rain forests of West Africa. Local uses are versatile, ranging from cultivation as fetish plant in Gabon to collecting leaves from its natural habitat for wrapping and boiling food in Ghana and Nigeria. The most exiting use of T. daniellii, however, is its use as sweetener or taste modifier. The aril of the fruit contains thaumatins, a mixture of extremely sweet proteins. In many countries, it is used by the food and confectionary industry for substituting synthetic sweeteners. Presently, fruits are extracted from the natural habitat and sold to buying companies. The way how the fruits are collected, is often not sustainable. Integrating T. daniellii in cropping systems seems to be a promising way to lessen these shortcomings, contributing to both income generation and diversification of crop production by small scale farmers. Knowledge on its cultivation is not available. This study aimed at collecting basic information on T. daniellii and its potential for future cultivation. Therefore, interviews with key informants and a field trial were carried out in the Western Region of Ghana in 2002. The evaluation of the questionnaires improved the understanding of production conditions and contributed to identify possible production and adaptation constraints. The field experiment produced information on light requirements of T. daniellii for field establishment and growth during early growth stages. Introduction The sweet prayers plant or katemfe (Thaumatococcus daniellii (Benn.) Benth.) grows throughout the hot, humid tropical rain forest and coastal zone of West Africa (Franke, 1985; Mansfeld, 1986). Its natural habitat is the undergrowth of forest trees. T. daniellii is particularly found in southern parts of Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria. It is also known to