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Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda

BACKGROUND: Farming communities have continuous interactions with their environment. Subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of weather. These are pre-requisites for increased wild edible plant consumption. This study mainly focused on indigenous knowledge regarding identity...

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Autores principales: Ojelel, Samuel, Kakudidi, Esezah K
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4429352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25971428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-11-7
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author Ojelel, Samuel
Kakudidi, Esezah K
author_facet Ojelel, Samuel
Kakudidi, Esezah K
author_sort Ojelel, Samuel
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Farming communities have continuous interactions with their environment. Subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of weather. These are pre-requisites for increased wild edible plant consumption. This study mainly focused on indigenous knowledge regarding identity and use of wild edible plant species by the subsistence farmers of Obalanga. METHODS: A multistage sampling technique was used to identify Agonga parish. Systematic random sampling was used to locate 64 respondents stratified among children, adult females and males. After obtaining informed consent and assent, data was collected through semi-structured interviews using a checklist of open ended questions, focus group discussions and guided field visits. The free listing technique was employed to obtain data on plant identity and usage. RESULTS: Fifty one (51) species in forty three (43) genera spread in thirty two (32) families were identified. Age and gender had significant effects on respondents’ wild edible plant species knowledge. The majority of edible wild plant species were herbs (47.1%) while grasses (3.9%) were the least. Fruits (51.0%) were the major parts consumed while tubers and roots constituted only 2.0% each. Eating uncooked as snacks (43.1%) was the favoured mode of consumption compared to roasting (2.0%). Preservation was mainly by solar drying. Wild edible plants traded within and without Obalanga community constituted only 15.7%. Almost all the edible plant species (94.1%) do not have any specific bye-laws for their conservation. Only Mangifera indica, Tamarindus indica and Vittaleria paradoxa representing 5.9% of the species are protected by bye-laws. CONCLUSION: Disproportionate distribution of edible wild plant indigenous knowledge was noted in Obalanga with the lowest among the children. The marketed plant species in Obalanga can offer an opportunity for household livelihood diversification through value addition and trade under the umbrella of organic products. This will increase household incomes thereby contributing towards MDG 1 on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. It is thus vital to document indigenous knowledge so that it is not lost as plant species disappear due to environmental degradation.
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spelling pubmed-44293522015-05-14 Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda Ojelel, Samuel Kakudidi, Esezah K J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research BACKGROUND: Farming communities have continuous interactions with their environment. Subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of weather. These are pre-requisites for increased wild edible plant consumption. This study mainly focused on indigenous knowledge regarding identity and use of wild edible plant species by the subsistence farmers of Obalanga. METHODS: A multistage sampling technique was used to identify Agonga parish. Systematic random sampling was used to locate 64 respondents stratified among children, adult females and males. After obtaining informed consent and assent, data was collected through semi-structured interviews using a checklist of open ended questions, focus group discussions and guided field visits. The free listing technique was employed to obtain data on plant identity and usage. RESULTS: Fifty one (51) species in forty three (43) genera spread in thirty two (32) families were identified. Age and gender had significant effects on respondents’ wild edible plant species knowledge. The majority of edible wild plant species were herbs (47.1%) while grasses (3.9%) were the least. Fruits (51.0%) were the major parts consumed while tubers and roots constituted only 2.0% each. Eating uncooked as snacks (43.1%) was the favoured mode of consumption compared to roasting (2.0%). Preservation was mainly by solar drying. Wild edible plants traded within and without Obalanga community constituted only 15.7%. Almost all the edible plant species (94.1%) do not have any specific bye-laws for their conservation. Only Mangifera indica, Tamarindus indica and Vittaleria paradoxa representing 5.9% of the species are protected by bye-laws. CONCLUSION: Disproportionate distribution of edible wild plant indigenous knowledge was noted in Obalanga with the lowest among the children. The marketed plant species in Obalanga can offer an opportunity for household livelihood diversification through value addition and trade under the umbrella of organic products. This will increase household incomes thereby contributing towards MDG 1 on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. It is thus vital to document indigenous knowledge so that it is not lost as plant species disappear due to environmental degradation. BioMed Central 2015-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4429352/ /pubmed/25971428 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-11-7 Text en © Ojelel and Kakudidi; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Ojelel, Samuel
Kakudidi, Esezah K
Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda
title Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda
title_full Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda
title_fullStr Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda
title_short Wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in Obalanga sub-county, Amuria district, Uganda
title_sort wild edible plant species utilized by a subsistence farming community in obalanga sub-county, amuria district, uganda
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4429352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25971428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-11-7
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