Ethnobotanical study of traditional edible plants used by the Naxi people during droughts

BACKGROUND: Since 2009, millions of people have been forced to live under food shortage by the continuous drought in Southwestern China. The market was the primary source of aid grains, and fears that the market will be unable to provide sufficient food make safeguarding food security in the face of climate change crucial. Traditional adaptive strategies of pre-market indigenous people are a potential source of innovation. We studied three questions among the Naxi people: 1) What edible plants did they consume during droughts? 2) How did they produce enough food? 3) How did they consume these plants? This study investigates and documents traditional Naxi food knowledge to safeguard food security during drought and facilitate Chinese policy decisions. METHODS: Ethnobotanical investigation was conducted through literature review, semi-structured interviews, collaborative fieldwork and group discussions in three Naxi villages. 89 informants (including 35 key informants) were surveyed from 2012 to 2013. Significant Index (SI) was adopted to evaluate each edible plant’s food supply significance. Voucher specimens were collected for taxonomic identification. RESULTS: 1) In total, 141 edible plants (38 cultivated and 103 wild) were consumed—primarily landrace crops, supplementary edible plants and famine plants. 2) Naxi people produced sufficient food through widespread food production systems, strong landrace crop resilience, and diversity in wild edible plants. 3) Through a diverse diet and consuming almost all edible parts of the plant, the Naxi used edible plants fully to meet food and nutrition needs during drought. CONCLUSIONS: Edible plant diversity is a cornerstone of drought food security. Cultivated crops (especially landrace plants) and wild edible plants were both important. Naxi people protect edible plant diversity through ecological morality and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). National inventories of edible plant diversity and studies of the TEK of other Chinese indigenous peoples should be undertaken to inform sustainable food policy decisions in China.