Uganda pastoralists turn to wild plants as food shortages bite, study finds
New research reveals that pastoralist communities are turning to wild plants to cope with food shortages in northern Uganda.
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As in Uganda, experts reckon that edible wild
As in Uganda, experts reckon that edible wild plants can be a boon to countries like Nigeria, where roughly 15% of the population faces serious hunger.
The study’s findings raise a broader question: Will
The study’s findings raise a broader question: Will communities with less richer botanical diversity be less capable of coping with food crises?
For decades, the global outlook for food and
For decades, the global outlook for food and agriculture has brought heightened concerns as climate patterns create a mix of droughts and floods across the world. Consequently, fears of diminishing crop yields and livestock shortages have dominated the headlines. Amid the ensuing food security crisis, scientists are wondering if communities can turn toward local plant diversity as insurance against subsequent food shocks.
A recent study published in People and Nature
A recent study published in People and Nature examines how pastoralist communities in a Ugandan subregion contend with food shortages by adopting previously unused wild edible plants. The study comes on the heels of 2024 research on wild edible plants by local NGOs in Karamoja, a semiarid region in northern Uganda. That earlier study found “that people had developed uses for plants they had not used before,” Emiel De Meyer, a postdoctoral researcher at the State Natural History Museum in Germany, explained by email.
Spurred by this discovery, De Meyer led a
Spurred by this discovery, De Meyer led a team of researchers across five agro-pastorialist communities in Karamoja, interviewing members of the local communities on their knowledge of edible wild plants. Through a mix of qualitative and statistical methods, the researchers also probed the reasons behind the adoption of particular plants and how this knowledge was transmitted.
In the five villages covered in the study
In the five villages covered in the study, the authors recorded 27 plant species previously unused as food and now eaten as leafy vegetables. Of these, 20 were reported to be indigenous to Uganda. Although all these plants were mostly harvested during the wet season, at least three were said to be also available during the dry season. Strikingly, the study found that these plants had been adopted for food mostly through trial and error, during seasons of acute hunger — or akoro, as it is known in the Ngakarimojong language.
“It shows that the surrounding vegetation holds unexplored
“It shows that the surrounding vegetation holds unexplored uses and constitutes a reservoir of resilience,” De Meyer said of the study’s findings. “Local plant knowledge is usually treated as inherited and fixed. Here was an example of such knowledge being generated in the present.”
Karamoja is hardly an isolated example of a
Karamoja is hardly an isolated example of a worsening food crisis sweeping across the Sahel and projected to affect an estimated 53 million people according to the U.N. Nigeria, the region’s most populous country, stands out with projections showing nearly 35 million people already facing acute hunger. Out of the 123 countries with sufficient data for the 2025 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria ranked 115th, falling within the category of “serious hunger.”
Together with erratic climate patterns, a plague of
Together with erratic climate patterns, a plague of violent conflicts has aggravated the food crunch. Frequent attacks by insurgent groups within some of Nigeria’s breadbaskets have driven many locals from their farmland. Against this consequent dynamic, edible wild plants “can serve as a shock absorber before people start strategizing on how to cope,” says Vincent Ebu, a lecturer in forestry and wildlife resources management at Nigeria’s University of Calabar.
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Uganda pastoralists turn to wild plants as food shortages bite, study finds
New research reveals that pastoralist communities are turning to wild plants to cope with food shortages in northern Uganda.
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Source: Mongabay