Abstract
Traditional communities in arid and semi-arid areas often depend on wild plants and their products for survival during tiding-over periods, when agricultural food stocks have almost been depleted. These food sources can be used as hunger or famine foods to alleviate temporary food shortages. In periods of limited food stress such foods may be eaten only occasionally and more often by children and poorer sectors of society with only a few direct or exchange entitlements. The seasonal variability of wild food supply from different sources influences food acquisition strategies of pastoralists (the Fulani throughout West Africa, Bernus, 1988), crop growing communities (the Serere in Senegal, Rosetta, 1986; the Toucouleur of Senegal, personal observations), fisherfolk and hunters, and hunter-gatherers (Bushmen or !Kung San1 of Botswana,Lee & de Vore, 1976).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abbiw, D.K. (1990) Useful Plants of Ghana. Intermediate Technology Publications and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Asibey, E.O.A. and C.Y.A. Beeko (1989) Forest and food security. Symposium on Ghana’s forest policy, 3–7 April, 1989, Greenhill, Accra, Ghana.
Barrai, H. (1977) Les populations de l’Oudalan et leur espace pastoral. Travaux et documents de PORSTOM, 77, France.
Bernus, E. (1988) Seasonality, climatic fluctuations, and food supplies (Sahelian nomadic pastoralist societies). In de Garine, I. and Harrison, G.A. (eds.) Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 318–336.
BOSTID (1996) Lost Crops of Africa, vol. 1, Grains. National Academy Press, Washington.
Campbell-Platt, G. (1980) African locust bean (Parkia spp.) and its West African fermented food product, dawadawa. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 9:123–132.
Cronquist, A. (1988) The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants. New York Botanical Garden, New York.
De Waal, A. (1988) Famine early warning systems and the use of socio-economic data. Disasters 12:81–91.
De Wolf, I. and P. Van Damme (1994) Inventaire et modelage de la gestion du couvert végétal pérenne dans une zone forestière du Sud Sénégal. Rapport final, partie A: Étude phytosociologique, RUG, Coupure Links 653, B 9000 Gent, 82 pp.
Gumbo, D., B. Mukamuri, M. Muzondo, and I. Scoones (1990) Indigenous and exotic fruit trees: Why do people want to grow them? in Prinsley, R.T. (ed.) Agroforestry for Sustainable Production: Economic Implications. CSC, London, pp. 185–214.
Holy, L. (1980) Drought and change in a tribal economy: The Berti of Northern Darfur. Disasters 4:65–72.
Lee, R.B. (1973) Mongongo: the ethnography of a major wild food resource. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 2:307–321.
Lee, R.B. and I. de Vore, (1976) Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers: Studies of the! Kung San and Their Neighbors. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Longhurst, R. (1986) Household food strategies in response to seasonality and famine. IDS Bulletin 17:27–35.
Martin, M. (1985) Design of a food intake study in two Bambara villages in the Segon region of Mali with preliminary findings. in Hill, A. (ed.) Population, Health and Nutrition in the Sahel. Routledge Kegan Paul, London.
Newman, J.L. (1975) Dimensions of Sandawe diet. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 4:33–39.
Ogle, B.M. and L.E. Grivetti (1985) Legacy of the chameleon: Edible wild plants in the kingdom of Swaziland, Southern Africa. A cultural, ecological, nutritional study. Part II—Demographics, species availability and dietary use, analysis by ecological zone. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 17:1–30.
Rahmato, D. (1988) Peasant survival strategies in Ethiopia. Disasters 12:326–344.
Rosetta, L. (1986) Seasonal variations in food consumption by Serere families in Senegal. Ecology of Food andNutrition 20:275–286.
Scoones, I., M. Melnyk, and J.N. Pretty (1992) The Hidden Harvest. Wild Foods and Agricultural Systems. A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography. IIED, London, 256 pp.
Van den Eynden. V., P. Vernemmen and P. Van Damme (1992) The Ethnobotany of the Topnaar. RUG, Coupure Links 653, B 9000 Gent, Belgium, 145 pp.
Van den Eynden, V. and P. Van Damme (1994) Inventaire et modelage de la gestion du couvert végétal pérenne dans une zone forestière du Sud Sénégal. Rapport final, partie C: Étude Etnobotanique, RUG, Coupure Links 653, B 9000 Gent, Belgium, 102 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Van Damme, P. (1998). Wild Plants as Food Security in Namibia and Senegal. In: Bruins, H.J., Lithwick, H. (eds) The Arid Frontier. The GeoJournal Library, vol 41. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4888-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4888-7_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6049-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4888-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive