Wild foods (plants and animals) in the green famine belt of Ethiopia: Do they contribute to household resilience to seasonal food insecurity?

  Background  The role of wild foods in combating problems of food shortage is paramount. However,existing approaches to combat food insecurity shock have generally focused on reducing vulnerability via increasing productivity of domesticated foods. In contrast,approaches that enhance resilience mainly through wild food sources have been less focused. This study examined the contribution of wild foods to household resilience to food insecurity in the green famine belt of Ethiopia.

  Methods  A cross-sectional survey of 220 households was conducted using a structured questionnaire,key informant interviews,and semi-participant observations. Factor analysis was run using SPSS to analyze data. Correlation analysis was used to examine the direction and strength of association between wild foods and the income and food access (IFA),a latent proxy indicator of resilience. Cross-tabulation was also run to determine the proportion of households in each ethno-culture group under each resilience category.

  Results  The mean amount of wild foods obtained by households was 156.61 kg per household per annum. This was about 5 % and 9 % of,gross and,net food available from all sources respectively. Wild foods contributed well to household resilience as the factor loading (Factor2=0.467) was large enough and were significantly correlated with IFA (r=0.174). Wild vegetables were the most collected and consumed type of wild foods constituting 52.4 % of total amount of wild foods. The total amount of wild foods was smaller than that of domesticated sources of food. The majority of households (38.6 %) reported "reduced source of wild foods" as a reason for this. Smaller proportion of the indigenous (11.2 %) than the non-indigenous (34.1 %) ethno-culture group reported one or more reasons for their lower level of dependence on wild foods.

  Conclusion  From the study we concluded that wild foods had important contribution to households' resilience to food shortages and are likely to continue to contribute in the future,this being more to indigenous than non-indigenous ethno-culture group. Therefore,a resilience building policy that incorporates wild foods should be adopted,and research that aims at exploring their current status and future prospect are urgently required.