Children and Wild Foods in the Context of Deforestation in Rural Malawi

Human Ecology, Nov 2017

There is growing recognition of the contribution of wild foods to local diets, nutrition, and culture. Yet disaggregation of understanding of wild food use by gender and age is limited. We used a mixed methods approach to determine the types, frequencies, and perceptions of wild foods used and sold by children in four villages in southern Malawi that have different levels of deforestation. Household and individual dietary diversity scores are low at all sites. All households consume one or more wild foods. Across the four sites, children listed 119 wild foods, with a wider variety at the least deforested sites than the most deforested ones. Older children can name more wild foods than younger ones. More children from poor households sell wild foods than from well-off households. Several reasons were provided for the consumption or avoidance of wild foods (most commonly taste, contribution to health, limited alternatives, hunger, availability, local taboos).

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Children and Wild Foods in the Context of Deforestation in Rural Malawi

Hum Ecol Children and Wild Foods in the Context of Deforestation in Rural Malawi H. Maseko 0 1 Charlie M. Shackleton 0 1 J. Nagoli 0 1 D. Pullanikkatil 0 1 0 WorldFish - Malawi , P. O Box, 229 Zomba , Malawi 1 Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University , Grahamstown 6140 , South Africa 2 Charlie M. Shackleton There is growing recognition of the contribution of wild foods to local diets, nutrition, and culture. Yet disaggregation of understanding of wild food use by gender and age is limited. We used a mixed methods approach to determine the types, frequencies, and perceptions of wild foods used and sold by children in four villages in southern Malawi that have different levels of deforestation. Household and individual dietary diversity scores are low at all sites. All households consume one or more wild foods. Across the four sites, children listed 119 wild foods, with a wider variety at the least deforested sites than the most deforested ones. Older children can name more wild foods than younger ones. More children from poor households sell wild foods than from well-off households. Several reasons were provided for the consumption or avoidance of wild foods (most commonly taste, contribution to health, limited alternatives, hunger, availability, local taboos). Age; Children; Consumption frequency; Diversity; Food security; Wild foods; Malawi Introduction Wild foods are components of diets and local economies the world over, from rural Africa (Ncube et al. 2016) to urban USA (McLain et al. 2014) . Whilst most people eat wild foods, diversity and frequency vary greatly between and within households, villages, countries, and regions. Thus, while for some the collection or consumption of wild foods may be a daily occurrence, for others it is a seasonal or rare delicacy. Nonetheless, with over 7000 edible plant species and a similar number of edible animal species, the contribution of wild foods to peoples’ diets should not be underestimated (Bharucha and Pretty 2010) . In many regions wild foods contribute significantly to household food security, dietary diversity, and nutritional wellbeing (Kajembe et al. 2000) because they add diversity to the mostly starch-based, staple diets of households throughout the world (Uusiku et al. 2010; Powell et al. 2011; Ncube et al. 2016) . Without wild foods, global and national levels of food insecurity would be significantly higher (Bharucha and Pretty 2010) and consequently they need to be an integral part of any international and local policies and strategies to address food insecurity. The high variation in use and acceptance of wild foods is a reflection of their availability and local food cultures (FAO 2010) . In many regions diets are in transition as a consequence of globalisation and increasing market access (Pingali 2007; Damman et al. 2008; Ncube et al. 2016) . The former is associated with declines in agrobiodiversity, dietary diversity, and knowledge of wild foods and local cultivars. The latter brings exposure to and convenience of new foods that may be easily and constantly available (van Vliet et al. 2015a) . At a local scale changes in knowledge and consumption patterns of wild species have been linked to land use change, deforestation, migration from rural areas, and mass schooling (Broegaard et al. 2016; Sylvester et al. 2016) . Land use change and deforestation are particularly pertinent to debates on ecosystem services provision, food security, and the role of wild foods. The expansion of agriculture is often at the expense of forests and other natural landscapes that are noteworthy sources of ecosystem services, including wild foods that diversify diets and contribute essential micronutrients (Poppy et al. 2014) . Powell et al. (2011) showed that rural households in Tanzania close to patches of trees or forests had higher dietary diversity and more nutrient dense foods than households far from patches of trees. In Cameroon, Tata-Ngome (2016) found that household food security was greatest in the least deforested zones. Similarly, Ickowitz et al. (2013) reported, after examination of national scale data, that there was a positive relationship between tree cover and dietary diversity and fruit and vegetable consumption for 21 African countries. Yet, the nexus between forests, land use change, wild foods and nutrition are poorly understood or explored (Broegaard et al. 2016) . This is especially so at the local scale, where the benefits of land use change and agricultural intensification are not uniformly enjoyed. Many households continue to experience limited access to land, have to work on lands of poor quality or are economically marginalised and therefore unable to purchase the necessary inputs for intensive agriculture. Such households therefore depend on a diversity of food sources, amongst which wild foods remain key. And there are also those who simply prefer wild foods for their taste or cultural (...truncated)


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H. Maseko, Charlie M. Shackleton, J. Nagoli, D. Pullanikkatil. Children and Wild Foods in the Context of Deforestation in Rural Malawi, Human Ecology, 2017, pp. 795-807, Volume 45, Issue 6, DOI: 10.1007/s10745-017-9956-8