Harare, Zimbabwe (Jan 22 2007)

The University of Zimbabwe has started a project to promote wild plant foods which can contribute substantially to household food and livelihood security for communities dotted around the country.

The project which is being done in Buhera district in the Manicaland province, is co-ordinated by Dr Maud Muchuweti of the Department of Biochemistry and a team of other experts in the field of food, nutrition and family science and biological science.

The Kellogg Foundation funded the project through a grant.
"We want to create more awareness on the value of indigenous wild plant foods and promote their effective utilisation," Dr Muchuweti said.

"Wild plant foods are effective as a survival strategy. We are identifying plant foods that are traditionally used by people in Buhera. We are documenting how the foods are prepared and preserved as well as their nutritional content."

This is a major milestone in the development of cultural information that will provide an authoritative look at many neglected food sources which can contribute to food security, agricultural diversification and income generation.

It puts Zimbabwe on a firm footing in line with the Convention of Biological Diversity which specifically notes that national action strategies and programmes for sustainable agriculture should include 'promotion of crop diversification in agricultural systems where appropriate including new plants with potential value as food' and 'promotion of utilisation of, as well as research on poorly but potentially useful plants and crops where appropriate.

"..especially in areas where the cultivation of major crops is economically marginal."
Wild plant foods are still being consumed in Zimbabwe and in most parts of Africa despite the threat of urbanisation, environmental degradation, loss of indigenous knowledge regarding their identification, preparation and preservation and other factors.

"These foods are still not being sufficiently valued for contributions they can make in preventing malnutrition and for survival strategies," Dr Muchuweti said.

"The nutritional properties and traditional knowledge of wild foods have been dismissed as 'old wives tales' or 'poor man's food. Little is known about their health and nutritional benefits."

Diseases of the developed world such as diabetes, obesity and cardio-vascular diseases are now a major public health problem in Zimbabwe and in most parts of rapidly urbanising Africa.

The UZ project will involve identifying wild and famine plant foods, their preparation and preservation, nutrient analysis, cataloguing and documenting other uses of wild plant foods to enhance livelihood security.

"Commercial crops pose a threat of genetic erosion to indigenous food plants. Reduced exploitation of wild and famine plant foods is very unfortunate as some local foods may have better nutritional value than commercial foods," Dr Muchuweti said.

For example, muchakata or muhacha (Shona name for parinari curatellifolia) a medium to large evergreen tree which produces yellow brown colour fruits (hacha) from May to November can be used to prepare 'Mukandabota' a kind of porridge.

Communities dotted around Zimbabwe are rich with information pertaining to various aspects of how wild plant fruits, vegetables and tubers can be identified, prepared and preserved.

Wild fruits and berries found in Zimbabwe include, checheni, chechete, nhunguru, matamba, mapfura, maroro, masau, matohwe, nhengeni, tsambatsi, umqokolo and numerous others which can among other things contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Wild vegetables found in the country include a variety of okra types –derere mowa, derere hosi, derere njeje, derere nama and other vegetables such as bupwe, chipondamasvinya, nyevhe and many others with scientific terms that can confuse readers.

Tubers include chinyembanyemba, garidye, chifumuro, madhumbe, mufarinya, tsenza, tsangadzi and numerous others which have both medicinal and nutritional values.

Such foods form an integral part of the daily diets of many poor rural households. Wild foods are a source of important vitamins, minerals and other nutrients which complement the staple crops eaten by many of the more vulnerable people, including children and the elderly.

The importance of a wide range of wild plant species, including roots and tubers, leafy vegetables and fruits need to be documented in a botanical database for future generations.

In addition to this, there is an assortment of wild edible mushrooms, edible grass and seeds which the UZ project is documenting from communities in Buhera.

"There are many diseases that plague the human family today which modern science has spent billions of dollars searching for a prevention or cure, but they are no closer to the answers today than they were over a hundred years ago.

"Perhaps the main reason is that they are still looking for that 'something' which causes these diseases instead of the 'lack' of something. The ultimate solution to the scientist's most puzzling problems is to be found in a near-primitive concoction of herbs and foods," said Dr Muchuweti.

"The ultimate solution is to be in the best possible harmony with the diet our ancestors were eating. Phytochemicals in foods may offer frontline defenses against such diseases as cancer."

Due to colonialism, changing lifestyles and social attitudes, diets for people in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa now consist increasingly of modern farm products and processed foods. 

A worrying trend now, is that only a few elder people are left with oral or traditional knowledge of the medico-nutritional properties of wild foods, their identification and their preservation.

"There is, therefore, an urgent need to collect indigenous knowledge in Zimbabwe before extinction," said the UZ biochemist.

She said it is worrying that the HIV/Aids pandemic, migration to urban areas, changes in land use and natural disasters are all contributing to the rapid loss of indigenous knowledge within the community and within generations.

"Custodians of this information already make less use of wild foods during times of need because international efforts concentrate on food aid and the use of genetically modified staple crops," she said noting the works of other experts who had researched on this issue extensively.

The biggest barrier to the widespread use of wild plant foods, she said, include social stigmas in which people consuming traditional foods are perceived as 'poor' as well as lack of promotion and research.

"There is no comprehensive referenced database or information source focusing on 'non-domesticated' or 'wild food plants' either for developed or developing countries," said Dr Muchuweti.

"Important information is scattered in a wide range of scientific papers, food tables, the grey literature and ad hoc articles. This is in stark contrast to commercial foods which have been extensively investigated and catalogued."

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says food diversity is the key to good nutrition and wild plant foods can play an important role.

Wild plant foods in Tanzania can now be found in 32 percent of all meals while the Wollo people in Ethiopia use wild plant foods as an important part of their survival strategy and food aid is only an option of last resort.

In some countries such as Thailand, Swaziland and Zambia, food experts say malnutrition has increased because of a reduced consumption of wild and famine plant foods.

They say changes in infrastructure, labour migration and food aid programmes have led to reduced intakes of wild and famine plant foods.

Changing agricultural practices, agricultural development, urbanisation, habitat destruction by overgrazing and forest clearing, use of herbicides and non-sustainable exploitation have reduced the availability of wild and famine plant foods in Zimbabwe and most other African countries.

Population sizes of some species are rapidly decreasing as a result of these factors.
"Wild foods often provide key supplements to the main diet and are of great nutritional importance. Without the understanding of the complementaries between staple crop foods and wild food intake agricultural planning will continue to be dominated by major crops to the exclusion of other, often nutritionally very important, wild products," said Dr Muchuweti quoting the works of Scone (1992) and Nordeide (1996).

Biopiracy of some of the genetic plant materials  from Zimbabwe and other African countries is also a new challenge that people in developing countries have to grapple with.

"We have to raise awareness on the recipes for preparing some of the wild plant foods. The health of our ancestors and the older generation was much better than for us, the new generation because they were eating more of these wild plant foods," said Dr Muchuweti.

"We have to change our attitudes and accept that wild plant foods are not inferior or poor man's foods."
There is no doubt that the UZ project will create better understanding of the contribution of plant genetic resources for food to local economies, food security and income generation.