A Comprehensive Appraisal of the Wild Food Plants and Food System of Tribal Cultures in the Hindu Kush Mountain Range; a Way Forward for Balancing Human Nutrition and Food Security

Abdullah Abdullah, Shujaul Mulk Khan, Andrea Pieroni, Aminul Haq, Zahoor Ul Haq, Zeeshan Ahmad, Shazia Sakhi, Abeer Hashem, Al-Bandari Fahad Al-Arjani, Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi and Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah
Additional contact information
Abdullah Abdullah: Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Shujaul Mulk Khan: Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Andrea Pieroni: University of Gastronomic Sciences Pollenzo, Piazza V. Emanuele II, I-12042 Bra/Pollenzo, Italy
Aminul Haq: Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25130, Pakistan
Zahoor Ul Haq: Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Zeeshan Ahmad: Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Shazia Sakhi: Center for Plant Sciences and Biodiversity, University of Swat, Mingora 19130, Pakistan
Abeer Hashem: Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Al-Bandari Fahad Al-Arjani: Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi: Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah: Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-25

Abstract: The tribal belt of the Hindu Kush mountains is famous for its unique culture, ethnography, wild food plants, food systems, and traditional knowledge. People in this region gather wild plants and plant parts using them directly or in traditional cuisine, or sell them in local markets. However, there is a huge lack of documentation of the food system, particularly that related to wild food plants (WFP). In the current study, we focus on the uses and contributions of WFPs in the traditional tribal food system of the Hindu Kush valleys along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border. Ethnobotanical data were gathered through questionnaire surveys of 84 informants, including 69 men and 15 women, belonging to 21 different villages of the chosen area. In tribal societies men and women rarely mix and thus very few women took part in the surveys. We documented 63 WFP species belonging to 34 botanical families, of which 27 were used as vegetables, 24 as fruits, six in different kinds of chutneys (starters), and six as fresh food species. Fruits were the most used part (41%), followed by leaves (24%), aerial parts (24%), seeds (7%), stems (3%), and young inflorescences (1%). The reported uses of Carthamus oxyacantha , Pinus roxburghii seeds, and Marsilea quadrifolia leaves are novel for the gastronomy of Pakistan. The results reveal that WFPs provide a significant contribution to local food systems and play a role in addressing human nutritional needs, which are usually not met through farming practices. The tribal peoples of the Hindu Kush use WFPs for their nutritional value, but also as a cultural practice—an inseparable component of the tribal community’s lifestyle. This important traditional knowledge about the gathering and consumption of WFPs, however, is eroding at an alarming rate among younger generations due to the introduction of fast-food, modernization, and globalization. Therefore, appropriate strategies are imperative not only to safeguard traditional plants and food knowledge and practices, as well as the cultural heritage attached to them, but also to foster food security and thus public healthcare via local wild foods in the region.

Keywords: gastronomy; livelihood; public healthcare; traditional knowledge; wild food plants; valleys of the Hindu Kush mountain range (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5258/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5258/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5258-:d:550537

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().