Wild Foods - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 483

Table 19.4 The diversity of species of wild foods used in selected countries of
Africa

Summarized area
characteristics Country /Region Number of species References

Africa Continent-wide estimate

(insects only)

600 DeFoliart 1992

Africa Sub-Saharan Africa

(insects only)

250 van Huis 2003

Africa Central and West Africa

(plants only)

1500 Chege 1994

Botswana Tyua grow crops and use

wild plants, animals, birds,
fish and insects

171 Hitchcock 1999

Congo Mbuti Pygmies of

forest: cultivators of
cassava and plantain plus
users of 230 animal and
100 plant species

330 Ishikawa 1999

Ethiopia Subsistence agriculture,

animal husbandry,
semi-arid to humid

44 Fentahun and Hager 2009

Ethiopia Countrywide estimate 203 Asfaw and Tadesse 2001

Ethiopia Countrywide estimate 300 Asfaw 2009

Ethiopia Agricultural, arid, open

woodland (50% of plants in
region edible)

25 Becker 1983

Ethiopia Humid to semi-arid; forest

to savannah, 3 ethnic
groups in south Ethiopia

66 Balemie and Kebebew

2006

Kenya Countrywide estimate for

agricultural communities
(plants only)

800 Maundu 1996

Kenya Turkana agro-pastoralists

and rural fishing
communities, arid and
semi-arid

14 Levine and Crosskey 2006

Madagascar Forest-dwelling, swidden

cultivation in tropical forest

150 Styger et al. 1999

Namibia Agriculture and livestock;

tropical wetland, swamp
and woodland in Caprivi

21 Mulonga 2003

Nigeria Agricultural, savanna,

semi-arid

121 Harris and Mohammed,

2003

Tanzania Agricultural, tropical forest,

East Usambara mountains

28 Kessey, 1998

(Continued)