Potential of Indigenous Food Plants - 1999

Exploring the Potential of Indigenous Wild Food Plants in Southern Sudan

Proceedings of a Workshop Held in Lokichoggio, Kenya, June 3-5 1999

Birgitta Grosskinsky and Caroline Gullick 

Catholic Relief Services and World Food Program,2000.

The workshop was held to share knowledge on the use and potential of IWFPs within South Sudan and within the region (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania), bring together people from different backgrounds and from different agencies to better understand their perception of IWFPs, promote a practical understanding and appreciation of this natural resource, which is available to be utilized by a wide range of people in southern Sudan, discuss how an understanding of IWFPs can be used to improve the implementation of existing and future programs and activities, encourage and support interested local authorities in the sustainable exploitation and conservation of this renewable resource, and encourage local initiatives for sustainable development of natural resources among the people in southern Sudan.

The workshop introduced the consumption and production of indigenous food plants in southern Sudan; outlined the agricultural and economic potential of indigenous food plants, identified areas and gaps in the research; examined the possibilities of integrating the information about IWFPs into integrated health, nutritional, agricultural, formal and non-formal educational programs by combining scientific information with indigenous knowledge with the hope that this integration will promote local solutions to malnutrition and disease, boost food production, market expansion and environmental awareness; and identified practices which impact the sustainable use of indigenous resources; and solutions to constraints to the production and the consumption of these plants. List of Plants with Vernacular Names from Various Areas of Southern Sudan (Appendix 8 8).