Impediments, opportunities and strategies to enhance trade of wild and semi-wild food plants in Bunyoro- Kitara Kingdom, Uganda

This study examined the impediments, opportunities and strategies to enhance trade of wild and semi-wild food plants (WSWFPs) in Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, Uganda. Semi-structured questionnaire was administered face-to-face to sixty six (66) traders of WSWFPs in the formal markets: five (5) mobile hawkers and eleven (11) home-based/roadside traders. As a result of their small number, all traders that were found selling WSWFPs were interviewed. Data were analysed using simple descriptive statistics in excel spreadsheet and MINITAB statistical package. A number of challenges including high perishability, market dues, inaccurate consumers’ perceptions, seasonal shortfalls and unreliable supply, unorganized markets, little or no value addition, limited market information, and the inexistence of market promotional activities affected the trade in WSWFPs. However, the growing market demands, increasing focus of most service providers in creating awareness on WSWFPs, ever-changing perception on nutritional values of WSWFPs by the public, current government emphasis on value addition of traded agricultural products, little or no capital requirement for starting up trade in WSWFPs, and absence of restrictive regulations on sale of WSWFPs were regarded as good opportunities that could be exploited to enhance trade in WSWFPs. Key strategies for improved marketing WSWFPs included among other things, training gatherers and traders on value adding activities prior to sale, deliberate investment in promotional and awareness campaigns to expose the hidden benefits of WSWFPs, scrapping market dues levied on traders selling WSWFPs, helping gatherers and sellers to organise themselves to form viable supply and market groups, linking gatherers and sellers to good markets, as well as providing them with available market information. There is thus, a need for concerted efforts to implement some of these feasible marketing strategies to improve on the markets of WSWFPs in the kingdom. Key words: Wild edibles, wild food, semi-cultivated food, marketing wild food, Uganda.

[1]  N. Stryamets.  Non-wood forest products for livelihoods , 2012 .

[2]  A. Oladele,et al.  Non Wood Forest Products in Poverty Alleviation and its Implication in Species Conservation in Emohua Local Government area, Rivers state, Nigeria , 2012 .

[3]  J. Kimondo,et al.  Contribution of wild and semi-wild food plants to overall household diet in Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, Uganda , 2011 .

[4]  Fountain Publishers.  Uganda districts information handbook , 2011 .

[5]  John B. Hall,et al.  Wild and semi-wild food plants in Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, Uganda: cultural significance, local perceptions and social implications of their consumption. , 2011 .

[6]  Wfp,et al.  The State of Food Insecurity in the World , 2011 .

[7]  Tilahun Teklehaymanot,et al.  Ethnobotanical study of wild edible plants of Kara and Kwego semi-pastoralist people in Lower Omo River Valley, Debub Omo Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia , 2010, Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine.

[8]  K. Acharya,et al.  EATING FROM THE WILD: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE ON WILD EDIBLE PLANTS IN PARROHA VDC OF RUPANDEHI DISTRICT, CENTRAL NEPAL , 2010 .

[9]  Shandesh Bhattarai,et al.  Wild Edible Plants Used by the People of Manang District, Central Nepal , 2009, Ecology of food and nutrition.

[10]  R. Sundriyal,et al.  Wild edible plants of the Sikkim Himalaya: Marketing, value addition and implications for management , 2004, Economic Botany.

[11]  J. Isselstein,et al.  Plant biodiversity and ethnobotany of Borana pastoralists in Southern Oromia, Ethiopia , 2008, Economic Botany.

[12]  G. Sileshi,et al.  Indigenous fruit trees in the tropics: domestication, utilization and commercialization. , 2007 .

[13]  G. Sileshi,et al.  Marketing of indigenous fruits in Southern Africa. , 2007 .

[14]  Danie Jordaan,et al.  Baseline Marketing Surveys and Supply Chain Studies for Indigenous Fruit Markets in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia , 2006 .

[15]  S. Dhillion,et al.  Diversity and Traditional Knowledge Concerning Wild Food Species in a Locally Managed Forest in Nepal , 2005, Agroforestry Systems.

[16]  U. Schippmann,et al.  Impact of cultivation and gathering of medicinal plants on biodiversity: global trends and issues. , 2003 .

[17]  L. Temple,et al.  PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF SAFOU (DACRYODES EDULIS) IN CAMEROON AND INTERNATIONALLY: MARKET DEVELOPMENT ISSUES , 2002 .

[18]  O. Ndoye,et al.  Marketing of non-wood forest products in the humid forest zone of Cameroon , 1999 .

[19]  L. Haddad,et al.  How does the human rights perspective help to shape the food and nutrition policy research agenda , 1998 .

[20]  P. M. Shingi,et al.  Charcoal production and marketing in Gujarat. , 1993 .

[21]  Mugisha Odrek Rwabwogo.  Uganda Districts Information Handbook , 1992 .

[22]  R. Mattson,et al.  Farmers''markets in Kansas: A profile of vendors and market organization , 1992 .

[23]  Earl R. Babbie,et al.  The practice of social research , 1969 .