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1. What are 'famine' foods? 2. Background: food security in Ethiopia 3. Methodology used for
Famine Foods Survey 4. Results 4.2 Tsiska 5. Limitations of Study 6. Conclusions |
Wild plants that tend to grow outside of the cultivated area and would not normally be consumed due to local taboos or unpleasant side-effects.
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world where the population is 90% rural-based and only 10% urban-based. Of this predominantly rural population, over half are considered 'food insecure', that is, they do not have sufficient food to allow them to sustain their livelihood all year round.
When food security is threatened, farmers rely on a variety of 'coping mechanisms' to get them through the crisis. The way a household copes with food shortage is largely dependent on their pre-crisis position. The mechanism chosen is a result of 'a progressive narrowing of options that leads from broad attempts to minimise risk in the long term through actions designed to limit damage caused by a crisis, to extreme measures aimed at saving individual lives, even at the expense of household dissolution'.
An important component of coping strategies is famine foods. Although they may form an essential part of food security in less extreme conditions, they are considered an important indicator of famine conditions due to the increased reliance on them in times of crisis.
In December 1999 the United Nations Emergency Unit for Ethiopia (UN-EUE) wrote a preliminary report on the utilization of famine foods in the Sidamo region of southern Ethiopia. Alongside this report a provisional field guide was compiled. The UN-EUE are now looking for contributors so that they can build up a complete database of famine foods throughout Ethiopia. It was thus the aim of this project to research famine foods in the northern provinces of Tigray and Amhara.
Many areas of Ethiopia have been sited as 'biodiversity hot-spots', but due to increasing population pressure and food shortages, many areas are being rapidly degraded. This is especially true of the northern provinces of Ethiopia where the high population densities living in the highland areas has resulted in a decrease in the number of indigenous wild foods available. However, there is still a wealth of knowledge on a variety of famine foods, even if they are no longer available, and the recording of this information now is therefore crucial, before the knowledge disappears as well.
The famine food survey was to be a qualitative study using a UN-EUE based questionnaire as a guideline. It consisted of the following questions:
1. Common name(s) / Local name(s);
reasons/logic associated with the local nomenclature?
2. Growing period (months)? Period of abundance? Rainfall
requirement?
3. Propagation methods (vegetatively, from seeds, tubers…), flowering
periods?
4. Harvesting periods (months), frequency of harvesting?
5. Edible part(s); leaves, roots, tubers, stalks, seeds, fruits?
6. Productivity; any pest attacking the plant?
7. Method(s) of preparation as food (raw/cooked)?
8. Preparation procedure?
9. Materials/ingredients to be mixed with?
10. Time required for preparation / cooking?
11. Values - traditional/religious/male/female?
12. Any toxicity problems faced? Why?
13. Which animals (wild and domestic) feed on the plant? Consumable
plant stage?
14. Who collects wild foods? Who eats it?
Photographs were taken of all wild foods where possible. In addition to the questionnaire, questions were also asked about other coping strategies employed by farmers in their particular area.
Ethiopia is divided into three agroecological zones:
Ethiopian Venture aspired to interview farmers from each of these three zones about famine foods and other drought-coping strategies. To this end, the following areas of study were chosen :
1. Mekane Birhan, Janamora: Dega
2. Tsiska, Tekeze Lowlands: Kola
3. Debla Se'et, Tigray: Woyna Dega
In each of the three study areas, general background information was collected from the local administrators (for example, accessibility, access to clean water, government or NGO intervention). They then helped to select three adults (men and women) for interview. Tesfay Alemayehu would explain the purpose of the project to the interviewees and would then proceed to ask them questions following the lines of the questionnaire. He did not use the term 'famine' foods as he felt that they would be too sensitive to this. Both because the people did not like to be reminded of famine and also because culturally it is not considered acceptable to admit to eating these wild plants. Instead he would have to ask around the question, for example, "What do you eat when there is a shortage of food or there is no rain?"
Due to the qualitative nature of this research the results are descriptive and are shown here according to study-area. The same topics were covered in each area to allow comparisons to be made. Other interesting information is also included even though it may be unique to one area or even to a particular person. At the end of this section there is a summary of the main differences in famine foods and coping strategies between the three agro-ecological zones.
Altitude: 2965m
Longitude: 038°06'26E
Latitude: 13°00'32N
Dates of study: 28/3/00 - 31/3/00
Plentiful rain (belg rains began while we were there on 28/3/00); temperature often falls to below freezing.
In the local market, famine foods such as 'gaba' and 'abashow gomen' are sold or exchanged for other crops e.g. barley. Some peasants are reluctant to sell these foods for money, preferring to exchange for necessary foodstuffs.
Janamora is a woreda of around 150,000 people in a very remote area of the Simien Highlands. It is 100km by road from Debark (4 hours driving), through the Simien National Park. The road was only built last year and is still being completed; before then the woreda was very isolated.
The first high school has recently been
completed (government funded) and began functioning in 1999.
The ESRDF has recently funded the building of a clinic which has
begun functioning even though it is still being completed.
A UNICEF project and a Red Cross project have each brought clean
water to Mekane Birhan in the last 3 years.
The Amhara Food Security Unit (FSU) was set up in 1991. A branch of this came to Janamora 7 months ago. Their aim is to implement a Food Security Programme (FSP) made up of 12 components over 3 years. Funding comes from both internal (government) and external (international agencies & NGOs) sources.
The FSU in Janamora has 2 members who work with the woreda council to implement the FSP. They are at the first stage of the programme which involves EGS (Employment Generation Schemes). This includes reforestation, soil & water conservation and drinking water supply. So far there have been 1264 beneficiaries involved in these activities which have included:
(i) Preparing a nursery of 132,000 seedlings. 13.5kg of seedlings have been collected from the local area (5 species) and 23 farmers have been involved.
(ii) Soil banding, stone banding and hillside terracing to reduce erosion and save water. So far this has been done on 205km of land.
Interviewed 3 people together:
1. Ato. Zewdu Manengia: retired civilian, 70
years old
2. Wzo. Asmaru Ashagere: chairman of Women's Association
3. Kes. Musie Fanta: trained priest but his job at present is clinic
guard
Contact us if you are interested in full details of the famine foods found in Mekane Birhan (they can be emailed to you on an excel spreadsheet).
Interviewed:
1. Ato. Zewdu Manengia
2. Ato. Berhanu Agegnehu
When facing drought and food shortage, the strategies adopted by peasants of this woreda are as follows:
1. Selling livestock and household possessions
2. Migrating to other parts of the country to find work as labourers/servants. At first, the only person who will migrate is the head of the household. If conditions improve in Janamora they will return to plough their fields and sow crops. If they do not improve they will stay away. Many go to Humara and Metema (big cash-crop areas, especially sesame, on Sudanese border) to seek work. However people from the highland area (dega) have problems coping with the change in temperature and malaria and often do not survive.
3. Cash loan from Amhara Credit & Saving Institute. Allows credit of between 500 and 1500 birr to be settled in 10 months and 1 year respectively. They give prior attention to people seeking to diversify away from agriculture - i.e. to broaden their livelihood base. e.g. beekeeping, dairy farming.
Altitude: 1435m
Longitude: 038°47'55E
Latitude: 12°46'22N
Dates of study: 6/4/00 - 8/4/00
Since the 1984 famine the rain pattern in the region has changed so that they can no longer rely on the belg (Mar/Apr) rains but now rely on the meher rains (July/Aug).
Ziquala is a woreda of 55,000 people in the remote Tekeze lowlands. 65km from Sekota (capital of Wag Humra administration zone) but 3 hours by car due to state of the road which is still in the process of being built. It was started in 1994 and there has been sporadic progress. It is mainly the bridges over numerous dry river beds that are now waiting completion.
Pure water has only been available for the last year. A water pipe from a nearby river has been under construction for the last year but is not yet complete. 4 hand pumps are available pumping water from nearby springs.
There is a primary school, secondary school and a clinic in Tsiska.
a) ALMA (Amhara Development Association) - funded the Junior Secondary School and Clinic. They have planning permission to construct a road to Kedamit and Telaj.
b) Amhara Credit & Saving Institution - a mixed blessing?
c) Amhara Food Security Programme: Zequela
woreda is under a FSP unit that was started this year. 12 out of 18
kabeles are under the programme.
8 out of the 12 kabeles are under a 'food-for-work' programme for
selected participants (wage = 3 kilos grain/person/day).
4 kabeles have a 'paid-for-work' scheme, e.g. terracing hillside, for
selected participants (wage = 5 birr/person/day).
Interviewed 3 people together:
1. Ato. Makonnen Tekle, farmer, 57 years
old
2. Ato. Gebrehiwot Gabru, farmer, 30 years old
3. Wzo. Mariamu Hailemariam, 50 years old
Contact us if you are interested in full details of the famine foods found in Tsiska (they can be emailed to you on an excel spreadsheet).
Same 3 interviewed as above.
When facing drought and food shortage, the strategies adopted by peasants of this woreda are as follows:
1. Food Aid
People rely on internal/external aid to support them in times of serious food-shortage. If it is not forthcoming then their only option is to migrate.
2. Migration
In the 'old' days (i.e. pre-derg) they would go and work for rich families in other woredas and then return home, relying on 'hamle kulitch' to help them survive until their crops were ready to harvest.
During the derg time the problem was complicated by political factors. All aid had political overtones. If people were suspected of supporting the rebel forces then they were not given aid. So the initial problem of starvation was compounded by political instability. Migration was hard because the government was suspicious of any movement of people and therefore prevented it by 'incorrect ID' red tape.
People feel that at least now they can migrate peacefully, and many are having to do so since everything is deteriorating with lack of rain: fruit trees have been destroyed for fuelwood, shelter and to make tools e.g. ploughing equipment. Therefore, if aid does not arrive from the government or international organisations, the only option is to migrate for good with the whole family and all possessions including livestock. This is true for everyone, no matter how rich they are (measured by the number of livestock a family has), because if times are bad, they will not be able to get a good price for their livestock in their own area as everyone will be trying to sell.
From Tsiska families migrate to the cash crop areas of Matema and Humara (borders of Sudan) or to other woredas such as Belessa (towards Lake Tana).
3. Amhara Credit and Saving Institution
This alleviates the short-term problem and all peasants end up taking out loans because apart from migrating it is their only option for survival. However, the rates of interest and terms of repayment make things worse in the long run. Every person that wants to take out a loan has to have a 'guarantor' so that if he defaults on his repayment, his 'guarantor' will be expected to pay it for him. If he continues to default then his house and possessions will be sold to cover his repayments.
e.g. on a 1500 birr loan, the repayment is 159 birr a month. This monthly sum is part repayment of loan and part compulsory saving scheme. Interest is 6% and repayment is over 10 months.
If the rains & therefore harvest fails (which they are more than likely to given recent climatic history) the peasant is unable to repay and is left in an even worse state than he was before. However, they have no choice but to take out the loan to begin with just to survive the next few months. They have to live for now to survive; planning ahead is an impossibility.
"Hulum yebela bekrampt" - "Everything can be eaten during summer time"
i.e. it is OK to eat wild foods between May - August and you should not be insulted for it
"If I survive until July and August, I will survive until the next year due to Hamle Kulitch"
i.e. the wild food Hamle Kulitch gets people through the rainy season until they can harvest their crops. (Ethiopian New Year is in September)
"Hamle Kulitch gives us the green light to eat Digla"
i.e. they can survive by eating Hamle Kulitch in July & August and then Digla is available to tide them over in September
Altitude: 2400m
Longitude: 039°30'13E
Latitude: 14°13'30N
Dates of study: 15/4/00 - 17/4/00
Unpredictable rainfall, often suffers from severe drought.
The 'belg' or 'Asmara' crops (barley, wheat, sorghum) are sown in March/April during the belg rains. So if the belg rains fail, then these crops will also fail, unless they can be irrigated. This year the rains were almost too late - they arrived on 16th April. Teff can be sown right up until July.
Debla Se'et is a village in Ganta Afeshum woreda, 5km south of Adigrat. Adigrat, the capital of the Eastern Tigray Province has a population of 60,000 people at present (it has increased recently due to the addition of war-displaced people). The woreda of Ganta Afeshum has a population of 100,000 (this does not include Adigrat).
Being very close to the capital of the province, Adigrat, there is easy access to clean water, schools and a hospital.
The Eastern Tigray zone is the most drought-prone in the country. It has a total population of about 650,000. This year, in addition to 250,000 people who have been displaced due to the border conflict, there are another 250,000 also relying on food aid.
The government's Food Security Programme has prioritised 16 out of 35 woredas in Tigray (the most drought-prone). 5 of these woredas are in the Eastern Tigray Zone. In each of these 5 woredas there is both a macro and micro scale of operation. On the macro level there is an extensive woreda programme to integrate all development areas (health, education, clean water, road construction, environmental protection). On the micro level the most vulnerable households within each woreda have been identified for special help with specific problems.
The woreda where I did our study, Ganta Afeshum, is not one of the 5 chose woredas but it has NGO's doing the same job as the Government's Food Security Programme, e.g. food-for-work schemes and long-term catchment treatment e.g. terracing, modern irrigation, afforestation.
Funding of these programmes comes from the following areas:
a. Irish Aid (they have funded a 5-year
programme; 25-30 million birr each year)
b. World Vision
c. World Food Programme (they are concentrating primarily on
displaced people)
d. REST (Relief Society of Tigray)
e. DPPC (Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission)
Interviewed 3 people together in Debla Se'et:
1. Ato Hagos Biyena, farmer, aged 55
2. Wzo Tabere Wolde Yohanis, farmer, aged 30
3. Haleka (Deacon) Wolde Gabriel Hagos, farmer, aged 35
Most of the famine foods have deteriorated due to lack of rain. People have no choice now but to rely on food aid and food-for-work schemes. The only surviving famine foods in this area are:
a. Beles
b. Hamle tilian
c. Hamle tete
d. Kuenti (in some areas)
e. Ango shahay (in some areas)
Contact us if you are interested in full details of the famine foods found in Debla Se'et (they can be emailed to you on an excel spreadsheet).
Same 3 interviewed as above.
When facing drought and food shortage, the strategies adopted by peasants of this woreda are as follows:
1. Try to get food-for-work in the local area or further afield
2. Sell shoats and other possessions until conditions improve
3. Take out a loan
The only credit institution in the region is Dedebit Credit & Saving Association, a sister company of REST. 4 years ago many NGO's had their own credit system but it didn't work because farmers took loans from more than one institution and then could not repay any of them. Now NGOs are not allowed to participate in rural credit schemes.
There are pros and cons to using this Association during hard times:
Pros of taking a loan:
Cons:
4. Head of household and/or other adults in the family will migrate to another region
In some areas of Tigray (Kolagara Alta, Hausin, Haramat, Wokro, Atbe, Sinkata) whole families migrate, and not only when there is drought. They cultivate their land in the rainy season and then go to Adigrat to find work e.g. removing weeds for others. Meanwhile surviving on 'beles'. The head of household would then return home to check if the crops have grown. If they have, the whole family will return to harvest them. If they haven't then the family will remain in the place where they have found work.
"Yiharis alehu demenai enama adehu
semayey"
'I'm ploughing as I watch the clouds
and the sky'
"Sala Belesey kerimeye shewiheley do
sigemey"
'Thanks to my beles I survived the
summer. Did you ripen my barley?'
Ato. Hagos says that in his area they have a solution to this problem. In 1981 a Peasant's Association was established. Joining the Association meant buying shares in the Association. For the initial organisers this was 10 birr per share and they only had to buy 1 to join. For newcomers the 'fee' is 20 birr per share and they have to buy at least 2 to join. There are now 1709 members and they have a capital of 77,000 birr. If a member wanted to buy a bag of fertiliser for example, for which he would normally have to take out a loan, he can go to the Association and they will take full responsibility. I.e. they will buy the fertiliser and then sort out a repayment scheme for that individual farmer. This negates the need for a collateral of 5 and means the individual can repay his debt when it suits him and without the need for getting 4 other people together at the same time.
The following graph shows the predominant famine foods utilised in each of the three agroecological zones.
The most common strategies utilised in all three areas are:
1. Selling of possessions
2. Loan from local credit institution
3. Migration (head of household in the highlands; whole family in the
lowlands)
In the last few years there has been an increasing reliance on food aid, food-for-work and employment generation schemes, organised by either local government or NGOs. This was most notable in the Eastern Tigray province.
Famine foods are a little-publicised but very important natural resource utilised by all the peasant farmers we interviewed. In each agroecological zone between 14 and 21 different famine foods were described, although some of these are no longer available due to lack of rain and/or over-use in recent years. Shepherds and children are the main year-round consumers of famine foods.
If cultivated, some of these wild plants have the potential to become valuable staple foods and important alternatives to the usual food crops. Advantages of utilising wild plants include:
1. Indigenous wild plants are ideally suited to
the climate in which they grow and are therefore more hardy and
resistant than imported species.
2. Exploiting naturally-growing wild plants is a sustainable, cheap
and locally available alternative to increasing production of
'western' crops through genetic modification.
3. Diversifying agricultural land to grow both traditional cultivated
crops and wild plants would minimise the spread of species-specific
diseases and help maintain the country's natural biodiversity.
However, there are some hindering factors that need to be taken into account:
1. Cultural
Wild foods are looked down upon as being second rate and only eaten by the very poor. As a result the people who eat them are insulted. This cultural taboo will have to be overridden before wild foods are accepted and utilised publicly by all.
2. Physical
Many of the wild foods have unpleasant side effects when eaten in excess. Further research will need to be done on nutrition, palatability and toxicity before cultivating particular crops.
3. Environmental
The consistent lack of rain has had a negative impact on wild plants as well as the cultivated plants. Many have been so degraded that they are disappearing from the botanical spectrum and may soon become extinct from certain areas.
Aside from the utilisation of famine foods, the main coping mechanisms in the three areas of study are as follows, in order of preference:
1. Selling possessions e.g. livestock
2. Taking out a loan: this is a short-term strategy.
3. Migrating: this is a more permanent and often last-resort strategy. In the highland areas it tends to be just the head of household who migrates to look for work. In the lowland areas the whole family moves with all their possessions.
Reliance on Food Aid has become a coping mechanism in some areas that are accessible to the aid stations. The danger of this is that if the aid is not available, families have nothing to fall back on and will have to migrate. The debate over the positive and negative impacts of food aid is an ongoing one in Ethiopia.
The regional governments are beginning to implement integrated development policies (e.g. combining conservation, increased agricultural production and off-farm diversification) and by offering food-for-work schemes they help alleviate the day-to-day or season-to-season problems. However, until these policies are directed at schemes to improve the purchasing power of the rural population, the rural poor will never be able to get out of the poverty trap.