The Role of Wild Fruits in Mitigating Hunger

Abstract

Sudan is a vast country characterized by diverse ecological zones endowed with remarkable varieties of wild fruit trees grown in their own almost across all the ecological regions in the country and most of these fruits are utilized for subsistence or income generation. Wild fruits in the Sudan are known to make significant contribution to rural livelihood systems and regional trade as well. Wild Fruits constitute a major coping mechanism to mitigate food shortage during famine or resources deficit. There is, however, a need to better understand how wild fruits contribute in mitigating hunger in the rural areas particularly the traditional sector. Wild fruits in the traditional sector are of particular socioeconomic important to the community it offsets food deficit as a substitute for the stable food while the easy access enhance the adaptive capacity and the ability of the poor to obtain important income sources. Reliance on wild fruits is greater in poor and women; in most cases it incorporates the whole household labour supply in the process of collection. This study reveals that there is a wide range of wild fruits are utilized by both rural and urban population across the Sudan. In rural areas, wild fruits contribute in supplementing household consumption, provide income sources and employment opportunity for the food insecure and lack off-farm income households. The wild fruits also have a variety of uses in food and juice making, trading, traditional treatment and medications in both rural and urban areas in the country. The study represents a first step towards taking a more inclusive understanding of the role of wild fruits in hunger mitigation in the rural areas and the main factors that influence households’ resilience capacity to better utilize these natural resources.