Abdul Saboor

Ethnobotanical appraisal and medicinal use of plants in Patriata, New Murree, evidence from Pakistan

BackgroundThis paper reflects the empirical findings of an ethnobotanical survey which was undertaken in Patriata (New Murree) of district Rawalpindi in Pakistan. The aims and objectives of the study were to document indigenous knowledge of plants particularly of medicinal, veterinary, fruit, vegetable, fodder, fuel etc.MethodsFor this purpose, the whole area was surveyed for documenting folk knowledge using a semi-structured questionnaire. A total of 93 plants species belonging to 80 genera and 56 families were found in a variety of uses by the local people for the accomplishment of their basic needs. The study further employs binary logit regression model of medicinal uses of these plants so as to identify the probability of occurrence of medicinal use of woody or non-woody plants keeping other plant characteristics in view.ResultsEthnobotanical data shows that most plants are used for medicinal and fodder purposes (27.93% each), followed by fuel (16.90%), fruit (6.55%), vegetable (5.52%) and ethno-veterinary (3.79%). There is also an established association of medicinal use of plants to the fruits use. Non-woody plants have high tendency towards medicinal use of the plants as compared to woody plants. Annual plants are less likely to be directly associated with medicinal use of plants in the surveyed vegetation. Underground plant parts are more likely to be used for medicinal purposes as revealed from the Logit expressions.ConclusionsThe study revealed that most of the plants are used for medicinal and fodder purposes. The results of Logit Model showed that the probabilities of plant species for their medicinal use are associated to the woody or non-woody, aerial or underground, perennial or annual characteristics of plants. One should be careful in completely generalizing the results as the survey findings are sensitive to the plant species and the vegetation under consideration. But it can be specified that there exists either some positive or negative association of medicinal use of plants to the various characteristics of plant species.

An ethnobiological study in Kala Chitta hills of Pothwar region, Pakistan: multinomial logit specification.

BackgroundThis paper constitutes an important ethnobiological survey in the context of utilizing biological resources by residents of Kala Chitta hills of Pothwar region, Pakistan. The fundamental aim of this research endeavour was to catalogue and analyse the indigenous knowledge of native community about plants and animals. The study is distinctive in the sense to explore both ethnobotanical and ethnozoological aspects of indigenous culture, and exhibits novelty, being based on empirical approach of Multinomial Logit Specifications (MLS) for examining ethnobotanical and ethnozoological uses of specific plants and animals.MethodsTo document the ethnobiological knowledge, the survey was conducted during 2011–12 by employing a semi-structured questionnaire and thus 54 informants were interviewed. Plant and animal specimens were collected, photographed and properly identified. Distribution of plants and animals were explored by descriptive and graphical examination. MLS were further incorporated to identify the probability of occurrence of diversified utilization of plants and animals in multipurpose domains.ResultsTraditional uses of 91 plant and 65 animal species were reported. Data analysis revealed more medicinal use of plants and animals than all other use categories. MLS findings are also in line with these proportional configurations. They reveal that medicinal and food consumption of underground and perennial plants was more as compared to aerial and annual categories of plants. Likewise, medicinal utilization of wild animals and domestic animals were more commonly observed as food items. However, invertebrates are more in the domain of medicinal and food utilization. Also carnivores are fairly common in the use of medicine while herbivores are in the category of food consumption.ConclusionThis study empirically scans a good chunk of ethnobiological knowledge and depicts its strong connection with indigenous traditions. It is important to make local residents beware of conservation status of species and authentication of this knowledge needs to be done in near future. Moreover, Statistically significant findings impart novelty in the existing literature in the field of ethnobiology. Future conservation, phytochemical and pharmacological studies are recommended on these identified plants and animals in order to use them in a more sustainable and effective way.

Changing food patterns across the seasons in rural Pakistan: analysis of food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake.

This comparative study investigated variations in food patterns across the seasons in rural Pakistan through assessing the changes in food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake. It analyzed the situation using the primary information of 97 and 114 households surveyed in summer and winter respectively. Findings revealed a significant difference of households’ food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake across the seasons. In the winter, households’ food basket was more diverse, showing 30%, 13%, and 8% rise in food variety, dietary diversity, and caloric intake, respectively, due mainly to the changes in food choices in winter. Rural households preferred to consume items from nutritious food groups (i.e., dried fruits and nuts, oilseeds, and locally preserved foods) during the severe cold weather. However, they did not substitute significantly the items from basic food groups (i.e., cereals, vegetables and legumes, tubers, and dairy products), with those belonging to nutritious groups. Based on findings, it is concluded that food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake fluctuate across the seasons, therefore surveys of dietary patterns and calorie intake in one particular season may not be reliable, and food security status of households may not be generalized on the basis of one season survey.

Poverty assessment as a multidimensional socio-economic concept: the case of the Rawalpindi region in Pakistan

The definition on poverty has progressed into a multidimensional concept focusing more on socio-economic dimensions than being a mere measure of financial deprivation. Corresponding to this advancement, this study investigated the incidence of multidimensional poverty (MDP) in the Rawalpindi region of Pakistan, taking into account three dimensions, i.e. education, health and housing. Findings revealed an inconsistent declining trend of MDP over time. This inconsistency was mainly attributed to observed fluctuations in deprivation levels of education, health and housing in the region. Over time, education deprivation showed a significant net increase. Notably, the magnitude of MDP in rural areas was higher than in urban areas.

Agriculture land resources and food security nexus in Punjab, Pakistan: an empirical ascertainment

Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistans economy. It employs 45% of the labor force, contributes 21.4% to the gross domestic product and provides food to more than 180 million people of the country. The required plethoric resources to produce food correspondingly protect the population against food insecurity. This study explores the distribution of land resources, their ranking and relationships with food security in all districts of Punjab province of Pakistan. The Gini Coefficient and multiple linear regression were employed. The results showed positive relationships between the Gini of operational land holdings and the proportion of land ownership titles with the proportion of food-insecure population and food availability while the rest exhibited negative relationships as theoretically and statistically justified, which is contrary to earlier studies. It is strongly recommended that policy-makers must redefine the threshold level of land ownership holdings/operational holdings to produce in abundance not only for food availability for household consumption but for food distribution across regions as well.

Climate Change, Risk and Food Security: An Analysis of Wheat Crop in Pakistan

Climate change is a growing threat for humanity, while agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to this impending change. This study analyses the risk associated with wheat crop (staple food) due to climatic factors and its possible impacts on food security in Pakistan. As climate changes, it effects crop productivity and has heterogeneous impacts with respect to geographical locations. This concern led us to select geographical classification of wheat farming in Pakistan. To capture risk factor for wheat production, we employed Just and Pope (1978) production function using district-level disintegrated data of area, fertilizer, yield and climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) for wheat over the period of 1984–2013. We used 20 years moving averages of monthly mean temperature and precipitation and further classified them according to the growth stages of wheat. We estimated the weather shocks and combine effect of climatic variables by variation and interaction terms, respectively. Further, we translated the impacts of vulnerability of wheat grain on per-capita availability to depict the national food security level. Our empirical findings showed that impact of variation in temperature during growing stage is highly significant and contributes in lowering the wheat yield risk, while increase in precipitation during growing and flowering stages poses high risk to wheat crop. Interaction terms of climatic variables showed non-significant risk-decreasing effect during all the three growth stages of the crop. Further, we found that average per-capita wheat grain availability is 135 kg in Pakistan, significantly higher than self-sufficiency level but highly vulnerable. Our findings suggest that there is a need to develop robust adaptation strategies to combat the risk phenomenon and to sustain and improve wheat grain production for the masses in future. Specifically, developing climate resistant cultivars and educating farmers about balance use of inputs (e.g. fertilizer and irrigation) coupled with engendering awareness about climate change could lead to secure the wheat grain production in the country.

Ethnobotanical profiling of the medicinal flora of Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan: Empirical reflections on multinomial logit specifications

OBJECTIVE To report the indigenous peoples uses of plants from a multidimensional perspective in a remote area where strong ethnobotanical cultural practices prevail. METHODS An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in the field during 2014-2016. Ethnobotanical data were gathered from 182 informants through oral interviews and semi-structured questionnaires. The distribution of plants was explored using both descriptive and graphical methods. Further, a Multinomial Logit Specification was applied to find out the probability of the occurrence of diverse utilization of plants in multipurpose domains. RESULTS The study identified 202 plant species distributed among 71 families and 156 genera. Ethnobotanical data indicate that there are more medicinal (36.96%) uses of plants as compared to all other use categories. The output from the Multinomial Logit Specifications (MLS) model reveals that perennial and non-woody plants are exploited more for medicinal and food uses than annual and woody plants. In the context of ethnomedicinal uses, aerial plant parts particularly leaves are more extensively used for the preparation of herbal recipes as compared to underground parts. CONCLUSIONS The results of the study emphasize the need to create awareness among the local communities about the conservation status of plant species in order to maintain a sustainable resource of plant-derived materials into the future. The novel econometric approach employed in this study adds a new insightful methodology to the existing body of literature in the field of ethnobotany. We strongly recommend conservation measures, alongside phytochemical and pharmacological studies on the useful plant species identified in this study in order to ensure their sustainable and effective utilization.