Ethnobotanical survey of some wild edible plants among the Mursi, Bodi and Bacha communities in lower Omo valley of south Omo zone, southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract The Mursi, Bodi and Bacha communities are the three agro-pastoral ethnic groups in the lower Omo valley of Ethiopia. Mursi, Bodi and Bacha descriptions are ethnonyms given by outsiders, that the Mursi call themselves Mun, Bodi designates the two groups who call themselves Mela and Chirim, and that Bacha call themselves Kwegu. The livelihood of the two groups depend on the integration of activities like, flood-retreat cultivation, cattle herding and rain-fed cultivation. Whereas Bacha communities are mainly dependent on foraging for wild animals and plants, fishing, and beekeeping activities in the Omo riverine forest. As the three groups live in similar environment, they share quite similar interests to multidimensional management concerns within a mutual interaction with their ecosystems. WEPs are parts in focus of their importance as they play a significant role in their daily life meal throughout the year. However, these people faced catastrophic decline and damage to their environment in the last 30 years which critically need ethnobotanical assessment and correlated measures to alleviate the problem that our objective gave emphasis. The result of this study indicated 49 taxonomically identified wild edible plants species; forty-seven (47) species were common to the three groups while two were unique to Bacha. The WEPs in these communities belong to 43 genera and 27 families. Majority of plants mentioned in the community have been with multipurpose usage; in which 16 WEP species claimed as nutraceutical. This ongoing study in documenting the WEPs of indigenous communities in the lower Omo valley, exhibited as this environment is rich in related biodiversity and knowledge towards it. Continuous inventory and documenting of WEPs, safety assessment and promotion for conservation as well as isolating and preserving of buffer areas comprised of bushy grassland, forests and river banks accessible to the inhabitants are highly recommended.