XVI International Botanical Congess

Wild and cultivated vegetables constitute the main relishes in meals of the rural population in semi-arid West Africa. While the importance and seasonality of individual species has been assessed with qualitative methods by other studies, the present paper quantifies these parameters with food dairies and market investigations. 13 households from two villages in Southeastern Burkina Faso wrote down ingredients of all food consumed during one year. Market investigations were carried out every week in two markets to assess the seasonal variation in the supply and price of plant products. Wild vegetables constitute more than half of the consumed vegetables in the less enabled village whereas cultivated crops are more important in the other. Although wild vegetables are found as frequently in the market as cultivated species, households mainly purchase cultivated vegetables. The study emphasizes the need to focus more research on developing niche production and domestication of local vegetables within existing farming practices.