An Ethnobotanical Survey of Wild Edible Plants Commercialized in Kefira Market, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia

: Food insecurity and malnutrition affect much of the world’s population. Wild edible plants are known to make important contributions to the livelihoods of local communities of sub-Saharan Africa countries including Ethiopia. The populations in Ethiopia have a rich knowledge of consumption of wild edible plants and wild edible plants are still an integral part of the society in the country. An Ethnobotanical Survey of Wild Edible Plants Commercialized in Kefira Market, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia was conducted with the aim of documenting the wild edible plants used by the community. Ethnobotanical data were collected from 29 informants using semi-structured interviews. A total of 22 wild edible plants belonging to 17 families were documented. Most of the wild edible plants were trees (81.82%), Fruits were the dominant edible parts (68%) followed by seed (18%) consumed by the people. The present paper provides basic information for better conservation, possibly for further exploitation of WEPs, and to preserve the traditional knowledge associated with WEPs for the future generation.


Introduction
In Ethiopia, there are lots of food materials that are obtained from plants. According to [1] 8% of the higher plant species in the country are edible, and 25% of these are cultivated and there are also many wild edible plants that produce quantities of food.
Wild edible plants refer to species that are neither cultivated nor domesticated, but are available from their wild natural habitat and used as source of food [2]. When compared to domesticated plant food sources, wild plant foods tend to be overlooked. However, there is substantial evidence that indicates the importance of wild edibles in terms of the global food basket. According to [2] about one billion people in the world use wild foods (mostly from plants) on a daily basis. Since wild edible plants are freely accessible within natural habitats, indigenous people have knowledge of how to gather and prepare the foods. Dire Dawa is characterized by a semi-arid climate with low and erratic rainfall and it is a region where environmental degradation is observed and drought frequently affects the people [3]. Moreover, there is no such wild edible plants research conducted in the region before. This study aims at documenting wild edible plants used by the community in and around 'Dire Dawa' city, Eastern Ethiopia. The results of the present study will be useful to ensure food security, to generate income by the local people and to give due attention for the proper management and conservation of wild edible plants.

Description of the Study Area
Dire Dawa city is located in the eastern part of Ethiopia between 9°27'N and 9°49'N latitude and 41°38`E and 42°19`E longitude. Dire Dawa is about 515kms road distance to the east of Addis Ababa and 311kms to the west of Djibouti port. According to the 2007 population and housing census of Ethiopia, the total population of the Dire Dawa Administration was estimated to be 341,834, out of which the urban population was 233,224 and that of the rural population, 108,610. The mean annual temperature lies between 17°C and 27°C and with annual rainfall that amounts to 604mm.

Study Site Selection
The study was conducted on kefira market (06 kebele), Dire Dawa City. It is a traditional market place where a number of fresh and dried wild edible plants are sold ( Figure 1).

Informant Selection
Purposive sampling was used for selecting the informants. A total of 29 informants (10 male and 19 female) were selected for this study.

Data Collection Method
Data collection was done from February to June 2016 from wild edible plant sellers in Kefira market using semistructured interviews. Prior to data collection, discussion was made with the informants to explain to them their cooperation is a valuable contribution to the documentation of their knowledge about wild edible plants and to get their verbal informed consent. Identification of specimens was made using published literatures and with the assistance of botanists from Dire Dawa University.

Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages were used to summarize data using Microsoft excel spread sheet and it was also utilized for drawing graphs and pie charts.

Characteristics of the Respondents
The 29 informants were grouped into three age groups, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia young (20-35), adult (36-50) and elderly (above 50). Generally, 34.5% of the respondents were between 20 and 35 years and 41.4% were between 36 and 50 while 24.1% were above 50. Fifty two percent of the respondents were married and 27.6% of the informants were never married while 20.7% of them were divorced (Table 1).

Habit of Wild Edible Plants
Most of the wild edible plants were trees (Figure 3), and fruits were predominantly used parts as food. Tree species comprised the majority 18 (81.82%) of the wild edible plants, followed by shrubs 4 (18.18%). According to [6] trees contributed (68%), followed by shrub (24%), [5] also reported that (50%) of the reported wild edible plants were trees followed by shrubs (26%).

Habitat of the Wild Edible Plants
Most of the wild edible plants 19 (86%) were obtained from the wild, and (9%) of the WEPs were obtained both from the wild and home garden while (5%) of the WEPs were obtained from the home garden ( Figure 4). According to [8] the majority 41 (62.1%) of the wild plant species were collected from the wild.

Plant Parts Used
The parts consumed include fruit, seed, stem and leaf. Fruits (68%) were the dominant edible parts followed by seed (18%) consumed by the people in the study area ( Figure 5). The dominance of fruits as edible parts has also been reported in most previous studies undertaken in Ethiopia [5], [8], [13], [14], contrary to this finding, [15] reported leaves and stems as the most widely used parts of wild edible trees and shrubs in the West Bank of Palestine, this difference might be due to variation in the available species, and culture of the communities with respect to food preference and preparation.

Availability Status of Wild Edible Plants
The majorities (54.5%) of wild edible plants were rare in the study area ( Figure 6); this could be attributed to anthropogenic and natural factors in the study area. Their availability in the study area was also influenced by seasonal variation most of them are scarce during the dry season [8] also reported that the availability of wild edible plants varies depending on ecological and climatic conditions. [6] and [4] reported that the majority of wild edible plants are rare in their respective study areas due to continued destruction of their habitats and overharvesting.

Accessibility of the Wild Edible Plants
Most of the wild edible plants collected during the study period were accessible. They can easily be available on market. Some are rarely available on market. This could be attributed to season and increase distance to harvest areas. Some examples of commonly available WEPs in the study area were Tamarindus

Threats to the Wild Edible Plants
As mentioned by most of the informants six threats were selected in the study area. This information is used to determine the highest threats to wild edible plants in the study area and helps to suggest the necessary appropriate conservation measures. The results of the present study showed that deforestation and human encroachment were ranked 1 st and 2 nd , respectively and these were followed by drought and firewood in the 3 rd and 4 th places, respectively (Table 3). According to [8] drought takes the major part followed by fuel wood collection and selective cutting for construction.

Conclusions
This study is the first ethnobotanical study of wild edible plants used by local people. Our survey showed the diversity of wild edible plants and related indigenous knowledge in the study area. Different plant parts were used the most frequently used parts were fruits and seed. In the present study 22 wild edible plants were documented. These plants are belonging to different genera and family showing that the study area is rich in wild edible plant diversity. The documented information on the wild edible plants may serve as a baseline data for future studies on nutritional values and possible toxic effects and to identify plants that may improve nutrition and increase dietary diversity. Some of these wild edible plants may have the potential to be valuable food sources (if cultivated) and could be part of a strategy in tackling food insecurity in the region.