A socio-economic analysis of forest foods consumption in Hoima and Masindi Districts of Uganda.

Abstract

Millions of households in the developing world depend on food from forests to supplement their diets especially as emergency food supplies during drought, famine and war periods. Forest foods, therefore, make a critical contribution to the food supply. The consumption of forest foods is, however, decreasing rapidly due to the rapid degradation of forest resources, erosion of indigenous knowledge and the influence of western culture values. This study has shown that distance from the forest, household income and education, reduced the hoousehold's dependency on forest foods while family life and, suprisingly land holding, were found to marginally increase use of forest foods.