Promoting Food Sovereignty in the Sahel: Lessons from Indigenous Food Systems

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Greentopia: Utopian Thought in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Indigenous food systems represent a treasure trove of knowledge that contributes to well-being and health, benefiting communities, preserving a rich biodiversity, and providing nutritious food. Traditional Indigenous territories are home to 80% of the planet’s biodiversity, and Indigenous food systems often play a wider role in environmental conservation. However, Indigenous peoples have experienced colonization and marginalization that have transformed their livelihoods and affected their production and consumption patterns.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adedayo, A.G., M.B. Oyun, and O. Kadeba. 2010. Access of rural women to forest resources and its impact on rural household welfare in North Central Nigeria. Forest Policy and Economics. 12: 439–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • AFSA (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Nigeria). 2014. Food sovereignty systems: Feeding the world, regenerating ecosystems, rebuilding local economies, and cooling the planetAll at the same time. https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/AFSA-Document.pdf Accessed 12 Feb 2022.

  • Akinola, Racheal, Laura M. Pereira, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Francia-Marié. de Bruin, and Loubie Rusch. 2020. A review of indigenous food crops in Africa and the implications for more sustainable and healthy food systems. Sustainability 12 (8): 3493–4523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borelli, Teresa, Danny Hunter, Bronwen Powell, Tiziana Ulian, Efisio Mattana, Céline. Termote, Lukas Pawera, Daniela Beltrame, Daniela Penafiel, Ayfer Tan, Mary Taylor, and Johannes Engels. 2020. Born to eat wild: An integrated conservation approach to secure wild food plants for food security and nutrition. Plants 9 (10): 1299–1335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chappell, M. Jahi, and Annelie Bernhart. 2018. Agroecology as a pathway towards sustainable food systems. Aachen: Misereror.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clapp, Jennifer. 2017. Food self-sufficiency: Making sense of it and when it makes sense. Food Policy, 66 (c): 88–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domingo, Ashleigh, Kerry-Ann. Charles, Michael Jacobs, Deborah Brooker, and Rhona M. Hanning. 2021. Indigenous community perspectives of food security, sustainable food systems and strategies to enhance access to local and traditional healthy food for partnering Williams treaties first nations (Ontario, Canada). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (9): 4404–4419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drissi, Sham. 2020. Indigenous peoples and the nature they protect. 8 June 2020. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/indigenous-peoples-and-nature-they-protect. Accessed 15 Oct 2022.

  • FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2020. How ancestral knowledge will improve food systems. Twenty-Seventh Session of the Committee on Agriculture 28 September–2 October 2020. https://www.fao.org/3/nd424en/nd424en.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb 2022.

  • FAO and Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. 2021. Indigenous peoples food systems: Insights on sustainability and resilience from the frontline of climate change. Rome: FAO, Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO, IFA, UNICEF, WFP & WHO. 2019. The state of food security and nutrition in the world: Safeguarding against economic slowdown and downturns. Rome: FAO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, James D., Nia King, Eranga K. Galappaththi, Tristan Pearce, Graham McDowell, and Sherilee L. Harper. 2020. The resilience of indigenous peoples to environmental change. One Earth 2 (6): 532–543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keleman Saxena, Alder, **mena Cadima Fuentes, Rhimer Gonzales Herbas, and Debbie L. Humphries. 2016. Indigenous food systems and climate change: Impacts of climatic shifts on the production and processing of native and traditional crops in the Bolivian Andes. Public Health 4 (20): 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhnlein, Harriet V., Bill Erasmus, Dina Spigelski, and Barbara Burlingame. 2013. Indigenous peoples’ food systems and well-being. Interventions and policies for healthy communities. Rome: FAO & Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, Chu Yang, Adalberto Loyola-Sanchez, Elaine Boyling, and Cheryl Barnabe. 2020. Community engagement approaches for Indigenous health research: Recommendations based on an integrative review. British Medical Journal Open 10 (11): e039736.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockett, Cassius T., Christopher C. Calvert, and Louis E. Grivetti. 2000. Energy and micronutrient composition of dietary and medicinal wild plants consumed during drought: Study of rural Fulani of North Eastern Nigeria. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 51 (3): 195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lugo-Morin, Diosey Ramon. 2020. Indigenous communities and their food systems: A contribution to the current debate. Journal of Ethnic Foods 7 (1): 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nyeleni. 2013. “Editorial: Food Sovereignty Now.” Nyeleni Newsletter, No. 13. https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_13_EN.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb 2022.

  • Odhiambo, Michael O. 2015. Land policies and their implications for small holder agriculture in Africa: A review of policies in six countries. http://197.220.255.230:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/367/2/land-policies-and-their-implications-for-smallholder-agriculture-in-africa.pdf. Accessed 15 Oct 2022.

  • Oloko, Ma**g. 2016. Indigenous food systems: A viable alternative to food security. A case study of the Irigwe indigenous people of Kwall, in Bassa local government area of Plateau State, Nigeria. Master of Arts Thesis. University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patel, Raj. 2009. Food sovereignty. The Journal of Peasant Studies 36 (3): 663–706.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WFP (World Food Programme). 2007. Be part of the solution. Rome: World Food Programme, Division of Communications and Public Policy Strategy. https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000117179/download/. Accessed 12 Feb 2022.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ngozi Finette Unuigbe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Unuigbe, N.F. (2024). Promoting Food Sovereignty in the Sahel: Lessons from Indigenous Food Systems. In: Kallhoff, A., Liedauer, E. (eds) Greentopia: Utopian Thought in the Anthropocene. The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56802-2_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Navigation