Study area
Wayanad district, situated in the Western Ghats in the north-eastern part of the state of Kerala, India, is considered one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, since it hosts great richness of flora and fauna [
14]. It has an area of 2136 km
2, where 37% of the land area is forest covered and 55% cultivated by agriculture. The tribal population represents 17% of the total population of the district, and is the largest tribal population in the state of Kerala [
6]. The district is characterised by high ethnic diversity, with five dominant tribal groups – Kurichiya, Kuruma, Paniya, Adiya and Kattunaikka – and seven minor communities [
14]. The present study includes three socio-cultural groups: two tribes (Paniya and Kuruma), and non-tribal rural communities.
The Paniya, a landless tribe, constitute 46 % of the total tribal people in Wayanad, and are the largest scheduled tribe in Kerala. Most of them depend upon wage labour in the paddy fields and on farms of the landowning classes. They consume the highest quantity of WFPs (152 species) in relation to the other socio-cultural groups that have been studied in the area, and are considered "famed wild leaf eaters" (Narayanan MKR, Swapna MP and Kumar NA, 2004, unpublished). The Kuruma are a landowning tribe that constitute 14.6% of the tribal population in Wayanad. In comparison to tribals, non-tribals are better-off economically and have more capacity to purchase food in markets, and also maintain home gardens.
Data collection
Fieldwork was conducted between July and October 2004 with a research population of 81 children, 22 teens, 57 mothers, and key informants. Initially the teens (from 15 to 18 years old) were considered within the group of children, but later they were excluded because, from a local point of view, teens above 15 years of age are not considered 'children'. Four main variables were considered for children and teens stratification: participation in the EP, socio-cultural group (Paniya, Kuruma, non-tribal), age and sex.
All Paniya, Kuruma and non-tribal children and teens that participated in the EP were included in the study (n = 33), and were interviewed when they came to the CAbC to follow the normal programme. Those children and teens that did not participate in the EP (n = 70) were selected through convenience sampling attempting to have a balanced number of informants according to the stratification variables. Researchers visited tribal colonies and non-tribal rural villages and invited adults to take their children to the CAbC in the scheduled weekends, when games, group discussions, lunches, and the individual interviews were organized. Children were not interviewed at home because it was not possible to obtain an individual child interview without the intervention of the mother. Children were not interviewed at school in order to also include in the sample children that dropped out or did not attend frequently.
The tribal colonies of Puthoorvayal Paniya, Mutharikunu Paniya, Mangavayal Paniya, Rattakolly Paniya, Chandempety Kuruma, Mangavayal Kuruma, and Puthoorvayal Kuruma, and the non-tribal rural villages of Mandakakuni, Meppadi, Chooralmala and Puthoorvayal were visited. In general, 26 Paniya, 34 Kuruma and 43 non-tribal children and teens were interviewed.
The 57 mothers of some of the interviewed children (24 whose children participated in the EP, 33 whose children did not) were selected by convenience sampling: those who were present and willing to collaborate when researchers visited their colonies or villages for a second time, a few weeks after the interviews of their children had finished. Mothers were interviewed at home.
Both qualitative and quantitative data gathering and analysis tools were used. Research instruments included semi-structured interviews, photo identification of selected WFPs, and informal key informant interviews. All semi- and fully structured data collection instruments were pre-tested with informants that were not later represented in the sample, in order to determine whether the questions generated the desired information [
15].
Semi-structured interviews were very similar for mothers and children. They were employed firstly to reveal general information about collection and consumption of WFPs, such as frequency of consumption and with whom they go for collection; secondly to assess their perceptions of their own and other's social attitudes towards collection and consumption; thirdly to investigate children's and mother's perceptions of each other's knowledge; fourthly to compare their value categories relating to WFP importance.
The photo identification of WFPs investigated the ability of informants to identify 26 selected WFPs – verified as consumed by the three socio-cultural groups – through photographs, providing a 'correct' vernacular name for the plants that informants could identify (secondary materials were used for identification of species names). The 26 WFP photos – showing the edible part (leaf, tuber and/or fruit) – were numbered and given to each informant individually. They were then asked to indicate the number of the photo and the vernacular name of the plant. Tribal mothers were unable to identify plants through photos, so this exercise could only compare non-tribal children with their non-tribal mothers. The results were analysed using SPSS 12.0.1, and Spearman's rho correlations were carried out in order to compare the results.
Finally the informal interviews of the key informants were held with experienced elderly people from the selected colonies and rural villages with the main objective to assess a perceived change in WFP consumption.