The wild and traditional foods that Trócaire is working to recover in Africa and Central America

For many rural and indigenous communities around the world seeds mean much more than an agricultural input, they represent life itself.

Today, wild and traditional foods and seeds are threatened globally by climate change, habitat and agrobiodiversity loss, the increased proliferation of agricultural monocultures of crops such as rice, wheat, maize and soy and the increasing pressures on small farmers to adopt ‘improved’, hybrid or genetically modified seeds. These pressures are leading to food insecurity for millions of people throughout Africa.

Trócaire and its partners in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and Uganda have been working with rural communities to improve nutrition, food security and farmer income by recovering wild and traditional foods. We raise awareness about the nutritional, medicinal and economic benefits of harvesting, cultivating, and processing wild and traditional foods. We promote practical efforts for protecting their biodiversity in their natural habitats and in seed repositories. Seed banks, essential as genetic repositories of wild and traditional plants, have been created across these four countries. They ensure communities have continuous secure and reliable access to affordable seeds.

By valuing locally produced foods, rather than the processed and packaged foods available at the supermarket, farmers are contributing to the spiritual, cultural and economic life of their communities and ensuring improved food security for thousands of families.

Follow the links to read more about the various wild and traditional foods that Trócaire and its partners in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and Uganda have been working to restore.