Permaculture, Final Capstone Paper 5-26, Hope - Never Ending Food

Table 6, cont.: Frequency of Evaluated Practices
ZONE SYSTEM
Frequency of practice 2 (7.4%) 2 (14.3%) 0
PEST MANAGEMENT
Strong smelling plants 7 (25.9%) 6 (42.9%) 1 (7.7%)
Strong smelling water 3 (11.1%) 3 (21.4%) 0
Strong smelling mulch 0 0 0
Encourages beneficial
Species
1 (3.7%) 1 (7.1%) 0
Intercrops 5 (18.5%) 5 (35.7%) 0
Living fence 1 (3.7%) 1 (7.1%) 0
Fence 4 (14.8%) 4 (28.6%) 0
Other 5 (18.3%) 2 (14.3%) 3 (25%)
USES INDIGENOUS / LOCALIZED VARIETIES
Frequency of practice 19 (70.4%) 12 (85.7%) 7 (53.8%)
SHARES KNOWLEDGE
Frequency of practice 13 (48.1%) 9 (64.3%) 4 (30.8%)
Qualitative data showed that for the most part, both adopters and non-adopters have
chosen to cultivate just a few indigenous/localized greens: pumpkin, sweet potato, papaya,
mango, black jack, amaranth, spider plant, and groundnuts, avocado and local maize. With over
600 food plants indigenous to Malawi (Nordin, 2005), there exists a significant opportunity for
under-utilized plants to contribute to achieving food and nutrition security. Interviews and focus
groups discussions highlighted a significant barrier to growth of such “bush foods”: culture.
Many individuals, as well as all three focus groups said that such food plants “come from the
bush” and therefore do not have to be cultivated. Additionally, a few participants alluded to the
“shame” associated with eating “poor peoples’ plants” and questions about them were often met
with snickering and shyness. Those who admitted to growing and eating “bush foods” cited the
Bible, particularly Genesis and mankind’s mandated stewardship of the earth, as a source of
support and guidance (ID17, ID5).
There are a significant number of practices that neither adopters nor non-adopters had a
frequency above 50 %:
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