The personal food environment and its influences on the consumption of neglected and underutilised plant species in the region of Atacora (northern Benin)

Although the African continent is considered as the most diverse region in the world in terms of wild and cultivated foods, especially Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world’s most food in-secure region. Regarding the requirements for healthy and nutritious diets, the potentials of many edible plant species remain unexploited. To better understand the influences of the personal food environment on consumption of neglected and underutilised species in the department of Atacora in northern Benin, this study investigated the changes in consumption of 16 plant parts (leaves, fruit pulps and seeds) of 11 species and their underlying drivers, as well as current barriers and enhancing factors for consumption. For this purpose, rural people and employees working in the fields of agriculture, health and nutrition were interviewed in 42 semi-structured interviews with local and professional experts and 12 focus group discussions in three communes of the Atacora department.In a first step, semi-structured interviews with local and professional experts were carried out. Focus group discussions took place in a second step with parallel conduction of further interviews with professional experts. Due to language barriers between the author and most research participants, interviews with local experts and focus group participants were conducted with the help of two enumerators in local languages. Professional experts were interviewed by the author in French.