Zahoor-Ul Haq

Mr. Zahoor-Ul Haq


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

8Years (2019-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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8 May 2021 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
AAAbdullah Abdullah
Abdullah Abdullah
SKShujaul Mulk Khan
Shujaul Mulk Khan
Andrea PieroniAndrea Pieroni
Andrea Pieroni
AHAminul Haq
Aminul Haq
ZHZahoor-Ul Haq
Zahoor-Ul Haq
Elsayed Fathi Abd_AllahElsayed Fathi Abd_Allah
Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah
The tribal belt of the Hindu Kush mountains is famous for its unique culture, ethnography, wild food plants, food systems, and traditional knowledge. People in this region gather wild plants and plant parts using them directly or in traditional cuisine, or sell them in local markets. However, there is a huge lack of documentation of the food system, particularly that related to wild food plants (WFP). In the current study, we focus on the uses and contributions of WFPs in the traditional tribal food system of the Hindu Kush valleys along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border. Ethnobotanical data were gathered through questionnaire surveys of 84 informants, including 69 men and 15 women, belonging to 21 different villages of the chosen area. In tribal societies men and women rarely mix and thus very few women took part in the surveys. We documented 63 WFP species belonging to 34 botanical families, of which 27 were used as vegetables, 24 as fruits, six in different kinds of chutneys (starters), and six as fresh food species. Fruits were the most used part (41%), followed by leaves (24%), aerial parts (24%), seeds (7%), stems (3%), and young inflorescences (1%). The reported uses of Carthamus oxyacantha, Pinus roxburghii seeds, and Marsilea quadrifolia leaves are novel for the gastronomy of Pakistan. The results reveal that WFPs provide a significant contribution to local food systems and play a role in addressing human nutritional needs, which are usually not met through farming practices. The tribal peoples of the Hindu Kush use WFPs for their nutritional value, but also as a cultural practice—an inseparable component of the tribal community’s lifestyle. This important traditional knowledge about the gathering and consumption of WFPs, however, is eroding at an alarming rate among younger generations due to the introduction of fast-food, modernization, and globalization. Therefore, appropriate strategies are imperative not only to safeguard traditional plants and food knowledge and practices, as well as the cultural heritage attached to them, but also to foster food security and thus public healthcare via local wild foods in the region.

1 June 2019 in Ecological Frontiers
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
ZHZahoor-Ul Haq
Zahoor-Ul Haq
ARAbdur Rashid
Abdur Rashid
SKShujaul Mulk Khan
Shujaul Mulk Khan
ARAbdul Razzaq
Abdul Razzaq
RARashid Abdullah Al-Yahyai
Rashid Abdullah Al-Yahyai
ARAbdul Rehman
Abdul Rehman