of TK in several areas has grown exponentially. Helping local people use their own knowledge of indigenous foods and agriculture provides better prospects for long-term sustainability than imposing solutions from outside. To date, however, little has been documented about the foods grown and used in poorer parts of the region, particularly as to how these foods are preserved for later use in a hostile environment. Today in rural Sudan various foods are being considered from the perspective of nutrition and food microbiology and for their part in the social fabric and the struggle for survival (Dirar, 1993). Information was gathered from elderly rural women who traditionally hand down such knowledge from generation to generation. With increased urbanization and dislocation of family structures, there is danger that such knowledge will be lost unless it is documented.

2.5.2.1 Plants

North Africa has one of the oldest and richest traditions using medicinal plants, important especially in rural areas, because they are frequently the only medicine available. Even in many urban areas, the price of modern medicine is increasing and people are turning back to traditional plant remedies.

The demand for medicinal plants is currently increasing in both developed and developing countries because of their accessibility, affordable cost and the growing recognition that natural products have fewer side effects. Therefore, a number of important plant species have become scarce in areas where they were previously abundant and some species may become threatened with extinction if their collection is not regulated. The theme of medicinal plants, relevant in most countries in North Africa, is a good entry point for biodiversity conservation. Use depends on local knowledge, which is based on traditional techniques linked to local identity.

Local communities, such as the Bedouins in Egypt, possess invaluable knowledge of nature. This TK is being gathered, documented and fed into a regional compendium on medicinal plants. Most Egyptians rely on modern medicines, although herbalists and their shops still thrive. The Bedouin communities, with much stronger traditional culture, have a real interest in medicinal plants. The demand for medicinal plants in Egypt is big, but most are for export to the USA and Europe. Of the 2,000 species of plants in Egypt, 1,000 occur within 30 km of the Mediterranean coast. Many of Egypt's plants have become rare or extinct from habitat destruction, overgrazing and overharvesting.

The Center and Garden for Conservation of Threatened Plants was built near El Hammam to conserve medicinal plants under threat in North Africa and to serve as an education and awareness center for the entire region. The garden undertook trials to cultivate plants under different conditions and propagate them. Transplants and propagules were exchanged with Bedouin nurseries, so they could cultivate plants in micronurseries. Four micronurseries and about 20 smaller ones established with the Bedouin communities on Bedouin lands focus on sustainable use of medicinal plants.

The cultivation of these plants, a new concept for the Bedouins, has slowly caught on because plants in the wild are diminishing in number and they realize that a market can be found for medicinal and culinary plants. These nurseries have been decisive in significantly reducing the uncon-

trolled gathering of endangered plant species (http://iucn.org/places/medoffice/nabp/index.htm).

Food barley importance, uses and local knowledge

Case study 1. This ICARDA study highlights food barley production in over 14 countries (Grando and Gomez Macpherson, 2005). It includes a review of food barley farming systems, bottlenecks in production, research efforts in improvement, major cultivated varieties, quality characteristics desired by consumers and constraints to production and research. Local crop development is based on farmer knowledge of local crop varieties, their skills in adapting them to their environmental and socio-economic conditions and contributions of local seed systems. Papers presented in the book focus on describing varietal characteristics important to farmers; how farmers observe, select and experiment with crop varieties; and the techniques they employ for storing and distributing seed.

Barley grain is used as feed, malt and food. Our ancestors depended on barley as a staple food more than we do now. Barley was important in the origin and development of the Neolithic culture. Early barley remnants from Mesopotamia and Egypt suggest that barley was more important than wheat in the human diet. Nowadays, barley is an important staple food in several developing countries; generally it is the most viable option in places with harsh living conditions and home to some of the poorest farmers in the world.

Barley is still a major staple food in several regions of the world: some areas of North Africa and the Near East, the highlands of Central Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Andean countries and the Baltic states. Food barley is often found in regions where other cereals grow poorly because of altitude, low rainfall or soil salinity. It remains the most viable option in dry areas (< 300 mm of rainfall) and in production systems where alternatives for food crops are limited or absent, such as in highlands and mountains.

Food barley consumption has decreased considerably in the last 40 years with the increase of urban populations and often with the introduction of national policies supporting wheat consumption. In Morocco, food barley consumption decreased from 87 kg per person per year in 1961 to 57 kg in 1999. In 1961, yearly consumption per person was 27 kg in Algeria, 35 kg in Libya and 15 kg in Tunisia.

Food barley use is associated with local knowledge on preparation, health and nutritious attributes. Food barley is used either to make bread, usually mixed with bread wheat, or in specific recipes. Its cultivars have particular characteristics consumers appreciate that make them irreplaceable by feed or malting barley. Now local knowledge and unique genetic material are under risk of being lost for future generations.

Archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses of archaeological sites, in addition to ethnobotanical and subsistence base studies in contemporary rural societies, have indicated the likelihood that most of the ancient ways of obtaining food and materials have remained in use (Anderson and Ertug? -Yaras, 1998). In Anatolia, for instance, about ten to twelve thousand years after domestication was successfully accomplished, wild plant gathering is still an active tradition in several parts of the country (Ertug? , 1998, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c).