Ethnobotanical study of traditional edible plants used by the Naxi people during droughts

Since 2009, millions of people have been forced to live under food shortage by the continuous drought in Southwestern China. Traditional adaptive strategies of pre-market indigenous people are a potential source of innovation. The authors studied three questions among the Naxi people: 1) What edible plants did they consume during droughts? 2) How did they produce enough food? 3) How did they consume these plants? This study investigates and documents traditional Naxi food knowledge to safeguard food security during drought and facilitate Chinese policy decisions.