Grass Pea and Neurolathyrism: Farmers’ perception on its consumption and protective measure in North Shewa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Neurolathyrism in Ethiopia is caused by food dependency on grass pea ( Lathyrus sativus L.). In the study area, a large proportion of the farmers are growing grass pea since it can withstand harsh environments. Socio-economic factors (poverty; lack of money to buy other food legumes) and environmental problems (such as water logging and frost hazards) influence consumption of grass pea. Most of the respondents have the idea that some chemical contained in grass pea causes a health problem. Different processing and preparation methods are used to prepare grass pea into different food forms. The major processing methods include washing and soaking, as the farmers apply these methods mainly because they assume that the chemical that causes lathyrism, scientifically known as β-ODAP (β-N-oxalyl- l-α,β-diaminopropionic acid) is reduced through washing and soaking. The farmers adopt different strategies to avoid the problem of lathyrism such as avoiding consumption of grass pea in the form that they suspect to cause the problem, blending/mixing with other crops, applying different processing/detoxification methods. Since grass pea is consumed with a fear of lathyrism, future research should concentrate either on developing grass pea varieties with safe level of β-ODAP content or improving the traditional/indigenous processing methods.