Neglected and underutilized crop

Neglected and underutilized crops are domesticated plant species used for food, medicine, trading or cultural practices that are significant within their local communities but are not widely commodified or studied as part of mainstream agriculture.[1][2] Such crops may be in declining production.[3] They are considered underutilized in scientific inquiry for their perceived potential to contribute to knowledge regarding nutrition, food security, genetic resistance, or sustainability.[4] Other terms to describe such crops include minor, orphan, underused, local, traditional, alternative, minor, niche, or underdeveloped.[5]

Reduction in use is partially due to supply or consumption constraints, poor shelf life, unrecognized nutritional value, poor consumer awareness, and its reputational perception as famine food ("poor people's food"), which is partially due to the modernization of agricultural practices. Some crops experienced genetic erosion of their gene pool due to this neglect, which resulted in them becoming regarded as lost crops.[6]

As the demand for plant and crop attributes changes (reappraisal or discovery of nutritional traits, culinary value, adaptation to climate change, etc.), some previously neglected crops, such as oil palm, soybean, and kiwifruit, have overcome such constraints via more large-scale production and use, becoming regarded as globally significant crops.

Cherimoya (Annona cherimola) on sale in Cali, Colombia. In left background: domestically produced mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana)
Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) from Buzi district in Mozambique

For example, Cherimoya and Bambara crops produced in Colombia and Mozambique respectively, aid the local population in food security, allowing them physical and economic access to sufficient food for meeting their dietary needs, even during a famine.

Overview
Landscape with quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), Cachilaya, Bolivia, Province La Paz, Lake Titicaca seen in background.

While just three crops, maize, wheat, and rice, account for approximately 50% of the world's consumption of calories and protein, [7] about 95% of the world's food needs are provided by just 30 species of plants.[8]

Contrarily, names of crop species compiled as edible extend to around 12,650.[9] Among these are neglected and underutilized plants that could be, and in many cases have been, used for food and other uses on a larger scale historically.

Definition

It is difficult to precisely define which attributes make a crop "underutilized", but often they display the following features:

  • Linkage with the cultural heritage of their places of origin
  • Local and traditional crops whose distribution, biology, cultivation and uses are poorly documented
  • Adaptation to specific agroecological niches and marginal land
  • Weak or no formal seed supply systems
  • Traditional uses in localized areas
  • Produced in traditional production systems with little or no external inputs
  • Receive little attention from research, extension services, policy and decision makers, and consumers[10]
  • May be highly nutritious and/or have medicinal properties or other multiple uses

Neglected crops are primarily grown by traditional farmers. These species may be widely distributed beyond their centers of origin but tend to occupy unique niches in the local production and consumption systems. They are critical for the subsistence of local communities yet remain poorly documented and neglected by mainstream research and development activities.[11] Many staple crops, especially in the developing world, are poorly studied by researchers. For example, the Green Revolution saw massive changes in agricultural productivity in Asia, but African crops saw little benefit.[12]

Importance

Underutilized crops continue to play a vital role in the subsistence and economy of poor people throughout the developing world, particularly in the agrobiodiversity-rich tropics. Despite their potential for dietary diversification and the provision of micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, they continue to attract little research and development attention.

Alongside their commercial potential, many underused crops provide essential environmental services as they have adapted to marginal soil and climate conditions.

Constraints

The following are frequent constraints:[6]

  • limited germplasm available;
  • lack of technical information;
  • lack of national policy;
  • lack of interest by researchers, agriculturists and extension workers;
  • lack of producer interest.

Examples
Village chief of Boula Téné, [Senegal] Theodore Mada Keita, holds up the fonio grain [White fonio (Digitaria exilis)] that helps feed his family in southern Senegal

Determination of the underutilized status of a crop varies among researchers. Different criteria and approaches are used to define this particular group of crops. Neglect refers to the attention the crop has received from research and development and can be evaluated by how well national and international policy and legal frameworks and research and development programs support the conservation and sustainable use of the crop. Underutilization is particular to the geography and potential for a crop to contribute to better diets and production systems. In any cases where exotic or diversified species are underutilized in a region, these are not necessarily underutilized in other parts of the world.[6] Below is an example list of neglected and underutilized species that is not exhaustive.

Cereal and pseudocereal crops

Fruits and nuts species
Ziziphus mauritiana (dry fruits) for sale at the Luangwa turn-off on Great East road, Zambia.

Vegetable and pulse crops
Ipomoea aquatica photographed in the Sunday Market, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Root and tuber crops
Ulluco tubers (Ullucus tuberosus) for sale in southern Peru

Other crops

Industrial underutilized crops
Bixa orellana fruit open, showing the seeds from which annatto is extracted, photographed in Campinas, Brazil

Latex/rubber/gums

Fibres

Starch/sugar

Dye

International events that fostered underutilized crops
Logo of the international year of Quinoa 2013
  • 1987 - Establishment of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops (ICUC)
  • 1996 - The FAO Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture emphasized the importance of underutilized crops
  • 1999 - At an international workshop held in Chennai, India, the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) recognized the contribution that neglected and underutilized species make to food security, rural incomes and combating poverty
  • 2002 - Establishment of the Global Facilitation Unit of Underutilized Species (GFU) of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), and was housed within Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
  • 2008 - Establishment of Crops for the Future (CFF) which is a merging of ICUC and GFU, based in Malaysia[13]
  • 2011 - Establishment of Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC) in Malaysia[14]
  • 2012 - The international Crops for the 21st Century seminar held on 10–13 December 2012 in Córdoba, Spain aimed to discuss major topics related to underlining the role of neglected and underutilised species to address food and agriculture challenges in the future.[15]
  • 2013 - Official launch of the International Year of Quinoa (IYQ-2013), intended to increase awareness, understanding and knowledge about quinoa and its importance on food security.[16]
  • 2013 - 3rd International Conference on Neglected and Underutilized Species, Accra, Ghana - to ensure that research on neglected and underutilized species (NUS) is demand-oriented and that results are better shared and applied, researchers, extension agents, the private sector and farmers must engage in more collaboration - in sub-Saharan Africa.

See also

References
  1. Jain, Shri Mohan; Gupta, S. Dutta, eds. (2013). Biotechnology of Neglected and Underutilized Crops (PDF). Springer. p. v. ISBN 978-94-007-5499-7. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  2. Padulosi, Stefano. "Bring NUS back to the table!". ECDPM: The Centre for Africa-Europe Relations. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  3. Hammer, Karl; Heller, Joachim (1997). "Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops". Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen. 8: 223.
  4. Jain, Shri Mohan; Gupta, S. Dutta, eds. (2013). Biotechnology of Neglected and Underutilized Crops (PDF). Springer. p. vi. ISBN 978-94-007-5499-7. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  5. Padulosi, Stefano. "Bring NUS back to the table!". ECDPM: The Centre for Africa-Europe Relations. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  6. J. T. Williams; N. Haq (2002). Global research on underutilized crops - an assessment of current activities and proposals for enhanced cooperation. Southampton, UK: International Centre for Underutilised Crops. ISBN 978-92-9043-545-7. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  7. FAO (1997). The State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PDF). Rome: FAO.
  8. J. R., Harlan (1975). Crops and Man. Wisconsin: Crop Science Society of America.
  9. Kunkel, G. (1984). Plants for Human Consumption. Koenigstein, Germany: Koeltz Scientific Books.
  10. Hammer, Karl; Heller J; Engels J (February 2001). "Monographs on underutilized and neglected crops". Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 48 (1): 3–5. doi:10.1023/A:1011253924058. S2CID 6582337.
  11. IPGRI (2002). Neglected and underutilized plant species: Strategic Action Plan of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. ISBN 978-92-9043-529-7. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  12. Tadele, Zerihun; Assefa, Kebebew (December 2012). "Increasing Food Production in Africa by Boosting the Productivity of Understudied Crops". Agronomy. 2 (4): 240–283. doi:10.3390/agronomy2040240.
  13. O'Malley, Brendan (26 November 2008). "New centre to boost knowledge on underutilised crops". SciDev.Net. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  14. "Centre to research under-utilised crops". The Star Online. 27 June 2011. Archived from the original on 2017-09-20. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  15. FAO (10 December 2012). "Neglected crops need a rethink - can help world face the food security challenges of the future, says Graziano da Silva". FAO Media Centre. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  16. FAO (20 February 2013). "Official launch of the International Year of Quinoa" (PDF). Retrieved 28 August 2013.
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