Focus on... Underutilised crops
The importance of biodiversity for food security was the focus of the recent World Food Day, and this theme is also explored in this edition of New Agriculturist. Modern crop production predominantly involves very few of the many thousands of the world's food plants, and the others - largely ignored by scientific research - may be under threat. But crops that are variously described as minor, underutilised or neglected are extremely important in local farming systems, and have great potential in a future sustainable global food system. In this Focus on, we examine some of the advantages of these crops over those that currently dominate world agriculture, as well as ways to promote their use - and novel uses - so that the global potential of these valuable crops may be fully realised.
Local knowledge, global importance
Minor crops may be described as 'neglected' or 'underutilised', but in their native areas, where people depend on them as important components of subsistence farming systems, these crops are neither...
Around 20 of the estimated 13,000 known food plants account for about the vast majority of the world's food. These plants supply the calories we need, but this strategy has largely overlooked micronutrients and other non-nutritional factors which, it is now clear, are equally important for a healthy and long life. The many crops that are currently neglected or underutilised may hold the key....
Not only are nangai nuts economically attractive but growing them makes ecological sense too. Canarium indicum is a fast-growing forest tree and does well beneath the natural canopy or amongst the mix in a typical food garden clearing, where the sapling can get established while bananas, climbing yams and more are tended all around....
Maca is just one of several root and tuber crops that originate from the Andes, but of which little is known outside the region. Potato, however, has had a very different fortune. Could other Andean roots and tubers have similar potential?...
An unintended barrier to EU markets
Foods that could add variety and nutrients to diets are being denied access to EU markets by possibly over-cautious legislation that bars 'novel food'. And yet demands for more diverse diets, containing health-promoting and ethically and sustainably produced foods, are on the increase...
Indigo: a future far from dark
An important colour in most cultures, there are indigo-bearing plants on every continent. But with the rise of synthetic blue dyes, commercial production in most countries crashed. However, now that natural indigo is back in fashion, indigo-growing is back...
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1st November 2004 |
