A Review of Indigenous Food Crops in Africa and the Implications for more Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems.

Racheal Akinola,Loubie Rusch,Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi,Laura Maureen Pereira,Francia-Marié De Bruin

doi:10.3390/su12083493

Racheal Akinola, Loubie Rusch + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083493

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Abstract

Indigenous and traditional foods crops (ITFCs) have multiple uses within society, and most notably have an important role to play in the attempt to diversify the food in order to enhance food and nutrition security. However, research suggests that the benefits and value of indigenous foods within the South African and the African context have not been fully understood and synthesized. Their potential value to the African food system could be enhanced if their benefits were explored more comprehensively. This synthesis presents a literature review relating to underutilized indigenous crop species and foods in Africa. It organizes the findings into four main contributions, nutritional, environmental, economic, and social-cultural, in line with key themes of a sustainable food system framework. It also goes on to unpack the benefits and challenges associated with ITFCs under these themes. A major obstacle is that people are not valuing indigenous foods and the potential benefit that can be derived from using them is thus neglected. Furthermore, knowledge is being lost from one generation to the next, with potentially dire implications for long-term sustainable food security. The results show the need to recognize and enable indigenous foods as a key resource in ensuring healthy food systems in the African continent.

Highlights

An erosion of indigenous and traditional foods crops (ITFCs) and agricultural production in the Global South has dramatically changed the global food system in the last 50 years [1]
In this paper we aim to provide a synthesis of existing information on ITFCs in Africa in order to bolster the argument that these foods can contribute to food and nutrition security on the continent and to identify gaps where more research is urgently needed
It is clear from the synthesis that ITFCs provide a host of benefits to sustainable foods systems in the African continent as a whole

Summary

Introduction

An erosion of indigenous and traditional foods crops (ITFCs) and agricultural production in the Global South has dramatically changed the global food system in the last 50 years [1]. Since the Green Revolution in the 1960s, agriculture has mainly focused on developing conventional cereal and horticultural crops, and as a result, these foods became more popular and replaced many locally produced crops, leaving the development and cultivation of ITFCs to be severely undervalued [2]. This transition has swept across the world so much that ITFCs, once widely used, have been replaced with lower nutrient foods, with an increase in health-related problems [1]. It has led to a decline in the use of these wild-food resources in many communities, as well as the conveyance of knowledge associated with the plants [5]

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