Abstract
Underutilised crops represent an important component of Southern Africa’s agro–biodiversity that has potential to contribute to the region’s post–2015 development discourse. We reviewed the potential of underutilised crops with respect to how they can contribute to topical challenges, such as food and nutrition security, human health and well–being, climate change adaptation, the environment, and employment creation in poor rural communities. The fact that underutilised crops are the product of generations of landrace agriculture supports the idea that they are resilient and adapted to the needs of farmers in marginal agricultural environments. In addition, underutilised crops are also seen as offering economic advantages due to their uniqueness, suitability to environments in which they are grown and low input requirements. In certain cases, underutilised crops are associated with specific gender roles with women being seen as particularly significant in their production. Evidence also suggests that the inclusion of underutilised crops in cropping systems contributes to dietary diversity and improved nutrition. In the context of the post–2015 agenda, the potential of underutilised crops to generate income, address food security and their status as a “subset of biodiversity” links with a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) addressing social, economic and environmental issues.
Highlights
The seventeen recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a broad international consensus for the post–2015 development agenda
Drawing on a recent review of existing public sources available in the region, this paper firstly considers the current state of public knowledge concerning underutilised crops in Southern African, before considering what this knowledge suggests concerning the potential role of underutilised crops in attaining the SDGs
In the absence of such information, the relationship between the significance placed on protecting these crops as a specific subset of biodiversity and their wider contribution to development remains poorly elaborated. This raises some concerns regarding the current state of knowledge concerning these crops, and what this suggests concerning their capacity to contribute to the post–2015 developmental agenda within Southern Africa
Summary
The seventeen recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a broad international consensus for the post–2015 development agenda. Innovation is primarily seen to arise from formal scientific and breeding infrastructure and is transmitted to farming communities via extension services This approach targets yield increases of a small range of “improved” food and commercial crops, which are distributed through mechanisms which link producers to “formal” markets. In contrast to major crops where the articulation of scientific knowledge into policy and extension is well understood and elaborated, for many underutilised crops there is neither the body of work, nor comprehensive research concerning how such a body of knowledge could or should be funded, assembled and put to work in raising the status of underutilised crops This raises questions as to the likely role of these crops in measures aimed at addressing fundamental challenges such as those posed by climate change and food and income insecurity in Southern Africa, and the scale and nature of the investment required to realise this. The intention of this paper is to start a conversation about the potential such crops have to deliver on their perceived promise drawing on the current state of public knowledge as a starting point
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