Reflection on Africa's Underutilized Foods Towards a Sustainable Food System

Abstract

Malnutrition is a big problem on the African continent, especially among children ages zero to twenty-four months up till a time that covers the 1st 1000 days of life. Expert opinion suggests that Africa could integrate more commodities into its food systems to solve this problem, especially using its underutilized food commodities. These commodities are known to thrive very well in their various ecological zones. Indigenous food commodities are nutrient-dense, but the limitation in their use have left their potential untapped. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa organized a webinar to seek African stakeholders' opinions on the pathway to integrating forgotten Food into the African food system. This study extracted information from the stakeholder’s interaction in the webinar and used an integrative literature review method to draw inferences. The study suggests that considerable efforts are required to integrate the forgotten food commodities into the African food systems to enhance food security and sustainable agricultural livelihood. The needed actions include awareness creation on the importance of the forgotten food commodities, the establishment of a robust research program, active private sector engagement for investment into production, value chain development, and investment into commodity development infrastructures and businesses.