Status of underutilized crop production: Its potentials for mitigating food insecurity

Abstract

AbstractGlobally, the gap between the production of nutritious quality crops and their consumption is widening, resulting in high rates of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Our goal is to examine the rich tapestry of studies on underutilized crops (UUCs) and consider their potential role in alleviating food and nutritional insecurity. Published research articles on UUC were retrieved from databases, such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The key terms used were “UUC,” “neglected crops,” and lists of UUC, which were frequently cited in literature. A bibliometric innovative approach, such as reference co‐citation, co‐citation, and co‐word analysis, was used. We observed an annual growth rate of 6.4% in UUC research outputs with the number of annual publications increasing from less than 700 article publications in 2000–3000 article publications in 2021. It is also developing into a noticeably interdisciplinary research field with more collaborations and institutional affiliations. The most relevant affiliated countries in UUC‐related studies are developed and transition countries, such as the United States of America, China, India, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and Germany. The pressing and emerging research studies in UUC‐related studies are genetic diversity and identification, agronomic knowledge, seed improvement, and environmental stresses. There is a shift in the focus of UUC studies, which provides a deeper understanding of the global trends and directions that have evolved in UUC studies over the past two decades. This result provides researchers and policymakers in the field of UUC with a useful tool for decision‐making on UUC.