Abstract
Neglected and underutilized food crops (NUFCs) have high nutritional value, but their role in achieving nutrition security is not adequately understood, and they do not feature in food and nutrition policies and programs of the countries of the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. Drawing examples from Pakistan and Nepal, this study investigates the importance of NUFCs in achieving nutrition security in the mountains and identifies key underlying reasons for the decline in their cultivation and use. The study found that the prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher in the mountains than nationally in both Pakistan and Nepal and identifies the decline in the cultivation and use of micronutrient-rich NUFCs as one of the key reasons for this. The deterioration of local food systems, changing food habits, lack of knowledge about the cultivation, use and nutritional value of NUFCs and lack of attention to NUFCs in programs and policies are the key reasons for the abandoning of NUFCs by mountain communities. There is an urgent need to mainstream these crops into national programs and policies and to integrate them into local food systems. This will not only improve the nutrition security of mountain areas, but also biodiversity and local mountain economies.
Highlights
Investing in nutrition security has many benefits for developing countries, because it contributes to the achievement of many other development goals related to agriculture, water, health, education, poverty alleviation and gender development
Neglected and underutilized food crops (NUFCs) can make a significant contribution to sustainable nutrition security in mountains if they are mainstreamed into agriculture, food and nutrition security policies and programs and integrated into local food systems
The Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is agro-ecologically suitable for the cultivation of traditional food crops, such as barley, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, wild vegetables and fruit and medicinal plants
Summary
Investing in nutrition security has many benefits for developing countries, because it contributes to the achievement of many other development goals related to agriculture, water, health, education, poverty alleviation and gender development. In the HKH region, mountains are agro-ecologically suitable for the cultivation of traditional food crops, such as barley, millets, sorghum, buckwheat, beans, gram and other pulses, taro, yam, amala and jammun, a vast range of wild vegetables and fruit and medicinal plants [11,12], which are important sources of micronutrients [13]. Agricultural intensification, which is increasingly relying on a narrow range of crops [14], has resulted in a decline in the cultivation of traditional food crops and the underutilization of this nutritionally-valuable food source This has led to low dietary diversity and, a higher prevalence of malnutrition [12] in the mountains, and globally. It suggests policy instruments to increase the demand and consumption of NUFCs in the mountain areas
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