Background Teff is a warm-season cereal crop and the tiniest grain on the planet. It is one of the underutilized crops that can contribute to food security and crop diversification. It is nutritious and well adapted to the growing conditions in Ethiopia, but little has been invested to expand its potential to the domestic or international markets. Method Comprehensive empirical review was carried out emphasizing the spatial, temporal production dynamics of teff in Ethiopia and its economic value. Different inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied and filtered pertinent to this study in country-wide verdicts. Results Ethiopia is not only the biggest teff-producing nation but also the only nation to have adopted teff as a staple crop. Teff contains a high nutritive value and has unique dietary benefits due to its being gluten-free and is typically preferred by health-conscious consumers. However, teff producing and value addition practice is insufficient and generally depends on conventional practices, and its marketplace is restricted local and the government imposes an export ban on it to limit the upward pressure on domestic grain prices and address local food security. Instead, other countries, such as USA, are increasingly participating in the teff market and teff has a great contribution for foreign earning through Injera. Because of its appealing nutritional and functional features, the crop’s popularity is fast growing over the world. Several health advantages have been associated with the grain, these conditions necessitate extensive investigation on the grain’s nutritional and functional qualities. Conclusion This study examines the use dynamics and economics of teff in Ethiopia. Teff has received restricted consideration from the global market and mainstream researches perhaps due to its orphan crop’ status. To take comparative advantage of the growing domestic and international demand of teff, intensive investment by the domestic teff industry needs to improve methods of teff producing, opening up and expanding its international market to ensuring its super global food and part of the solution to worldwide food and nutrition security gains. Ethiopia should improve to take the lead in the growing teff market and support others to engage in teff food system part.

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Food security is a key issue worldwide and must be considered in both spatial and temporal contexts. Securing the availability of food somewhere in a country does not ensure food security in other areas. Similarly, securing food available today does not guarantee its availability tomorrow. Therefore, parameters such as rapid population growth, urbanization, changing consumption patterns, and globalization, as well as climate change and depletion of natural resources, must be kept in mind while planning the issue of food security. In this regard, Enset, which is a large perennial herbaceous crop native to Ethiopia, is highly stapled to approximately 20 million people in the southern, eastern, and central parts of Ethiopia. It is a common practice in the agricultural system of these areas, making these areas Enset belt regions of the country. On the other hand, the remaining parts of the country often do not practice such farming systems despite the fact that there are good opportunities to do so. One way of expanding the experience of Enset culture is through promoting its food system and multiple-use dynamics. Hence, decision-makers and policy designers in the area of agriculture would consider intensifying Enset to its nonbelt areas, to transform agricultural and food systems to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition.

Diversifying crop in Ethiopia a long-standing production and price risk mitigation strategy employed by many farmers. Although spice production has paramount economic and non-economic multiple importance, its production is still showing shallow coverage and distribution in the country. Besides, the value chain is not as such exploiting the potential value addition and the number of participants to be embedded as chain actors is yet minimal. Spice value addition is shallowly undertaken ranging from the small-scale farmers production to the partial processing and this shows the conventional value chain being undertaken. Hence, much of the production coverage and the potential value addition in terms diversified processing should be taken up to boost the performance of spice sector in Ethiopia.