Developing a Roadmap for Improving Neglected and Underutilized Crops: A Case Study of South Africa

Abstract

Reports of neglected and underutilized crops' (NUS) potential remain mostly anecdotal with limited and often incoherent research available to support them. This has been attributed to lack of clear research goals, limited funding directed at NUS and journal apathy toward publishing work on NUS. The latter points also explain the lack of interest from emerging and established researchers. Additionally, the NUS community's inability to articulate a roadmap for NUS' promotion may have unintentionally contributed to this. The current study is a sequel to an initial study that assessed the status of NUS in South Africa. The objective of this follow-up study was then to (i) identify priority NUS, and (ii) articulate a strategy and actionable recommendations for promoting NUS in South Africa. The study identified 13 priority NUS, categorized into cereals, legumes, root, and tuber crops and leafy vegetables based on drought and heat stress tolerance and nutritional value. It is recommended that the available limited resources should be targeted on improving these priority NUS as they offer the best prospects for success. Focus should be on developing value chains for the priority NUS. This should be underpinned by science to provide evidence-based outcomes. This would assist to attract more funding for NUS research, development and innovation in South Africa. It is envisaged that through this roadmap, NUS could be transformed from the peripheries into mainstream agriculture. This study provides a template for developing a roadmap for promoting NUS that could be transposed and replicated among the 14 other southern African states.

Salt stress under the scalpel – dissecting the genetics of salt tolerance

“…Global genebanks have collected approximately 2 million distinct plant accessions, of which a high percentage are landraces and wild relatives of crops (Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, 2010). The prospect of using such germplasm repositories as sources of natural variation for tolerance to environmental stresses such as salt tolerance has been widely discussed (Massawe et al ., ; Tsujimoto et al ., ; Hanin et al ., ; Ali et al ., ; Buchanan‐Wollaston et al ., ; Dwivedi et al ., ; Gascuel et al ., ; Mabhaudhi et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ; Cheng, ). Assessments of genetic diversity have been performed for various crop germplasm collections, such as maize (Whitt et al ., ; Liu et al ., ; Patto et al ., ; Laborda et al ., ; Warburton et al ., ; Prasanna, ; Zheng et al ., ; Kuhn et al ., ), wheat (Laido et al ., ; Nielsen et al ., ), rice (Cho et al ., ; Temnykh et al ., ; McCouch et al ., ; Garris et al ., ; Xu et al ., ; Thomson et al ., ), barley (Struss and Plieske, ; Parzies et al ., ; Fernandez et al ., ; Moragues et al ., ) and tomato (Albrecht et al ., ; Bauchet and Causse, ; Aflitos et al ., ; Pailles et al ., ).…”

Assessment of nutritional water productivity and improvement strategies for traditional vegetables in South Africa

“…Vegetables are important in a diet because they supplement essential micronutrients (iron and zinc) and β-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. Mabhaudhi et al (2017a) iterated that vegetables could be classified as ''traditional'' or ''alien''. Traditional vegetables refer to species that were introduced in an area more than a hundred years ago, where they adapted to local conditions and they became part of the local culture.…”

“…Traditional vegetables refer to species that were introduced in an area more than a hundred years ago, where they adapted to local conditions and they became part of the local culture. In contrast, alien vegetables are crops that have recently been imported to a certain geographical location and are produced commercially since recent times (Mabhaudhi et al, 2017a;Oelofse and Van Averbeke, 2012). Several authors (Afari-Sefa et al, 2012;Chivenge et al, 2015;Govender et al, 2017;Mabhaudhi et al, 2017a, b;Maseko et al, 2018;Mavengahama et al, 2013;Oelofse and Van Averbeke, 2012) reached consensus on the important benefits of traditional vegetables when compared to alien vegetables.…”

“…Several authors (Afari-Sefa et al, 2012;Chibarabada et al, 2017;Chivenge et al, 2015;Dube and Fanadzo, 2013;Govender et al, 2017;Misselhorn and Hendriks, 2017;Mabhaudhi et al, 2017a) agreed that traditional vegetables can play a major role in supplementing iron, zinc, and β-carotene.. Therefore, traditional vegetables should be promoted for improved nutritional food security of rural resource-poor households.…”

“…The current food system is skewed; policies, research agendas, and funding agencies acknowledge the need to increase crop productivity of mainstream crops, whereas there is varied biodiversity that can be used in combating food and nutrition insecurity that is yet underrepresented in the food system . This is typical of the Green Revolution that promoted the use of high-yielding varieties, despite the consensus that it might not be able to meet nutritional goals (Mabhaudhi et al, 2017a). There is a need for a paradigm shift that will focus on delivering safer, more nutritious food (calories, proteins, fats, vitamins, and micronutrients) per unit of input resource (land area, fertiliser, water, and agrochemicals), in a sustainable way (Smith et al, 2013).…”