Boosting nutrition and climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa with ‘forgotten foods’
A news item was recently released on Mongabay (26 July 2024), reporting on landmark research led by scientists from the World Vegetable Center.
This report explains a 2023 study was recently awarded the Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for its work identifying ‘forgotten’ food crops in sub-Saharan Africa that may be more resilient to climate change than the region’s current staple crops of maize, rice, cassava and yams. The study found that West Africa and Central Africa would experience the largest decrease in suitability for current staple crops by 2070, and that maize was the most vulnerable of the staples. In addition to identifying 52 food crops that will likely be better-suited to the region’s future climate, and which have more nutritional value than staple crops — these researchers have already succeeded in introducing some of the overlooked crops to local communities.
A number of the these ‘opportunity crops’ have already been partially ‘rescued’, i.e. landraces and crop wild relatives have been collected and conserved in Africa’s Vegetable Genebank at the WorldVeg Regional Center for Eastern and Southern Africa, in Arusha, Tanzania. Several have also undergone selection and varietal development by the World Vegetable Center in the past decades, and have been introduced to and adopted by local communities. In Tanzania for example, 98% of all African eggplant and 65% of amaranth contains WorldVeg germplasm. But much more needs to be done to fully harness Africa’s vegetable heritage.
For the full story, see:
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-sub-saharan-africa-forgotten-foods-could-boost-climate-resilience-nutrition/
By Claudia Geib and Elodie Toto, 26 July 2024.
