Neglected crops need a rethink, and help face food security challenges in future

Neglected crops that are currently underutilised by farmers can play an important role, addressing the food and agriculture challenges of the future and should be re-evaluated, FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva, said recently at an international seminar taking place in this southern Spanish city.

In remarks made at the international crops for the 21 Century seminar, Graziano da Silva noted that FAO estimates, that some 7,000 species of plants have been cultivated or consumed as food throughout human history.

Today, many of these species are disappearing. “If we lose these unique and irreplaceable resources, it will be more difficult for us to adapt to climate change and ensure a healthy and diversified nutrition for all,” FAO Chief said.

“Currently there are about 870 million hungry people in the world, a world that produces enough food for everyone,” he said. “Globalisation has created an abundance of food in some parts of the world, but has failed to end the chronic shortages that exist elsewhere.”

Graziano da Silva added that globalisation “Has created certain homogeneity of products, accompanied by a loss of different culinary traditions and agricultural biodiversity.”

According to FAO, the caloric intake of most people on the planet is based today on only four crops: Rice, maize, wheat and potatoes.

“Our dependence on a few crops has negative consequences for ecosystems, food diversity and our health. The food monotony increases the risk of micronutrient deficiency,” he said.

To address these challenges, the FAO’s top executive has called for more attention to both production and consumption issues. FAO has called for the sustainable intensification of agricultural production via a model it calls ‘Save and grow’ a food production model that also preserves and enhances natural resources.

Graziano da Silva stressed that neglected and underutilised species ‘play a crucial role in the fight against hunger and are a key resource for agriculture and rural development’, and called for increased research on underutilised crops. “While some research is taking place, the results do not always reach smallholders,” he noted.

The FAO Chief also underlined the importance of sustainable diets. “While almost 870 million people go hungry, an even greater number are overweight or obese. And even as inadequate access to food causes suffering in poor countries, every year consumers in industrialised countries waste 220 million tons of food, an amount equivalent to sub-Saharan Africa’s total annual food production,” Graziano da Silva said.

The seminar in Cordoba kicks off the celebration of 2013, as the International Year of Quinoa, with a special session on the Andean ‘super crop’ taking place tomorrow.

“Quinoa is the only cereal that contains all the amino acids needed for human beings,” Graziano da Silva noted. “Besides, it adapts well to growing in all altitudes from sea level to the Andes.”

Quinoa has great potential to contribute to global food security for its high nutritional value and its ability to adapt to various climatic and geographical conditions.

As the Cordoba meeting aims to highlight, many underutilised crop species haven’t been lost yet, and form the basis of local food systems in many world regions.

These crops are well adapted to their local agro-ecological conditions and remain important to the livelihoods of the communities that use them.

“For millennia, communities have developed crops in harmony with the environment, using the rich natural surroundings. And so food is also part of our culture and identity”, said Graziano da Silva. He cited the example of the Maya, who called themselves ‘people of corn’.

“We must not lose track of our agricultural and culinary roots, nor the lore and wisdom of our ancestors. On the contrary, we must learn from them, to ensure that our future has even more diversity,” he concluded.