Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective

Business as usual or transformative change? While the global agro-industrial food system is credited with increasing food production, availability and accessibility, it is also credited with giving birth to ‘new’ challenges such as malnutrition, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. We reviewed the potential of underutilized indigenous and traditional crops to bring about a transformative change to South Africa’s food system. South Africa has a dichotomous food system, characterized by a distinct, dominant agro-industrial, and, alternative, informal food system. This dichotomous food system has inadvertently undermined the development of smallholder producers. While the dominant agro-industrial food system has led to improvements in food supply, it has also resulted in significant trade-offs with agro-biodiversity, dietary diversity, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic stability, especially amongst the rural poor. This challenges South Africa’s ability to deliver on sustainable and healthy food systems under environmental change. The review proposes a transdisciplinary approach to mainstreaming underutilized indigenous and traditional crops into the food system, which offers real opportunities for developing a sustainable and healthy food system, while, at the same time, achieving societal goals such as employment creation, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. This process can be initiated by researchers translating existing evidence for informing policy-makers. Similarly, policy-makers need to acknowledge the divergence in the existing policies, and bring about policy convergence in pursuit of a food system which includes smallholder famers, and where underutilized indigenous and traditional crops are mainstreamed into the South African food system

Does Women Empowerment in Agriculture Affect Household Food Security? The Case of Rural Limpopo Province, South Africa.

The link between the empowerment of women in agriculture and food security, was investigated in Limpopo Province. Data were collected in three irrigation scheme communities. Respondents were largely food secure, however, empowerment in agriculture and food security were weakly associated. This was partly attributed to the importance of the market in accessing food and the status quo of purchasing food versus own food production. It was concluded that pursuing women empowerment in agriculture and other sectors would likely improve food security. It was recommended that a more transformative and empowering system that allows farmers to diversify crop production and access more markets be sought. Nutrition education and advocacy would also improve household dietary diversity. Keywords: women empowerment; food security; dietary diversity; irrigation scheme

Does Women Empowerment in Agriculture Affect Household Food Security? The Case of Rural Limpopo Province, South Africa.

The link between the empowerment of women in agriculture and food security, was investigated in Limpopo Province. Data were collected in three irrigation scheme communities. Respondents were largely food secure, however, empowerment in agriculture and food security were weakly associated. This was partly attributed to the importance of the market in accessing food and the status quo of purchasing food versus own food production. It was concluded that pursuing women empowerment in agriculture and other sectors would likely improve food security. It was recommended that a more transformative and empowering system that allows farmers to diversify crop production and access more markets be sought. Nutrition education and advocacy would also improve household dietary diversity. Keywords: women empowerment; food security; dietary diversity; irrigation scheme

Diversity and diversification: ecosystem services derived from underutilized crops and their co-benefits for sustainable agricultural landscapes and resilient food systems in Africa

There are growing calls to adopt more sustainable forms of agriculture that balance the need to increase production with environmental, human health, and wellbeing concerns. Part of this conversation has included a debate on promoting and mainstreaming neglected and underutilized crop species (NUS) because they represent a more ecologically friendly type of agriculture. We conducted a systematic review to determine the ecosystem services derived from NUS and assess their potential to promote functional ecological diversity, food and nutritional security, and transition to more equitable, inclusive, sustainable and resilient agricultural landscapes and food systems in Africa. Our literature search yielded 35 articles for further analysis. The review showed that NUS provide various provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting ecosystem services and several environmental and health co-benefits, dietary diversity, income, sustainable livelihood outcomes, and economic empowerment, especially for women. Importantly, NUS address the three pillars of sustainable development- ecological, social, and economic. Thus, NUS may provide a sustainable, fit-for-purpose transformative ecosystem-based adaptation solution for Africa to transition to more sustainable, healthy, equitable, and resilient agricultural landscapes and food systems