Potential of Underutilized Traditional Vegetables and Legume Crops to Contribute to Food and Nutritional Security, Income and More Sustainable Production Systems

TLDR

Agriculture faces pressure to produce more food, feed, and biofuel on limited land, and over‑reliance on a few staple crops poses agronomic, ecological, nutritional, and economic risks; diversifying with underutilized traditional vegetables and legumes can add resilience, enhance nutrition, and generate household income. The study aims to identify and promote research, breeding, and development of underutilized crops to convert local landraces into competitive, widely adapted varieties with commercial potential. The authors emphasize that accessing genetic diversity is essential and focus on amaranth, drumstick tree, and mungbean as case studies. Genebank data show amaranth, drumstick tree, and mungbean possess rich genetic diversity and have already demonstrated potential for broader adoption and commercial use.

Abstract

Agriculture is under pressure to produce greater quantities of food, feed and biofuel on limited land resources. Current over-reliance on a handful of major staple crops has inherent agronomic, ecological, nutritional and economic risks and is probably unsustainable in the long run. Wider use of today's underutilized minor crops provides more options to build temporal and spatial heterogeneity into uniform cropping systems and will enhance resilience to both biotic and abiotic stress. Many traditional vegetables and underutilized legume crops are an essential source of vitamins, micronutrients and protein and, thus, a valuable component to attain nutritional security. Vegetables in general are of considerable commercial value and therefore an important source of household income. Significant research, breeding and development efforts are needed for a range of promising crops to convert existing local landraces into competitive varieties with wide adaptation and promising commercial potential. Access to genetic diversity of these selected crops is a pre-condition for success. Three underutilized minor crops—amaranth, drumstick tree, and mungbean—are highlighted and briefly described. All three crops are well-represented in AVRDC's genebank with substantial inter- and intra-specific genetic diversity, and already have demonstrated their potential for wider adoption and commercial exploitation.