On the Agricultures website our friends Stefano Padulosi and Paul Bordoni have just published a very valuable round-up on what they call “underutilized species”. ((Facebookers can contribute to the discussion of what to call those things here.)) Valuable especially because it returns to the topic after six more years of research in the field, casting a historical eye over what worked and pointing out that these species — whatever you call them — can offer poor people a diversity of options to improve their lives, provided projects accept that it is complex and needs to be thorough.
The end-result … was very positive … and further confirmed that it is indeed possible to turn underutilized species into an effective instrument of development and improvement of peoples’ livelihood. This work did also demonstrate that the successful promotion of underutilized species needs to be solidly anchored in cultural-sensitive objectives that are fundamental in the sustainability of this work.
There is a lot more useful information in the article and the references it cites for anyone planning to work on underutilized species. That alone makes it worthwhile. More than that, though, it shows the value of returning to a topic after a little while, sharing the lessons learned, and bringing together in one place the many fascinating new activities, operational and planned.
I hope the African orphan crops project will be able to do something similar in six years time?