Invest in underutilised crops to improve food security

About a fortnight ago, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned of a looming food and nutrition crisis in Uganda. According to the FAO, Uganda could be the next country (after Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti) “to be hit by the same sort of alarming malnutrition and drought conditions.”

This warning comes at a time when, increasingly, there are also many cases of malnutrition and malnutrition-related deaths being reported in the media. Part of the problem is that while Uganda is endowed with a variety of crops and crop species, many of which are important for food and nutrition, Government policies tend to support the production and utilisation of only a few crops.

Under its market-based approach to agricultural development and food security, government policies mainly support the production of those crops that are considered to be of “high value” and marketable.

A recent study done by ACODE, confirms that Uganda’s policy architecture is skewed towards promoting a few traditional major crops like maize, beans and bananas that have high demand at the expense of the rural poor peoples’ crops – the underutilised/orphan crops. That this is the case, is regrettable because many households in Uganda, particularly in the rural areas where most of the population is concentrated depend on these indigenous crops (vegetables, fruits, grains and yams) to meet their food and nutritional needs.

Increasingly, many studies are confirming that many underutilised crops/species are very nutritious and provide nutrients and other health benefits that exceed the food qualities of the most popularly utilised crops.

Many underutilised crops also have the added advantage in that they are adaptable to marginal environments and are critical in the maintenance of agro-ecosystems. With the rapidly increasing population and the challenge of climatic change and its effects on food and agricultural production, promoting underutilised crops is therefore a very important policy option for improving food and livelihood security, especially of the rural poor.

From a policy perspective, to adequately promote the production and utilisation of underutilised crops, it is recommended that government establishes an adequately-funded special programme to focus on scientific research for their improvement; strengthen their seed system; invest in protecting the traditional knowledge associated with them; and maintain and improve the public extension system to serve the rural poor.

Government should also deliberately include these crops in the country’s zonal agricultural production, agro-processing and marketing strategy and in the national export strategy. The quick adoption and implementation of the Draft National Policy on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is also critical.

In promoting the production and utilisation of underutilised crops, it is important to look beyond the economic aspects of these crops. Their role in guaranteeing food and nutrition security of the rural poor is in itself a critical consideration which merits getting more policy support than they are currently being given.

In any case, if given the required policy support in the areas of agricultural research, extension, agro-processing and marketing, many of Uganda’s underutilised crops also have great market potential. The time is now to improve food and nutrition security of our rural poor by investing in their crops.

Mr Naluwairo is a Research Fellow with ACODE