Mainstream forgotten African foods, says report

A new report has called for mainstreaming of forgotten foods in African communities' daily diets.

The report says this will ensure a sustainable food system transformation.

The compendium of forgotten foods in Africa report, which is a first-of-its-kind, has a comprehensive collection of 100 African forgotten food crops.

Also referred to as neglected, underutilised or orphan crops, these species offer valuable benefits, including nutrition and diet diversification, while supporting resilient climate-smart agriculture.

“Forgotten foods’ potential is not realised due to long years of neglect or slight consideration by researchers and development practitioners," said FAO assistant director-general and Regional Representative for Africa Abebe Haile-Gabriel and FARA executive director Aggrey Agumya.

"Researchers who are interested in these commodities largely lack funding support since these commodities are not part of the big six food commodities supported across the globe."

"They are labelled as forgotten foods because they are forgotten by the research funders, researchers and development practitioners,” Haile-Gabriel and Agumya said.

The report says the foods are now at risk of being lost as maize, rice and wheat dominate African diets.

“They thus offer a viable pathway to ensuring adequate food intake and dietary diversity, maintaining soil health and achieving climate resilience amongst African farming communities,” the study says.

Some of the forgotten crops include African locust beans, African nightshade, baobab, dragon fruit, tamarillo (tree tomato) and chestnut.

Others are bush mango, cassava, marula, moringa, chia, African eggplant, yam and cassava.

The crops also have botanical classification, agroecological suitability, agronomic requirements, traditional and medicinal uses, value-added prospects and nutritional content.

The report was produced by FAO and Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa in partnership with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

Haile said the report is a direct response to the UN Food Systems Summit and the call for collective action in the global manifesto on forgotten foods.

“Embracing both agricultural heritage and innovation can transform agrifood systems across Africa. By cataloguing these forgotten or underutilised crops, traditional knowledge is being honoured in the push to unlock the potential for better nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and resilience against the climate crisis,” he said.

Africa must provide food and nutrition security to its rapidly expanding population in perpetuity without engendering adverse environmental, social and economic effects, Haile said.

The report said indigenous communities across Africa have used a number of locally adapted crops for millennia for nutrition, medicinal and ornamental purposes.

“Unfortunately, many of these crops have been progressively substituted with imported genotypes favoured by industrial agriculture. Pervasive monoculture of the exotic crops and increasingly standardised diets have contributed to the utter ‘belittling’ of the indigenous crops, earning them the name-forgotten crops,” the report said.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition 2023 said Africa continues to bear the burden of malnutrition. The region has the highest prevalence of undernourishment at 20.2 per cent.

World Bank says a key underlying cause of malnutrition in Africa is lack of access to food.

“Nearly 60 per cent of people in Africa still live in rural areas where own-farm production is the predominant means to food access. As rural agriculture is predominantly rain-fed, climate variability regularly curtails farm output and consequently, food access,”it said.

In addition, prolonged monoculture of exotic crops has led to biodiversity loss, degradation of natural capital and low dietary diversity.