Overview: Agrobiodiversity is a resource that supports human and environmental well-being. IFAD’s support for the better use of agrobiodiversity with specific reference to neglected and underutilized species (NUS) and a greater recognition of the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples associated with the use of NUS and wild edibles are important for fighting food and nutrition insecurity, especially in the context of climate change. Both factors have the potential to promote and enhance sustainable and nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) and associated livelihood outcomes.

Investing in NSA is not just a social good, it contributes to sound development and good economics. Impact pathways include resilient production, income generation and healthy consumption. Key mediators of impact are women’s empowerment and nutrition awareness among consumers. There is ample scope to maximize the contribution of NUS and Indigenous Peoples to nutrition by applying a nutrition lens to IFAD design project interventions. Project development teams, while formulating, appraising or negotiating agricultural investment programs and projects can improve sustainable and nutrition sensitive outcomes by recognizing that:

• Of the 5,000 food crops estimated to exist worldwide (RBG 2016), global food systems are currently dominated by only three crop species (rice, wheat and maize) which provide half of the world’s plant-derived calories. This situation is in continuous deterioration and illustrates a gradual homogenization of global food production that has multiple negative repercussions on people’s lives: production systems are more vulnerable to climate change and other shocks, farmer asset development and income generation options are reduced, and consumers have fewer choices for nutritious and healthy diets.
• Agrobiodiversity is a precious asset for supporting our life systems, but it is highly vulnerable and susceptible to genetic erosion caused by widespread monocropping, standardization of cultivation methods, uniform markets, lack of economic incentives for crop diversification and change in food habits. Traditional knowledge associated with the use of NUS and wild edibles is being similarly compromised, and is fast disappearing due to changes in lifestyles, lack of intergenerational knowledge transmission and marginalization of local food cultures.
• Enhancing agrobiodiversity use has proved to be an invaluable means of improving the livelihoods of local populations as demonstrated by the Andean grains project in Bolivia (2014) and minor millets work in India (2015), both supported by IFAD through its research grant portfolio.
• Hot spots of NUS diversity coincide with those regions where Indigenous Peoples live, largely remote areas not exposed to intensive agricultural practices and where agro-ecological practices have prevailed. Research on crops cultivated or foraged by Indigenous Peoples remains marginal.
• The second global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD in 2015 agreed to address Indigenous Peoples’ traditional food systems and the use of biodiversity for nutrition. As a result, the contributions of Indigenous Peoples – towards sustainably managing ecosystems and protecting biodiversity through traditional knowledge and methods – need to be properly analyzed and supported in project design”.
• Nutrition education and behavior change communication are key elements of project design.
• Wider use of NUS is consistent with several SDGs (2, 7, 12, 13, 15 and 17), the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (Target 13), the FAO Global Plan of Action on PGRFA10, and the Strategic Plan 2016-2020 of the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), which pays special attention to local production, crop diversification and sustainability.
• NUS have been ignored by policy makers and marginalized by the Green Revolution. Their exclusion from research and development investments until recently has left them behind in terms of advances regarding their conservation, cultivation harvest, postharvest, marketability and studies related to their contribution to food and nutrition security, income and livelihoods, gender, and policies and legal frameworks to regulate their use.
• NUS, including wild edibles, are an integral part of local cultures, widely used in traditional food preparations, and increasingly in the spotlight of efforts for revitalizing local food cultures and celebrating the identity of the ‘terroir’. Food festivals are important initiatives to attract the attention of young people.
• NUS and wild edibles are highly adapted to agro-ecological niches and marginal areas and are resilient to climate change. This is perhaps the most attractive trait to agricultural decision makers.
• Most NUS are cultivated relying on farmer-based knowledge, which is fast eroding due to the pervasive phenomenon of cultural erosion, which in turn contributes to the marginalization and loss of genetic diversity at inter- and intra-specific levels. This double impact should be stopped before it is too late.
• NUS are poorly represented in ex situ gene banks, which is a direct consequence of the low priority these crops have received in the past in national and international research programs. Most of their diversity is conserved on-farm. They are served by informal and weak seed systems.
• There is a lack of professional capacities within National Agricultural Research System (NARS) for promoting NUS through an interdisciplinary, holistic and participatory approach. However, species and crop selection must be subject to the free, prior and informed consent of all to fully understand the environmental and gender impact. The selection of crops and species for nutritional value must meet the challenge of adaptation to climate change.
• There is a need to strengthen the evidence base on the contribution of NUS within nutrition-sensitive agriculture and at the same time reinforce capacities and generation of knowledge for design, implementation and monitoring for management, evaluation and advocacy.
• Developing a holistic and nutrition-sensitive approach involving NUS requires an unprecedented building of supportive structures, knowledge systems, cooperation and partnerships with communities such as indigenous peoples as well as women and youth.