Policy Initiatives Needed to Increase the Role of Orphan Crops in Food Security

Policy Initiatives Needed to Increase the Role of Orphan Crops in Food Security

Orphan Crops in Food Sustainability Policy Findings

Key message: this paper elaborates the Main findings on the contain policy relevance with regards to the determination of policy initiatives needed to increase the role of orphan crops in food security

Introduction

Orphan crops refer to the various set of drought-resistant crops, including yam, tuff, finger millet, and tubers. The orphan crops have the characteristic of being regionally significant, but not traded globally. Also, the crops receive no attention from research networks regarding the various measures that could be put into developing them. Due to the sustainability and ability of the orphan crops to withstand harsh weather conditions, developing countries and other countries in regions that experience extreme weather conditions profoundly rely on them in facilitating food security[1]. Through the policy brief, various suggestions could be adopted for the improvement of the orphan crops to facilitate their role in increasing food security.

Findings

• Application of modern improvement measures to the orphan crops and current crop research. This is necessary for determining better ways of increasing the yields of the crops and their sustainability. Among the possible measures required to consider, with regards to modern improvement measures include MAS TILLING, transgenic techniques, and tissue culture. The application of these techniques may have different goals regarding the different orphan crops. However, the ultimate goal is that they would increase their sustainability and increase food security.
• The majority of the research on orphan crops should heavily be focus on four areas, including breeding for tolerance against biotic and abiotic stress, removing toxic substances from the plant species, improving productivity per unit area, and improving nutritional quality through the use of biofortification. Through this, the ultimate results would be the improvement of the sustainability of the crops and their nutrition value.
• The provision of financial and technical support for both institutions and researches that are involved in the study of orphan crops is necessary to facilitate better research initiatives. The need for this initiative is facilitated by the fact that the reviews on orphan crops are highly underfunded. In most cases, the studies on these crops depend on the meager resources that are readily available.
• Efficient invested in scientists responsible for the study of orphan crops is necessary. The investments could also be channeled towards the development of infrastructure and the improvement of research institutions dealing with the study of orphan crops[2].
• Establishment of a partnership with both private and public institutions that could facilitate the study of the crops[3]. There is a need to establish a partnership with study institutions, including private organizations and universities. Through the institutions, the necessary studies can be done to determine how the crops could be used in the process of facilitating food security. It is also essential to establish a network of orphan crop researchers at different levels, including international levels, national levels, and regional levels[4].
• Determining frameworks to facilitate a means of efficient information exchange among the orphan crop researchers. The formation of these groups could be through the establishment of discussion forums, for instance, through the creation of internet discussion groups.
• Organization of workshops and training that deal with orphan crops and orphan crop research development. The workshops would be essential in facilitating the forums for addressing major orphan crop productivity problems[5]. They would also be used to propose the necessary strategies for the implementation of modern techniques for orphan crops. Also, it would be used for the discussion of the prospects and feasibility of the orphan crops and how they could be used to facilitate food security in the areas with food scarcity[6]. They could be used to facilitate the discussions of sustainability issues and how to foster sustainability practices for the promotion of orphan crops.

Bibliography

Chiurugwi, T., Kemp, S., Powell, W. And Hickey, L.T., 2019. Speed breeding orphan crops. Theoretical and applied genetics, 132(3), pp.607-616.

Dawson, I.K., Hendre, P., Powell, W., Sila, D., McMullin, S., Simons, T., Revoredo-Giha, C., Odeny, D.A., Barnes, A.P., Graudal, L. And Watson, C.A., 2018. Supporting human nutrition in Africa through the integration of new and orphan crops into food systems. Working paper 276 World Agroforestry Centre.

Hunter, D., Borelli, T., Beltrame, D.M.O., Oliveira, C.N.S., Coradin, L., Wasike, V.W., Wasilwa, L., Mwai, J., Manjella, A., Samarasinghe, G.W.L. and Madhujith, T., 2019. Potential of orphan crops for improving diets and nutrition.

Lemmon, Z.H., Reem, N.T., Dalrymple, J., Soyk, S., Swartwood, K.E., Rodriguez-Leal, D., Van Eck, J. And Lippman, Z.B., 2018. Rapid improvement of domestication traits in an orphan crop by genome editing. Nature plants, 4(10), pp.766-770.

Mabhaudhi, T., Chimonyo, V.G.P., Hlahla, S., Massawe, F., Mayes, S., Nhamo, L. and Modi, A.T., 2019. Prospects of orphan crops in climate change. Planta, pp.1-14.

Malik, A.A., and Chaudhary, G., 2019. Global Food Security: A Truncated Yield of Underutilized and Orphan Crops. In Biotechnology Products in Everyday Life (pp. 161-171). Springer, Cham.

Ribaut, J.M., and Ragot, M., 2019. Modernizing breeding for orphan crops: tools, methodologies, and beyond. Planta, pp.1-7.

Succurro, A., Schuler-Bermann, M., Ivanov, R., Jacoby, R., Kopriva, S. And Jobe, T.O., 2019. Orphan crops at the food for future conference.

Tadele, Z. And Bartels, D., 2019. Promoting orphan crop research and development.

[1] Hunter, D., Borelli, T., Beltrame, D.M.O., Oliveira, C.N.S., Coradin, L., Wasike, V.W., Wasilla, L., Mwai, J., Manjella, A., Samarasinghe, G.W.L. and Madhujith, T., 2019. Potential of orphan crops for improving diets and nutrition.

[2] Ribaut, J.M. and Ragot, M., 2019. Modernizing breeding for orphan crops: tools, methodologies, and beyond. Planta, pp.1-7.

[3]. Dawson, I.K., Hendre, P., Powell, W., Sila, D., McMullin, S., Simons, T., Revoredo-Giha, C., Odeny, D.A., Barnes, A.P., Graudal, L. And Watson, C.A., 2018. Supporting human nutrition in Africa through the integration of new and orphan crops into food systems. Working paper 276 World Agroforestry Centre.

[4] Lemmon, Z.H., Reem, N.T., Dalrymple, J., Soyk, S., Swartwood, K.E., Rodriguez-Leal, D., Van Eck, J. And Lippman, Z.B., 2018. Rapid improvement of domestication traits in an orphan crop by genome editing. Nature plants, 4(10), pp.766-770.

[5] Chiurugwi, T., Kemp, S., Powell, W. And Hickey, L.T., 2019. Speed breeding orphan crops. Theoretical and applied genetics, 132(3), pp.607-616.

[6]. Succurro, A., Schuler-Bermann, M., Ivanov, R., Jacoby, R., Kopriva, S. And Jobe, T.O., 2019. Orphan crops at the food for future conference.