African Lives Matter: Wild Food Plants Matter for Livelihoods, Justice, and the Environment—A Policy Brief for Agricultural Reform and New Crops

Designing nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA): a review

Despite the efforts to end malnutrition through intensive agriculture of caloric crops, micronutrient deficiencies and other forms of malnutrition persist in vulnerable communities worldwide. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions are recognized as chances to address the causes of malnutrition. In this work, the different types of NSA interventions were explored, as well as the pathways through which they can improve nutrition (e.g., increasing biofortified crops and income generation via agricultural sales for a positive impact on access to nutritious foods, and simultaneously involving nutrition education to improve care practices and eventually nutritional status). Some NSA interventions focus on one pathway. Well-designed interventions, however, should follow multi-pathway approaches targeting the underlying causes of undernutrition within the selected population. The circumstances in which certain indicators should be used to measure the impact of an NSA intervention in each stage of the full pathway were also explained, as well as the need of enhancing the design of such interventions. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been employed to solve agriculture-related issues, but it has not been used to identify the optimal types of NSA interventions, metrics, and indicators based on the context of the community, priorities and objectives of the project managers and designers, etc.

The impacts of okra consumption on the nutritional status of pregnant women, west Ethiopia

Food-insecurity and poor-quality diets remain a challenge for pregnant women. Consumption of okra has a great impact on improving the nutritional status of pregnant women. Okra plays a critical role in the prevention of malnutrition among pregnant women living in resource-limited settings. The evidence is scarce on the impacts of okra on mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement of pregnant women. A community-based cross-sectional study was employed among randomly selected 224 pregnant women from June 1 to July 30, 2020. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used. The MUAC was measured by using an adult MUAC measuring tape. Data were entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis by linear regression. The statistical significance of variables was declared at a p-value of .05, and unstandardized beta (β) coefficients along with a 95% confidence interval were computed. The proportion of pregnant women with low MUAC (≤22 cm) was 42.4%. In the multivariable linear regression model, hemoglobin concentration (β = 0.346, [95% CI: 0.153, 0.539], p = .001), food insecurity (β = -0.887, (95% CI: -1.441, -0.334), p = .002), daily consumption of okra (β = 1.269, [95% CI: 0.583, 1.956], p ≤ .001), and women working in NGO (β = 0.443, [95% CI: 0.256, 0.630], p ≤ .001) were significant variables. The prevalence of malnutrition among pregnant women (MUAC ≤ 22 cm) was 42.4%. Therefore, behavioral change communication interventions to promote okra consumption on regular basis were recommended.

The relative role of soil, climate, and genotype in the variation of nutritional value of Annona senegalensis fruits and leaves

Annona senegalensis Pers is a multipurpose tree species valued for food and medicinal uses in Africa. Although there have been attempts to document the proximate composition of fruits and leaves, little is known about the relative role of soil, climate, and genotype on the nutritional quality. The present study evaluated the variation of the proximate composition of fruits and leaves in populations from Benin and Mozambique. It further assessed the impact of soil, climate and genotype on the proximate composition. Data were collected from four populations genetically different and analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis, redundancy analysis (RDA), and variance partitioning. Results revealed significant variation in the proximate composition of fruits and leaves among the studied populations. Ashes and fibers in fruits, and lipids in leaves were 4.8-fold, 2.5- fold, and 1.25-fold higher respectively, in populations from Mozambique. Fruits moisture and lipids content were rather 1.4-fold and 1.10-fold higher in populations from Benin. Moisture and lipids were respectively 6-fold and 1.27-fold higher in fruits than in leaves, while ashes, fibers and proteins were approximately twice higher in the leaves than in the fruits. Genetic groups, climate and soils were found to influence this variation. All three factors explained 74.4% of the variation of nutritional value of fruits and leaves, 31.9% of which was exclusively due to genetic variation, 2.8% to the interaction of climate and soils, 24.1% to the interaction of soil and genetic variation, and 15.5% to the interaction of all three factors. Our study shows that genetic variation and soil properties better than climate, explain the variation of nutritional value of A. senegalensis fruits and leaves and further provides essential information that could be harnessed in the domestication and breeding program of the species for its edible parts.

M. Drummond E, Van Tassel DL, Warschefsky EJ. The next era of crop domestication starts now

Current food systems are challenged by relying on a few input-intensive, staple crops. The prioritization of yield and the loss of diversity during the recent history of domestication has created contemporary crops and cropping systems that are ecologically unsustainable, vulnerable to climate change, nutrient poor, and socially inequitable. For decades, scientists have proposed diversity as a solution to address these challenges to global food security. Here, we outline the possibilities for a new era of crop domestication, focused on broadening the palette of crop diversity, that engages and benefits the three elements of domestication: crops, ecosystems, and humans. We explore how the suite of tools and technologies at hand can be applied to renew diversity in existing crops, improve underutilized crops, and domesticate new crops to bolster genetic, agroecosystem, and food system diversity. Implementing the new era of domestication requires that researchers, funders, and policymakers boldly invest in basic and translational research. Humans need more diverse food systems in the Anthropocene-the process of domestication can help build them.

The Future of Food: Domestication and Commercialization of Indigenous Food Crops in Africa over the Third Decade (2012–2021)

This paper follows the transition from ethnobotany to a deeper scientific understanding of the food and medicinal properties of African agroforestry tree products as inputs into the start of domestication activities. It progresses on to the integration of these indigenous trees as new crops within diversified farming systems for multiple social, economic and environmental benefits. From its advent in the 1990s, the domestication of indigenous food and non-food tree species has become a global programme with a strong African focus. This review of progress in the third decade is restricted to progress in Africa, where multi-disciplinary research on over 59 species has been reported in 759 research papers in 318 science publications by scientists from over 833 research teams in 70 countries around the world (532 in Africa). The review spans 23 research topics presenting the recent research literature for tree species of high priority across the continent, as well as that in each of the four main ecological regions: the humid zone of West and Central Africa; the Sahel and North Africa; the East African highlands and drylands; and the woody savannas of Southern Africa. The main areas of growth have been the nutritional/medicinal value of non-timber forest products; the evaluation of the state of natural resources and their importance to local people; and the characterization of useful traits. However, the testing of putative cultivars; the implementation of participatory principles; the protection of traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights; and the selection of elite trees and ideotypes remain under-researched. To the probable detriment of the upscaling and impact in tropical agriculture, there has been, at the international level, a move away from decentralized, community-based tree domestication towards a laboratory-based, centralized approach. However, the rapid uptake of research by university departments and national agricultural research centres in Africa indicates a recognition of the importance of the indigenous crops for both the livelihoods of rural communities and the revitalization and enhanced outputs from agriculture in Africa, especially in West Africa. Thus, on a continental scale, there has been an uptake of research with policy relevance for the integration of indigenous trees in agroecosystems and their importance for the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To progress this in the fourth decade, there will need to be a dedicated Centre in Africa to test and develop cultivars of indigenous crops. Finally, this review underpins a holistic approach to mitigating climate change, as well as other big global issues such as hunger, poverty and loss of wildlife habitat by reaping the benefits, or ‘profits’, from investment in the five forms of Capital, described as ‘land maxing’. However, policy and decision makers are not yet recognizing the potential for holistic and transformational adoption of these new indigenous food crop opportunities for African agriculture. Is ‘political will’ the missing sixth capital for sustainable development?