DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

Formulating Value Chains for Orphan Crops in Africa

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Description

Cultivars that emerged during the Green Revolution focused on increasing yield, primarily of a few staple crops, that together with changes in farming systems (e.g. artificial fertilizer applications) did much to ensure adequate supply of affordable calories. This original strategy has, however, been at the expense of research into sustainable yield improvement and improved environmental resilience of orphan crops (e.g. teff, finger millet, yam, roots and tubers that are regionally important but not world traded and receive no attention from researchers). The current strategy regarding orphan crops is represented by the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) that focuses on genetic improvement to increase resilience to climate change and to improve productivity, under the assumption that increased diversity of crop species sown and harvested implies a greater diversity of consumption. However, this is not the case in rural or urban areas. The purpose of this project is to more effectively bridge current supply-side research on orphan crops with attitudes from consumers, to help have an impact on poverty, health, sustainable growth and food security in developing countries. This will be done by examining the entire supply chain and by multidisciplinary interaction of social, crop and food scientists who will seek to reformulate popular processed foods using orphan crop ingredients. Targeted orphan crops will be selected early on in the project based on existing demand and technical information as well as engagement and discussion with potential food processors. Research will be broken down into three interrelated work areas: (1)Supply chain analysis (including demand); (2)Options for development of new ingredients and foods based on orphan crops; and (3)Identification of solutions to production constraints of prioritised orphan crops. Supply chain analysis (including demand analysis) will:(1) contribute to the selection of the targeted orphan crops for other parts of the project by providing indicators that will rank crops according to their potential to make significant impact on local health and income;(2) analyse the role that orphan crops play in Sub-Saharan African diets using available household surveys;(3) analyse the use of orphan crops as ingredients in new products in Sub-Saharan African markets;(4) analyse the structure of particular supply chains associated with the products and ingredients of prioritised orphan crops; and (5) provide an ex-ante analysis of the impact that the creation of the value chains may have. The identification of new ingredients and the development of foods based on orphan crop analysis will proceed in two stages:(1) the project will link the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP) with food processing companies in Sub Saharan Africa . In discussion together with the results of the demand analysis- products that are suitable for reformulation selected orphan crops ingredients will be identified;(2) ECFP will perform experiments in its laboratories in Edinburgh to identify suitable recipes and processing methods to make food products, e.g. bread, using flours from orphan crops rather than from staples such as wheat. In parallel we will explore solutions to identified barriers to the efficient production of the selected orphan crops. A time-frame for screening crops for yield and quality improvements, including processing quality for food production, will also be published as a project technical note. The climatic and growing factors limiting production in these high potential orphan crops will be identified in order to integrate existing knowledge of how crop choice and agronomics affect grain quality for processing and end use. Also, evidence from local or other published sources on traits that maximise crop productivity and increase crop resilience to increasing climatic variability, including pests and diseases, will be sourced to complement other crop promotion effort.

Objectives

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Kenya

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