Azam-Ali, S.N.; Gregory, P.J.; Jahanshiri, E. Diversifying the UK Agrifood System: A Role for Neglected and Underutilised Crops. Agronomy2024, 14, 853.
Azam-Ali, S.N.; Gregory, P.J.; Jahanshiri, E. Diversifying the UK Agrifood System: A Role for Neglected and Underutilised Crops. Agronomy 2024, 14, 853.
Azam-Ali, S.N.; Gregory, P.J.; Jahanshiri, E. Diversifying the UK Agrifood System: A Role for Neglected and Underutilised Crops. Agronomy2024, 14, 853.
Azam-Ali, S.N.; Gregory, P.J.; Jahanshiri, E. Diversifying the UK Agrifood System: A Role for Neglected and Underutilised Crops. Agronomy 2024, 14, 853.
Abstract
Supply chain disruptions, a pandemic, and war in Ukraine have exposed faultlines in a globalised food system that depends on a few staple crops grown in a few exporting regions and transported to consumers around the world. In the UK, just three crops, (wheat, barley, and oilseed rape), account for 75 per cent of the UK’s 4.5 million hectares of arable land whilst the country imports around half its food - nearly 40 per cent from just four EU countries (the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, and France). Poor diets contribute to one in seven deaths in the UK, 63 per cent of the population is overweight or obese and health inequality is increasing between the poorest and most affluent regions. The food security and health of the UK population is therefore dependent on a small number of locally grown crops, vulnerable supply chains, and an unhealthy, obesogenic diet. The UK food system must diversify if it is to become food and nutritionally secure, meet its climate and biodiversity goals and have a healthy and active population. Climate resilient and nutritious underutilised crops can help diversify the UK agrifood system but, research and investment in them is sporadic, piecemeal, and unfocused. In this paper we compare two approaches to identifying potentially suitable underutilised crops for the UK. The first, based on Defra Project CH0224 was delivered through literature and database searches and expertise of growers, advisers, breeders, seed suppliers, processors, traders, and researchers. The second, used the CropBASE digital knowledge base for underutilised crops described in Jahanshiri et. al. (2023). The two approaches produced no single crop that was common to both shortlists. We propose that the analytical and predictive tools derived from CropBASE could be combined with local knowledge and expertise from the Defra project to provide a common framework for the identification of underutilised crops that are best suited to local UK circumstances now and in climates of the future.
Biology and Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Agronomy
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
