Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

Modern agro-industry, on the one hand, dominated by energy- and carbon-intensive production methods and monocultural production accounts for a significant part of GH emissions, destroys ecosystems, decreases agrobiodiversity and the overall resiliency of the agricultural system. On the other one, it leads to unhealthy diets causing obesity in ‘developed’ countries, while a significant part of the world population remains undernourished.

The most evident impact of agro-industry on agrobiodiversity is that the current food system is organized around a limited number of crops (mainly wheat, rice and maize), (Khoury et al., 2014). To improve biodiversity and to create more resilient agricultural systems, the ongoing European RADIANT (Realizing Dynamic Value Chains for Underutilised Crops) project aims to unfold evidence and to explore good practices to reintroduce/integrate underutilised crops (UC-s) into food, feed and non-food value chains. Underutilised, undervalued or forgotten crops are less common species, landraces or varieties with limited use, production and consumption but holding great nutritional and environmental potential.

UC-s are often more adapted to local environments, more resilient against extreme climates, and their nutritional value is potentially higher compared to conventional and more widespread crops, especially in the case of legumes or heritage cereal crops. UC-s could contribute to diversifying agricultural systems, climate change mitigation, increasing the resiliency of agricultural production, and developing healthier and sustainable diets (Pinto et al., 2022).

The limited use of UC-s is the result of their lower productivity which makes their production economically inefficient within the current socio-economic system. Further challenges to promote UC-s cover the undervaluation of their environmental benefits, unavailable seed supply, lack of knowledge and technologies for processing; unmatched supply and demand; their unrecognized nutritional value and lack of recipes (Balázs et al., 2021). In summary, the social, economic and the political context are all create unfavorable conditions for these environmentally so valuable varieties.

Within the RADIANT project, through in-depth, interpretative policy analysis (Yanow, 2006), based on case studies across Europe and experimenting UC-s with the participation of farmers, we aim to identify leverage points which would allow to move forward a more diverse and resilient agri-food system. Our preliminary analysis revealed that seed sovereignty, citizen-science cooperation, participating in producer-processor partnerships and engaging various actors along the value chain are key factors to integrate UC-s in the value chain. Participating in consumer-producer, citizen-science and in other networks can provide resiliency against the vulnerability to the market and policy challenges.

Info

Day: 2023-08-30
Start time: 10:00
Duration: 00:45
Room: ZV-8-4
Type:
Theme: Resilience building through degrowth

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