Journal article
Enhancing farmers' access to neglected crop seeds for healthy diets in a changing climate: six recommendations for policy action
Food Security, Vol.18, pp.839-852
2026
Abstract
Food insecurity and poor diets undermine human health, livelihoods, and aspirations. Climate change further exacerbates the problem of achieving zero hunger. Promoting the production of a diverse portfolio of nutrient-dense, climate-resilient crops enables food supply for healthy diets in the coming years and decades. Many are underutilized even though they are considered opportunity crops, with an unrealized potential to improve food security and dietary quality amid climate change. Limited access to quality seed for these crops is a major bottleneck in their supply, as the current policy environment does not support farmers in broadening their portfolio with these crops. This paper identifies three key challenges that should be addressed to enable farmers to access quality seed of opportunity crops at scale. These are to make the diversity of opportunity crops (i) a priority for policy (ii) available for evaluation and breeding, and (iii) accessible to farm-ers, especially women and other disadvantaged groups. Six policy actions are recommended to address these challenges, which, if implemented, are likely to have both short- and long-term impacts in increasing farmers' access to quality seeds of opportunity crops. Adopting these policy actions will help mainstream opportunity crops into seed systems as part of a broader strategy to diversify food systems from seed to plate.
Details
- Title
- Enhancing farmers' access to neglected crop seeds for healthy diets in a changing climate: six recommendations for policy action
- Authors
- Maarten Van Zonneveld (Corresponding Author) - World Vegetable CenterNora P. Castaneda-Alvarez - Global Crop Diversity TrustEnoch G. Achigan-Dako - Université d'Abomey-CalaviConny Almekinders - Wageningen University & ResearchStef De Haan - International Potato CenterWilson Hugo - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsGloria Otieno - Alliance Bioversity International - CIATRodomiro Ortiz - Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesJessica E. Raneri - University of the Sunshine CoastCarolina RoaLouise Sperling - SeedSystem (United States)David Spielman - International Food Policy Research InstituteEric von Wettberg - University of Vermont
- Publication details
- Food Security, Vol.18, pp.839-852
- Publisher
- Springer Dordrecht
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1007/s12571-026-01661-w
- ISSN
- 1876-4525
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Grant note
- MvZ received financial support from BMZ commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusamme through the Fund International Agricultural Research, grant number: 81275070.
- Organisation Unit
- Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991229282502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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