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Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective

Business as usual or transformative change? While the global agro-industrial food system is credited with increasing food production, availability and accessibility, it is also credited with giving birth to ‘new’ challenges such as malnutrition, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. We r...

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Autores principales: Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe, Chibarabada, Tendai Polite, Chimonyo, Vimbayi Grace Petrova, Murugani, Vongai Gillian, Pereira, Laura Maureen, Sobratee, Nafiisa, Govender, Laurencia, Slotow, Rob, Modi, Albert Thembinkosi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7615043/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681213
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11010172
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author Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe
Chibarabada, Tendai Polite
Chimonyo, Vimbayi Grace Petrova
Murugani, Vongai Gillian
Pereira, Laura Maureen
Sobratee, Nafiisa
Govender, Laurencia
Slotow, Rob
Modi, Albert Thembinkosi
author_facet Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe
Chibarabada, Tendai Polite
Chimonyo, Vimbayi Grace Petrova
Murugani, Vongai Gillian
Pereira, Laura Maureen
Sobratee, Nafiisa
Govender, Laurencia
Slotow, Rob
Modi, Albert Thembinkosi
author_sort Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe
collection PubMed
description Business as usual or transformative change? While the global agro-industrial food system is credited with increasing food production, availability and accessibility, it is also credited with giving birth to ‘new’ challenges such as malnutrition, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. We reviewed the potential of underutilized indigenous and traditional crops to bring about a transformative change to South Africa’s food system. South Africa has a dichotomous food system, characterized by a distinct, dominant agro-industrial, and, alternative, informal food system. This dichotomous food system has inadvertently undermined the development of smallholder producers. While the dominant agro-industrial food system has led to improvements in food supply, it has also resulted in significant trade-offs with agro-biodiversity, dietary diversity, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic stability, especially amongst the rural poor. This challenges South Africa’s ability to deliver on sustainable and healthy food systems under environmental change. The review proposes a transdisciplinary approach to mainstreaming underutilized indigenous and traditional crops into the food system, which offers real opportunities for developing a sustainable and healthy food system, while, at the same time, achieving societal goals such as employment creation, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. This process can be initiated by researchers translating existing evidence for informing policy-makers. Similarly, policy-makers need to acknowledge the divergence in the existing policies, and bring about policy convergence in pursuit of a food system which includes smallholder famers, and where underutilized indigenous and traditional crops are mainstreamed into the South African food system.
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spelling pubmed-76150432023-09-07 Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe Chibarabada, Tendai Polite Chimonyo, Vimbayi Grace Petrova Murugani, Vongai Gillian Pereira, Laura Maureen Sobratee, Nafiisa Govender, Laurencia Slotow, Rob Modi, Albert Thembinkosi Sustainability Article Business as usual or transformative change? While the global agro-industrial food system is credited with increasing food production, availability and accessibility, it is also credited with giving birth to ‘new’ challenges such as malnutrition, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. We reviewed the potential of underutilized indigenous and traditional crops to bring about a transformative change to South Africa’s food system. South Africa has a dichotomous food system, characterized by a distinct, dominant agro-industrial, and, alternative, informal food system. This dichotomous food system has inadvertently undermined the development of smallholder producers. While the dominant agro-industrial food system has led to improvements in food supply, it has also resulted in significant trade-offs with agro-biodiversity, dietary diversity, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic stability, especially amongst the rural poor. This challenges South Africa’s ability to deliver on sustainable and healthy food systems under environmental change. The review proposes a transdisciplinary approach to mainstreaming underutilized indigenous and traditional crops into the food system, which offers real opportunities for developing a sustainable and healthy food system, while, at the same time, achieving societal goals such as employment creation, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. This process can be initiated by researchers translating existing evidence for informing policy-makers. Similarly, policy-makers need to acknowledge the divergence in the existing policies, and bring about policy convergence in pursuit of a food system which includes smallholder famers, and where underutilized indigenous and traditional crops are mainstreamed into the South African food system. 2018-12-31 /pmc/articles/PMC7615043/ /pubmed/37681213 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11010172 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe
Chibarabada, Tendai Polite
Chimonyo, Vimbayi Grace Petrova
Murugani, Vongai Gillian
Pereira, Laura Maureen
Sobratee, Nafiisa
Govender, Laurencia
Slotow, Rob
Modi, Albert Thembinkosi
Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
title Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
title_full Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
title_fullStr Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
title_short Mainstreaming Underutilized Indigenous and Traditional Crops into Food Systems: A South African Perspective
title_sort mainstreaming underutilized indigenous and traditional crops into food systems: a south african perspective
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7615043/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681213
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11010172
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