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Links and Initiatives

This page provides an overview of selected international and regional efforts that contribute to the conservation, research, and sustainable use of opportunity crops. It brings together organizations, research programmes, and collaborative networks that share a commitment to promoting agrobiodiversity, nutrition, and climate-resilient food systems.

The initiatives are presented in alphabetical order for ease of browsing. Each entry includes a brief description and a link to the corresponding website or resource. Please note that some links may change over time or become temporarily unavailable.

This list is not exhaustive. We welcome suggestions for additional initiatives, networks, or resources that align with the objectives of the Opportunity Crops Knowledge Base.

A

African Crops Alliance

The African Crops Alliance (ACA) is a global partnership of organizations working across Africa's food systems, with a special focus on forgotten and underused crops that have the potential to enhance food security and reduce hunger. The alliance offers a development pathway by connecting smallholder farmers, government agencies, private companies, research institutes, financial groups, and philanthropic organizations. ACA aims to break down silos and create a shared vision and comprehensive strategy for the growth and commercialization of overlooked and underutilized African crops. Currently, its focus is on three crops: fonio, Bambara groundnut, and baobab.

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Africa Manifesto and Plan of Action on Forgotten Foods

This publication, issued by GFAR and FARA, highlights the importance of neglected and underutilized species and presents a program of recommended actions and a way forward.

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African Orphan Crops Consortium

The African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) aims to achieve greater integration of orphan crops into African food systems. Its goal is to sequence, assemble, and annotate the genomes of 101 traditional African food crops to support their genetic improvement. After sequencing the genomes, AOCC investigates genetic diversity in detail using a ‘germplasm’ panel for each crop.

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African Seed and Biotechnology Program

The African Seed and Biotechnology Program is a continental program that frames the development of the seed sector in Africa. Developed under the auspices of the African Union with substantial support by the Food and Agriculture Organization, it is designed to contribute toward agricultural transformation, economic growth, food security and nutrition and overall prosperity in Africa. The Program has a specific activity area focused on underutilized crops and varieties.

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African Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan

The African Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan aims to combat hunger, malnutrition, poverty and climate change by preserving and utilizing Africa's vegetable biodiversity. This initiative, aligned with global and regional policies, focuses on rescuing and conserving diverse vegetable species across sub-Saharan Africa, ensuring their active use by farmers and researchers. The initiative is led by the World Vegetable Center.

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Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is a broad coalition of various civil society actors involved in the struggle for food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa. This includes African farmers’ organizations, African NGO networks, specialized African NGOs, consumer movements across Africa, international organizations that support AFSA’s position, and individuals. Two of its main principles are advocating for small African family farms and production systems based on agroecological and indigenous methods and resisting the industrialization and commodification of African agriculture and food systems.

One of its campaigns in 2022, “My Food is Africa”, focused on healthy diets and resilient food systems and served as a catalyst for tangible change, advocating for the intrinsic value of traditional and indigenous foods.

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Andean Initiative

The Andean Initiative is a regional innovation platform aimed at conserving the unique agrobiodiversity of the Andes, encouraging healthy diets, and building a climate-resilient future. It seeks to promote the sustainable use of agrobiodiversity to support development based on local resources, address climate change—mitigation and adaptation—in extreme environments, and reshape the region’s food system through healthier dietary options.

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ASEAN-CGIAR regional program

CGIAR has been collaborating with the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Member States, and various funding and partner organizations to develop a multi-year research and innovation program. This program aims to create bold, integrated solutions for three key issues: increasing the resilience of the food system to climate change, promoting sustainable and equitable transformation of the food system through circular economy principles, and supporting regional recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vision over the next 10 years is to scale up and expand bold, integrated innovations that will make ASEAN agrifood systems more resilient to climate change while providing better livelihoods for food producers and stakeholders along the value chain, as well as more affordable, nutritious, and healthy food for consumers and a healthier natural environment for all.

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C

Cambridge Global Food Security

Cambridge Global Food Security is a virtual center at the University of Cambridge. It aims to promote an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the challenge of ensuring that all people have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times, meeting their dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthy life.

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Centre for Underutilised Crops

The Center for Underutilised Crops at the University of Southampton, UK, prioritizes high-quality interdisciplinary research into underutilized crops contributing to poverty alleviation in an environmentally sustainable way. Some of their current and previous targets are:

Sustainable agriculture (the crossover between crop improvement and socio-economics)
Ecosystem services (the economic value of indigenous species and habitats)
Climate change: crop acclimation and adaptation
Climate change: carbon sequestration and biofuels
Health and social development
Infrastructure and economic development

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Climate, Land, Agriculture, and Biodiversity (CLAB-Africa)

The Climate, Land, Agriculture, and Biodiversity (CLAB-Africa) project is an initiative by Future Africa (University of Pretoria) hosted under the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems (ARUA-SFS). CLAB-Africa aims to create a platform for Africa’s scientific community to support the developmental efforts of African governments and institutions with science-based, actionable recommendations across four key clusters:

climate impact on food systems,
land restoration and biodiversity,
people-animal-ecosystems health and wellbeing,
land-water-energy resources use.

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Climate Resilient Orphan croPs for increased DIVersity in Agriculture (CROPDIVA)

CROPDIVA aims to reintroduce six underused arable crops back in the fields: oats, hull-less barley for human consumption, triticale, buckwheat, faba beans, and lupins. Findings will offer innovative solutions throughout the entire food and non-food supply chains to promote biodiversity management at all levels, including diversifying the use of genetic resources, crop production systems, new food and non-food products, and market opportunities, all while meeting the needs of producers and consumers.

The project started in September 2021 and concluded in August 2025.

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Community Technology Development Trust

The Community Technology Development Trust advocates for integrated agrobiodiversity management, environmental stewardship, food and seed security, water and sanitation, and policy and advocacy initiatives to promote sustainable livelihoods.

The Trust’s agriculture program focuses on traditional and indigenous crop varieties, including opportunity crops, in Zimbabwe and southern Africa.

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Consumption of Resilient Orphan Crops for Products for Healthier Diets (CROPS4HD)

CROPS4HD aims to enhance food security and nutrition for smallholder farmers, especially women, through sustainable use and conservation of farmers’ varieties and landraces, as well as neglected and underutilized species, while respecting agro-ecological approaches.

The project is active in Chad, Niger, Tanzania and India.

A second phase was launched in July 2025, running until June 2029.

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Contribution of orphan crops in building resilient cropping systems in the era of climate change in Manyoni District – Tanzania (Or-Crop)

The study aims to evaluate the contribution of orphan crops to sustainable and healthy traditional and mixed food systems, assess farmers’ willingness to adopt the production of the selected orphan crops, and examine the profitability along the chosen orphan crop value chains.

The project started in June 2023 and will run until July 2026.

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CROPeth – Climate-Resilient Orphan crops Project

The principal focus of this project is to diversify the farming system in northeast Ethiopia by introducing drought-tolerant crops such as enset and chickpeas, aiming to improve the resilience of farming communities against climate change-related food insecurity.

Project activities began in April 2025 with focus-group discussions with farmers to gain a comprehensive understanding of current agricultural practices, especially in introducing enset and optimizing chickpea-sorghum cropping systems.

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Crops for the Future

Crops for the Future is committed to promoting the broader use of underutilized crops to enhance food security and support sustainable agriculture. Its goals are:

To secure a greater role for underutilized crops in global agriculture, especially in developing regions of the world.
Through research, provide trusted knowledge on underutilized crops.
With partners, establish a global research community on underutilized crops.
From outputs, deliver innovative and useful products from underutilized crops.
By actions, develop evidence-based, sustainable applications using underutilized crops for society and environment.

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Crops for the Future Research Centre

The Crops for the Future Research Centre was founded in 2011 to support research for the Global Crops for the Future organization. It is a joint initiative backed by the Malaysian government and The University of Nottingham in Malaysia. In 2015, the £26 million state-of-the-art “domes” were completed, becoming the Crops for the Future Research Centre.

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F

Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement collaborates with scientists and stakeholders worldwide to develop tools, technologies, and methods for crop improvement that address local needs and emphasize community impact. Orphan crops, including legumes and millets, are a primary focus.

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Food for Humanity Initiative

The F4Hi is a multidisciplinary collaborative network that brings together people and projects focused on food systems research, teaching, policy, and programming from across Columbia University and beyond. It leverages expertise in areas like climate, environment, agriculture, health, and nutrition, which are some of the most important sectors of the global food system.

“Cross-cutting flagship areas” include “Food systems and climate data network”, “Sustainable city food systems” and “Harnessing opportunity crops for climate and nutrition resilience”.

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Forgotten Crops Society

The Forgotten Crops Society is a group of researchers and academics from different backgrounds who have decided to come together to enhance awareness about under-researched crops so that they can be brought back into the agricultural production systems and reintroduced (or at least not abandoned) and commercialized within communities.

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Formulating Value Chains for Orphan Crops in Africa

This multidisciplinary project, which ran from April 2017 to August 2019, aimed to bridge the supply-side research being done on orphan crops in Africa with the demand-side (e.g., food firms, consumers), to ensure impact on multiple fronts (e.g., poverty, health, sustainable growth, food security).

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FSPN-Africa

The stated mission of FSPN-Africa—Food Security for Peace and Nutrition-Africa—is to “deliver sustainable food and nutrition security for peaceful coexistence across Africa by promoting partnerships with other stakeholders to support youth and women in agriculture.” Its vision is of “A sustainable food system in Africa where all communities live in harmony.”

Indigenous, neglected and underutilized crops are a central part of FSPN-Africa’s work.

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Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets (FRESH)

The CGIAR Initiative on Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets, also known as FRESH, aims to use an end-to-end approach to increase fruit and vegetable intake, thereby improving diet quality, nutrition, and health, while also enhancing livelihoods, empowering women and youth, and mitigating environmental impacts. The initiative has a strong focus on traditional vegetables, many of which are NUS, and food systems.

FRESH’s focus countries—Benin, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania—were chosen for their low fruit and vegetable intake, existing strong partnerships, and government interest in transforming food systems and reducing malnutrition.

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P

Pacific Vision for Adapted Crops and Soil (PACS)

PACS was officially launched on 27 May 2025 in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on the margins of the 4th Pacific Week of Agriculture and Forestry.

In the foundational phase, regional consultations will be held to select approximately 20 crops that are priorities for investing in, focusing on nutrition, potential for adapting to climate change, and potential for improving soil health.

Country-level assessments will be conducted in three pilot countries to identify existing work and knowledge, determine where further investment is needed to address gaps or strengthen connections between areas, test approaches for closing these gaps, and develop an investment framework to mobilize resources for accelerating research, development, deployment, and adoption of these crops.

Paepard-The Society for Underutilized Legumes

The Society for Underutilized Legumes, in its effort to support CGIAR-IITA activities, advocates for including Bambara groundnut as one of the opportunity crops for global promotion and utilization, recognizing its potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and climate resilience. The main goal is to better understand how Bambara groundnut can be used to support human and animal health, while also considering its impact on a sustainable environment in Africa and worldwide.

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Periodic Table of Food Initiative

The Initiative aims to provide standardized data on the biomolecular composition of 500 foods that are representative of global consumption, including several neglected and underutilized crops. This will significantly expand our collective understanding of the food we eat. An initial dataset featuring 500 foods with supporting metadata on food biomolecular composition represents the first and most comprehensive food composition data ever created based on standardized food biomolecular analysis, which can reveal more than 20,000 components found in food.

The aim is to promote affordable, sustainable and culturally relevant diets that help to improve health, address chronic disease and manage the food system's impact on our planet.

The Initiative is also launching Food EDU, an open-access educational platform for scientists, policymakers and food and health practitioners worldwide. Food EDU will provide online courses, global case studies and other educational and professional development opportunities.

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Promoting sustainable conservation and utilization of neglected and underutilized species in Ghana

The agricultural team (LNV) of the Dutch Embassy in Ghana partnered with NUS Ghana and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT to establish a pilot community seedbank in Ghana to promote the conservation and utilization of NUS. The seedbank focuses on preserving the diverse crops in the region, including root and tuber crops, cereals, legumes, and fruit trees in the Akwapim North District of Ghana.

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S

Smart Food

The Smart Food initiative aims to mainstream climate-resilient and nutrient-rich crops such as millets, sorghum, and legumes, as they benefit consumers, farmers, and the planet. The initiative is led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and guided by a global executive council comprising partner organizations, including the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF). The initiative emphasizes sorghum, millets, and a few legumes, such as pigeon pea and groundnut.

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Stanford Center on Food Security and the Environment: Orphan Crops

The project examined the role of orphan crops in regional food security, with implications for national and international breeding programs and the impacts of future climate change on orphan crops and plant genetic resources. Its dual goals are to guide future conservation efforts for plant genetic diversity and to provide a clearer understanding of the effects of climate change on food security.

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Strengthening capacities and informing policies for developing value chains of neglected and underutilized crops in Africa

Running from 2014 to 2016, this project aimed to build capacity and foster an enabling policy environment in Africa for developing stronger value chains for NUS that contribute to better food and nutritional security, income, and the mitigation of climatic, agronomic, and economic risks. It focused on three countries—Benin, Kenya, and Zimbabwe—and two crops—Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) and amaranth (Amaranthus spp.).

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Strengthening sorghum and millet value chains for food, nutritional and income security in arid and semi‑arid lands of Kenya and United Republic of Tanzania (SOMNI)

The Strengthening Sorghum and Millet (SOMNI) project aimed to improve the value chains of these resilient climate-smart crops in Kenya and Tanzania to enhance food, nutritional, and income security for households in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) by promoting improved production, post-harvest management, and market access. The project focused on building on past efforts by fostering commercialization, using dryland legumes to complement millets and sorghum, and incorporating climate-resilient agricultural practices and technologies.

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Supporting nutrition-sensitive agriculture through neglected and underutilized species: Operational framework

IFAD has developed an operational framework and a series of practical “How‑to Do” guides (five thematic notes) for integrating NUS into nutrition-sensitive agriculture and domestic/export value chains

Five How to Do Notes accompany the NUS Operational Framework:

The How to Do Notes offer recommendations on practical methods, approaches, and tools for the use-enhancement of NUS in both the design and implementation of IFAD-funded projects to support more nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Sustaining and improving local crop patrimony in Burkina Faso and Niger for better LIVES and ecosystems (SUSLIVES)

Funded by the European Union and carried out by both national and international partners, SUSTLIVES aims to assist Burkina Faso and Niger in transitioning toward sustainable and resilient agricultural and food systems, especially considering expected climate changes in the area. Key activities include raising awareness about traditional, nutrient-rich species and promoting their use in diets and value chains as sources of income, particularly for women and youth.

The goal is to create more resilient and flexible farming and seed systems by exposing farmers to a broader range of crops, increasing their firsthand knowledge of different traits (nutrition, taste, drought resistance, etc.), and improving their ability to save and access high-quality seeds or planting materials.

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Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative

The Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative – SIANI – is a global, open, and inclusive network that promotes and supports multisector dialogue and actions centered on our vision of sustainable, rights-based, and inclusive food systems.

SIANI’s overall vision is a future where “food systems are more sustainable, rights-based and inclusive of smallholder farmers and marginalised groups.” SIANI’s mission is to “support and promote multisector dialogue and action around food systems transformation”, in Sweden and globally, with participation from academia, the private sector, public authorities and civil society. Their network offers an open and interactive platform for exchange on global issues around food systems, agriculture and poverty reduction.

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