From 100 to Four: Favorites in Focus for BOLDER Opportunity Crops

15 Opportunity Crops

At the end of each intensive two-day  workshop, the groups came to a consensus. And after such workshops in four countries, BOLDER had 15 opportunity crops to focus on.

BOLDER is part of the Crop Trust’s BOLD project. The Building Opportunities for Lesser-known Diversity in Edible Resources (BOLDER) initiative launched in 2023 and works with partners in Benin, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda to enhance the conservation, production and consumption of crops that open opportunities for communities.

These include millets, grasspea, Bambara groundnut and an array of traditional African leafy vegetables. They may not be a big deal in global markets, but they are vital for the farmers who grow them. This made the decision to choose four to five per country from more than 100 different possibilities so difficult.

Meet the Crops

Stakeholders in Tanzania prioritized finger millet, Bambara groundnut, moringa, sweetpotato and jute mallow. In Uganda, they selected jackfruit, pearl millet, pumpkin, cowpea and amaranth. Benin's workshop participants identified fonio, jute mallow, sweet berry and Bambara groundnut, while in Ghana, the focus was on turkey berry, baobab, sesame and amaranth. 

Notably, amaranth was prioritized in both Uganda and Ghana, while another local vegetable, jute mallow, appeared in both Tanzania and Benin – chosen for cultural significance, drought tolerance and nutritional benefits.

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT helped organize the meetings in Tanzania and Uganda, while the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) played a key role in assembling participants for the events in Benin and Ghana.

Workshop participants  used a scale from one to three to rate if a crop was highly responsive to the prioritization criteria (one), neutral (two) or not responsive (three).

All scores from all stakeholder groups were then compiled. This led to a score for each crop. The four crops with the highest scores became the BOLDER crops prioritized for each country.

One of the BOLDER initiative partners highlighted the importance of the process: “Preserving neglected crops strengthens food security and empowers communities with resilient, nutritious options for the future,” said Kauê de Sousa, a scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

Capacity Building

As part of BOLDER’s plan to develop the capacity of African researchers, practitioners and food-system actors to enhance the use and value of neglected and underutilized crops, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences – in partnership with Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin – has announced scholarships for eight PhD positions. Starting in 2025, the successful candidates will conduct socioeconomic and agronomic research on opportunity crops in East and West Africa.

In 2024, the Opportunity Crops Knowledge Base for the sustainable conservation, production and use of neglected and underutilized crop species in Africa was also launched. It offers information on these remarkable plant species and their valuable roles in resilient food systems worldwide.

“The project’s stakeholders have taken another important step toward addressing global food insecurity,” says Nora Castañeda-Álvarez, who coordinates the BOLDER Project. “The lessons learned in these four African countries can be applied in other regions of the world to overcome the growing threat of hunger.”