Challenges in developing value of chains of minor crops

Description

The ‘Minor Roots and Tubers Fostering Agrobiodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (ROTATES) project aims to sustainably enhance agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services, i.e., the various benefits that humans derive from ecosystems, by introducing and promoting starchy root and tuber crops, considered as minor crops and currently underutilised in Europe. The crops considered for improving in the project are sweet potato, cassava, taro and yam (hereafter MRTs). The purpose of this piece is to highlight the challenges of expanding MRTs and why this needs to be done in a value chain context (i.e., there is the need to build or expand the sequence of productive activities for those crops that go from farmers to their final customers being these consumers or animal producers).

Subject

Orphan crops, minor tubers and roots