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From fonio and Bambara groundnut to millet and teff, underutilised crops could help diversify diets and food systems. But unlocking their potential depends not only on biodiversity, but also on how well scientific knowledge travels.
More than 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food, yet just nine account for two-thirds of global crop production, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
That imbalance sits at the heart of this year’s World Food Day theme: “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.” If we want more diverse, resilient, and nutritious food systems, making better use of crop diversity has to be part of the conversation.
But if the case for underutilised crops is so strong, why are they still underutilised?
A useful answer comes from 2025 research in South Africa, which examined the value chains for Bambara groundnut, cowpeas, and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes in Mpumalanga. Working with 115 participants, the researchers found that wider use of these crops is constrained by practical barriers including limited storage and processing infrastructure, transport costs, weak market access, and broader value-chain coordination challenges.
In other words, the issue is not simply that these crops exist and should be eaten more often. Bringing them into wider use means overcoming a set of scientific, technical, commercial, and cultural barriers.
Across Africa and beyond, researchers are working on different parts of this challenge, from product formulation to nutritional quality to processing performance.
Some are focused on turning regionally familiar crops into products that can travel more easily into wider markets.
In Nigeria, for example, researchers explored extruded snacks made with acha (fonio), peanut flour, and either carrot or orange-fleshed sweet potato. The study found that different ingredient combinations significantly affected characteristics such as density, expansion, colour, and texture, all of which matter when developing foods consumers will actually want to buy and eat. The broader point is clear: nutritional promise alone is not enough. Crops also need to work as ingredients.
Other scientists are looking at how combining crops can improve both nutrition and functionality. A 2026 study on composite flours found that blending biofortified pearl millet, acha, and Bambara groundnut improved protein content and a number of functional properties compared with cereal-only formulations. The work suggests opportunities for bakery and complementary food applications, while also showing how food scientists are trying to balance nutrition with performance in real food systems.
Researchers are also exploring how locally available ingredients can help address specific dietary needs. In Kenya, scientists developed complementary food formulations using finger millet, orange-fleshed sweet potato, cowpea leaves, and cricket flour. Their work highlights another important dimension of crop diversification: these ingredients are not just interesting because they are “alternative” crops, but because they may help respond to real nutritional needs in locally relevant ways.
To support wider commercialisation, food scientists are working to address a common set of challenges:
improve the nutritional quality of products,
understand processing and functional performance,
develop foods with acceptable texture and sensory properties, and
translate the potential of diverse crops into products that are practical, affordable, and relevant.
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Many of the crops now attracting interest in wider food-system debates have long been cultivated, consumed, and studied in particular regions. That means some of the most relevant scientific knowledge is also concentrated in those places.
To explore this, we searched FSTA for research published in 2025 and 2026 on underutilised crops and their food applications. We then analysed the geographical distribution of the resulting journal articles and reviews, using corresponding-author affiliations to identify where research into different crops was taking place. Some interesting patterns emerged.
Research on fonio/acha is especially associated with Nigeria and Ghana. Bambara groundnut shows a strong concentration in South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria. Teff research is particularly prominent in Ethiopia, while finger millet and pearl millet have especially strong representation from India.
That pattern is not surprising, but it is important.
If scientific expertise on a crop is concentrated in the regions where that crop has traditionally been grown and understood, then wider adoption elsewhere may depend on how effectively that knowledge can travel.
That is not just a question of food culture. It is also a question of scientific culture: where research is published, which journals are most visible internationally, what databases people search, and how easily knowledge from one region can inform innovation in another.
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Based on our FSTA search of research published in 2025 and 2026. The table shows the geographical distribution of the journal articles and reviews retrieved, using corresponding-author affiliations to identify countries.
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Crop
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Records in selected export
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Strongest identified country concentrations
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Fonio / acha
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25
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Nigeria (9), Ghana (3)
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Bambara groundnut
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71
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South Africa (17), Ghana (11), Nigeria (7)
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Finger millet
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117
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India (68), South Africa (11), Ethiopia (7)
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Pearl millet
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119
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India (70), Ghana (4), Brazil (4)
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|
Teff
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58
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Ethiopia (21), India (9)
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Sorghum
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40
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India (16), Ethiopia (5), Nigeria (3)
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Agricultural biodiversity can help support more diverse diets and more resilient food systems. But making better use of that biodiversity depends, in part, on being able to discover and use a diverse body of scientific knowledge.
That is what bibliodiversity is about: recognising the value of research produced across different regions, languages, disciplines, and publishing environments.
For food science, this matters enormously. Research on regionally produced crops may emerge from different scientific and cultural contexts than research on globally dominant commodities. Some of it may appear in regional or specialist journals. Some may be highly relevant to food innovators elsewhere, but less visible if discovery relies too heavily on a narrow set of familiar sources.
Understanding the importance of diverse discovery is why FSTA, our specialist food science and nutrition database, brings together research from sources across 91 countries and in more than 40 languages, with more than 200,000 records added in 2025 alone. That breadth helps support more inclusive scientific discovery across the food, health, and nutrition sciences.
It also aligns with our wider commitment to inclusive access to knowledge, including through our support for the UN’s Research4Life programme.
If diverse nutrition needs biodiversity, then biodiversity can be supported by bibliodiversity.
Learn more about the FSTA partnership with Research4Life.
World Food Day 2026 invites us to think about the innovations that could help nourish the future.
Underutilised crops are part of that story. Not because they are “new,” but because they represent existing agricultural and food knowledge that could be used more fully.
The challenge is not only to recognise their potential, but to overcome the barriers that still limit wider use, from processing and product development to infrastructure, supply chains, and market access.
Food scientists around the world are already tackling these challenges. Making their research easier to discover, connect, and apply can help accelerate innovation with global relevance and support the development of more sustainable and diverse food systems.
The crops that could help nourish tomorrow may already be growing. The knowledge to unlock their potential may already exist. The task is to connect the two.
To mark World Food Day 2026, IFIS Publishing has produced Beyond the Staple: How Food Science is Working to Bring Diverse Crops Into Familiar Foods, an exclusive research trends report for FSTA subscribers.
Drawing on original analysis of FSTA-indexed scientific literature, the report explores how food science research is developing around underutilised crops, including the opportunities and technical challenges involved in bringing them into familiar food products.
Already an FSTA subscriber? Contact IFIS to access the report.
Interested in FSTA? Find out more about FSTA.