Water Wheel Jan/Feb 2021: Underutilised Crops

Abstract

Underutilised crop species offer options for drought mitigation in South Africa The Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems (CTAFS) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) was established to contribute to building resilient and sustainable healthy food systems, with a focus on rural resource poor households. This derives from a realisation that rural resource poor households remain vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity, which is being worsened by challenges of climate change. In South Africa, there has been an increase in the occurrence and severity of extreme weather events such as floods, heat stress and more importantly, drought. The latter weather phenomenon has been accompanied by poor rainfall distribution, late start of the season, early cessation of the rainy season and extreme temperatures. For agriculture this means poor crop productivity and significant yield losses.

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