With climate change, deforestation and food security being central to the goals of governmental panels and funding agencies, the investigation of underutilised crops is more important than ever.
Underutilised crops…
- are wild or semi-wild species with crop-like traits
- suffer from little investigation and/or do not fulfil their full potential
- have a number of attributes making them worthy of investigation now and for the future.
The CUC prioritises high quality interdisciplinary research into underutilised crops contributing to poverty alleviation in an environmentally-sustainable way. Some of our current and previous targets are:
- Sustainable agriculture (the cross-over 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