Dr. Mahmud A. Duwayri elaborated on the "Alternative Crops and Cultivars for New Opportunities", which is one of the Programme Entities/Projects of the Crop and Grassland Service of the Plant Production and Protection Division of FAO. Referring to the rationale of the Entity/Project he mentioned that there are about 150 crop species which have already received attention from breeders and commerce and have evolved through human intervention into widely cultivated species. Of these, 10-15 produce half of the world's food and materials. This evolution is, understandably, led by the nations with the most resources and is basically for their own and more stable high input and often subsidized systems. Novel technologies in emerging crops, cultivars, protected agriculture and cropping systems need to be made available to and tested in developing countries, where farmers have a need for stabilization of their specific agro-environments particularly through establishment of suitable species and high-value cultivars with food, feed, fuel, fiber and pharmacological potential. The identification of alternative crops and improved technologies would aim at providing a comparative advantage within a given agro-ecological and socio-economic context. Sustainable intensification of agriculture without further degradation of natural resources remains a challenge.
Risk reduction through diversification (related to climatic and biotic vagaries, particularly in fragile ecosystems and commodity fluctuations) by expanding locally adapted or introducing novel varieties and related production systems, will contribute to improved food security and income generation for resource poor farmers and protect the environment. Small family farms will not be able to increase their total income to acceptable levels with the production of staple food crops as these are invariably of low value for the farmer/producer. To increase income the farmer needs a higher value product that can be obtained by adding value to primary or secondary products. Fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, flavourings, natural colourants, medicinal plants and others all offer an opportunity for farmers to produce higher value products. Nevertheless, introducing new crops on their own is unlikely to be successful as the whole technological and commercial package needs to be introduced at the same time. Hence, this technical project is based on the introduction of alternative crops with production, processing, marketing technology and nutritional information. The project is closely related to the Special Programme on Food Security as 80 percent of the world's poor live in fragile ecosystems. FAO's multidisciplinary approach and global networking capacity can identify and match new crops and novel cultivars and their production systems to targeted isozones and their peoples for both extensive and intensive applications. A continuing review of technology advance in existing and "new" crops is a pre-requisite and has to be based both on indigenous and international knowledge.
The objective of the Project is the broadening of the crop and cultivar knowledge base for better use of the plant density in support of crop diversification options into targeted eco-zones in relation to food and income security targets and market opportunities.
The major outputs are:
a) Integration of fragmented knowledge on lesser-known plants with localized and/or international potential as crops.b) Assessment and promotion of high-value crops for distinct agro-ecological environments.
c) Introduction to and expansion of palms to Africa.
d) Technology transfer for integrated greenhouse crop production and protection management.
