Orphan Crops Hackathon

Most of the research pursued by plant scientists in low- and lower-middle-income countries addresses challenges that directly affect people and local livelihoods, such as climate change, food security and preservation of biological diversity. Yet, these research efforts have often received limited attention by the scientific community, industry and governments. This is even more evident in research involving neglected or underutilized crop species, also known as orphan crops. Orphan crops are crops that are locally or regionally grown, with less international trade and therefore see little or no attention in terms of research, agricultural training and extension. Despite their key roles in the food and nutritional security and livelihood of resource-poor farmers, especially women, and consumers in the regions they are cultivated, these crops have lagged behind conservation and improvement efforts compared to major crops.

The ARN-OCP workshop is based on the PlantBiology 2021 Meeting’s two overarching goals, “plants empowering bio-economies” and “bringing the best plant science from a global audience to a global audience”. In particular, the workshop has the following objectives: 1) to highlight ongoing breakthroughs on orphan crops research and potential avenues for product/commodity processing with these crops; 2) to increase awareness on research conducted by scientists in LMIC; 3) to promote collaborations among different stakeholders interested in orphan crops: scientists, breeders, industry partners, agricultural extension specialist, farmers, communities.