What are “neglected” and “underutilized” species?

In consultation with its partners, Crops For The Future has decided to use the term Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) for species that have most or all of the following attributes:

• Unrealized potential for contributing to human welfare, in particular to:
  • Income generation for the world’s poor,
  • Food security and nutrition,
  • Reduction of ‘hidden hunger’ (caused by the micronutrient deficiencies resulting from uniform diets that rely on a limited number of food sources);
• Strongly linked to the cultural heritage of their places of origin, or of places to which they have been introduced in the distant past;
• Long history of mainly local production or wild species whose distribution, biology, cultivation and uses are poorly documented;
• Adaptation to specific agro-ecological niches and marginal land;
• Weak or no formal seed supply systems;
• Much intra-specific diversity (landraces);
• Traditional and diverse uses and processing that vary locally
• Presence in traditional production systems with little or no external inputs, or collected from the wild;
• Receive little attention from research, extension services, farmers, policy and decision makers, donors, technology providers and consumer
• Nutritional, culinary, medicinal or other properties that are little-known or under-appreciated