Dear friends and colleagues,

After 4.5 years at the helm of ICUC, now CFF, it is now time to say good-bye to the many friends and supporters of underutilized crops and the organisation itself. Over the past years, we have been able to raise the profile of underutilized crops worldwide considerably, although a lot more remains to be done. The most important achievement of the past years is the creation of Crops for the Future from a merger of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops and the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species. This new entity will assist in further increasing the profile of underutilized crops for food security, nutrition and health and environmental sustainability. It will be in good and experienced hands with Dr Michael Hermann, the incoming Global Coordinator of Crops for the Future. With the changes in leadership comes also a change in location. From 1 April 2010 onwards, Crops for the Future will be hosted by Bioversity International, at their Regional Office for Asia, the Pacific and Oceania, in Serdang, Malaysia. I wish to take this opportunity to explicitly thank the International Water Management Institute for their cordial hosting of ICUC/Crops for the Future for the past 5 years in Sri Lanka. I also wish to thank the members of the Scientific Advisory Board of ICUC and later CFF Board of Directors: Prof. George Rothschild, Dr Ruth Oniang’o, Dr N.G. Hegde, Mr John Palmer, Prof. Frank Rijsberman and Dr Colin Chartres, for their guidance and support. Last but not least, we could not have managed to achieve what we have without the support of the many research and development partners around the world to whom I say an especially warm thank you.

With best wishes,
Dr Hannah Jaenicke

The new coordinates of Crops for the Future are:

FAO and Bioversity International have developed two nutrition indicators for biodiversity useful to measure biodiversity-related food composition and food consumption of underutilized species (www.fao.org/infoods/biodiversity/index_en.stm).

More information can be found in the document “Specific definition of underutilized species for human consumption”

While reporting upon these indicators, difficulties were encountered in defining underutilized foods. Therefore, FAO and Crops for the Future have developed specific criteria in order to establish the reference list for underutilized foods counting for the nutritional indicators for biodiversity:

Of the following criteria, the first one is compulsory, and several of the others should be met for a species to be included in this list:

• The food was/is/could be used for human consumption.
• May have great potential for contributing to food security and nutrition.
• Mainly local and traditional crops/animals (including insects, amphibians and reptiles) whose distribution, biology, cultivation and uses are poorly documented.
• Receive little attention from research, farmers, policy and decision makers, technology providers and consumers.
• Have weak or no formal seed/animal germplasm supply systems.
• Farmed, reared, gathered or caught in small scale.
• The species must be grown/raised in the country/region where it is underutilized.
  Species that are imported do not count as underutilized in that region.

Furthermore, information on country/region of origin should be given.

These criteria, only intended to be used to report on the two nutrition indicators for biodiversity, should not replace the broad criteria that has been defined for categorizing underutilized species as such (www.underutilized-species.org/spotlight/what_are_underutilized_species.asp).

The integration of these specific criteria and the reference list of underutilized foods counting for food biodiversity will be uploaded on the websites of the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species at www.underutilized-species.org/species/about_species.asp and of the INFOODS at www.fao.org/infoods/biodiversity/index_en.stm.

We would appreciate receiving your comments by email (email hidden; JavaScript is required) within the 20^th March 2010 on both the criteria and the list before publishing them on the websites.

We look forward and thank you!

International Conference held at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh 30-31 March 2010. Please find the Conference Announcement here.