Species to fight hunger and malnutrition

The little millets in South Asia provide nourishing flour that can be mixed with rice flour for longer shelf live and made into healthy snacks. Millets have higher contents than rice or wheat in micronutrients such as calcium and iron, vitamins like niacin, sulphur-containing amino acids and soluble fibres. In addition, these grains have a low glycaemic index, making them an attractive health food.

Species for medicinal use

Artemisia annua is a plant with anti-malaria properties which has been used for over two millennia in Chinese traditional medicine. Each year, there are over 500 million cases of malaria worldwide; over 1 million deaths are directly linked with malaria, 90% of the dead are children. At present, neither the efficacy nor potential associated risks of Artemisia products have been fully studied but with synthetic products unaffordable for most of the rural poor, people revert to herbal drugs. The potential of Artemisia and other species has generated much interest and they have recently become the focus of attention by Western research and international agencies such as the WHO. Several locally-made products have been recently released. In the first quarter of 2006 alone, a 2-month electronic discussion forum dedicated to Artemisia was moderated by the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), and at the same time a workshop was held about herbal anti-malarials by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

Species for income generation

There are a myriad of tropical fruits such as Annona sp. (soursop, sweetsop, cherimoya etc.), Aegle marmelos (beli), Feronia limonia (wood apple) or Choerospondias axillaris (lapsi) that can be processed by small-scale entrepreneurs into juices, jams, candy etc. and sold in community shops or local super markets. Dhammika Perera is a Sri Lankan who currently earns Rs. 50,000 (USD 500) a month from his fruit processing enterprise – more than half of the family income. He started his new enterprise after he attended an ICUC training course on processing and marketing of underutilized crops in 2004. He now employs 10 staff to supply the demand for his products. Because Dhammika’s business has increased the demand for fresh beli, wood apple and soursop, local producers have increased their household income too.