.svg "ca22146 - harnessing the potential of underutilized crops to promote sustainable food production (diversicrop)")
DIVERSICROP’s main aim is to build an interdisciplinary network that will develop a new pathway to promote underutilised crops by identifying and sharing a harmonised dataset.
DIVERSICROP will tackle the challenges outlined above by:
i) engaging with historical data to develop an understanding of the cultural and socio-political challenges and opportunities.
ii) identifying and harmonising data on crop science, nutrition and policy to foster interdisciplinary knowledge-exchange.
iii) providing a model for organising interdisciplinary research, in this case anchored around specific crops and climatic regions.
Project funding:
EU COST Programme
Project results:
With population growing rapidly and within the context of agro-climatic changes, there is an increased demand to sustainably produce nutritious food. In Europe, many nutrient-dense foods are not widely grown and consumed, despite their suitability to European climates and environments, and viability for sustainable production with lower inputs. Underutilised crops that are stress resilient such as rye and legumes, have the potential to supply key nutrients and improve diets and risk of diet-related diseases. Such crops have a long history of cultivation across the continent and are part of the national historic food identity of different European countries yet are underutilised due to several complex reasons. DIVERSICROP addresses these challenges using an innovative, cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach by analysing the deep history of underutilised crops in Europe, understanding the genetic diversity and adaptation to climate change of crop germplasm, analysing current regional trends in the consumption of food products and by involving
national and EU policymakers and key stakeholders to revive diverse crop production and maximise the impact of Europe’s agricultural sustainability. DIVERSICROP aims to harmonise fragmented data and develop strategies for the sustainable cultivation of target crops, striking a balance between agricultural sustainability and human nutritional value. DIVERSICROP brings together a skilled and interdisciplinary
network to identify climate-resilient crop lines, and potential nutritional and health benefits of their consumption to rethink our food systems.
Period of project implementation: 2023-10-17 - 2027-10-16
Project partners: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, North Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom
