Integrating neglected and underutilized crops (NUCs) in South Asian cropping systems and diets: Challenges and prospects

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2025.100242

Abstract

Abstract:

The present review critically examines the role of neglected and underutilized crops (NUCs) in enhancing the resilience of South Asian cropping systems and diets in the context of climate change and nutritional challenges. This analysis reveals that integrating NUCs, such as millets, sorghums, amaranth, and indigenous legumes, into existing cropping systems can significantly improve the climate resilience, dietary diversity, and ecological sustainability of the food systems. These crops exhibit superior tolerance to abiotic stress and offer higher nutritional density compared to staple cereals, such as rice and wheat. However, their adoption faces challenges, including limited research investment, fragmented value chains, etc. We further identify that complementary cropping strategies and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices can optimize resource use while boosting smallholder farmers’ income. NUCs are pivotal for the transformation of exist cropping systems towards nutrition-sensitive and climate-resilient agricultural and food systems. Strategic integration of NUCs can simultaneously address food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and rural poverty. Yet, unlocking their potential requires coordinated efforts in genetic improvement, market development, and policy frameworks tailored to regional contexts. This synthesis provides a comprehensive roadmap for policy-makers, researchers, and farmers to leverage NUCs as “Future Smart Food”. By bridging agronomic, nutritional, and socioeconomic perspectives, this study highlights the transformative potential of NUCs in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across South Asian countries.

Key words: Neglected and underutilized crops (NUCs), Climate-smart agriculture (CSA), Climate change, Food security, Cropping systems, Dietary diversity, South Asia

Saira SHAFIQ, Muhammad ZIA UL HAQ, Syed Abbas RAZA NAQVI, Wardha SARFARAZ, Hina ALI, Muhammad Majid ISLAM, Gul Zaib HASSAN, Muhammad NAWAZ, Tasawer ABBAS. Integrating neglected and underutilized crops (NUCs) in South Asian cropping systems and diets: Challenges and prospects[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2025, 6(4): 100242.

Figures/Tables 4

Table 1

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Table 2

Fig. 2.

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NUCs	Example	Importance
Cereals and pseudo cereals	Finger millet, kodo millet, foxtail millet, little millet, amaranth, buckwheat, barnyard millet, proso millet, and quinoa	Both livestock and humans can benefit greatly from eating cereals. Millets are an excellent source of calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc, and other nutrients (Hassan et al., 2021). Buckwheat is gluten free and has several essential amino acids (Zhu, 2021). Quinoa is pseudo cereal. It is also gluten-free but contains bioactive peptides, phenols, and flavonoids (Ren et al., 2023). Millets are environmentally friendly, requiring minimal inputs like water and nutrients, and can easily thrive in arid environments, aiding food security and providing economic benefits to smallholder farmers (Saini et al., 2021). Amaranth seeds have many characteristics, such as high tolerance to dryness and poor soils, immunity to heat, drought, and pests, and the capacity to grow in areas where traditional cereal crops fail to thrive (Mir et al., 2018).
Legumes	Adzuki bean, lima bean, rice bean, cowpea, velvet bean, snap bean, sword bean, mung bean, chickpea, lablab bean, and moth bean	Legumes can be used to address the increasing need for vegetable oil and protein for humans. These crops can also be good for soils since they can tolerate intercropping and rotational cropping (Bhadkaria et al., 2022; Ikhajiagbe et al., 2022).
Root and tuber crops	Taro, arrowroot, greater yam, Asiatic yam, tannia, edible canna, elephant yam, mealy kudzu, Chinese yam, yam, and cassava	Root and tuber crops, as primary food sources, have better adaptability to a wide range of soil and atmospheric conditions as well as farming methods with little agricultural inputs, and can bring significant production benefits (Scott, 2021).

Nutritional profile	NUC								Major cereal crop
Nutritional profile	Finger millet	Foxtail millet	Kodo millet	Adzuki bean	Lima bean	Rice bean	Mung bean	Cowpea	Rice	Wheat
Energy (kcal/100 g)	328.0	331.0	309.0	128.0	185.0	451.2	30.0	116.0	345.0	346.0
Protein (mg/100 g)	7300	1230	8300	7520	10,000	17,680	3000	7700	6800	12,100
Fat (mg/100 g)	1300	4300	1400	163	600	19760	200	500	400	1700
Calcium (mg/100 g)	344.00	31.00	2.70	28.00	54.00	47.60	132.00	110.00	10.00	48.00
Iron (mg/100 g)	3.90	2.80	0.50	4.98	3.00	4.50	0.90	8.20	3.20	4.90
Zinc (mg/100 g)	2.30	2.40	0.70	5.04	1.20	0.47	3.30	3.37	1.40	2.20
Thiamin (vitamin B1) (mg/100 g)	0.420	0.590	0.330	1.770	0.507	0.570	0.100	0.200	0.060	0.490
Riboflavin (vitamin B2) (mg/100 g)	0.190	0.110	0.100	0.720	0.202	0.400	0.254	1.800	0.060	0.170
Fiber (mg/100 g)	3600	8000	9800	7300	9000	3000	1800	6500	200	1200