On the World Environment Day, the RADIANT project, led by the Catholic University of Portugal (in Porto), reinforces the importance of production and consumption of underutilized crops for environmental sustainability.

The researchers and project managers, with a European scope, intend to sensitize the community and government entities to the benefits of traditional foods, taking into account their nutritional value, as well as concerns about the current overpopulation worldwide and the possible worsening of the scarcity of foods.

Underutilized crops are a neglected but valuable species that have limited use in every geographic, social and economic context. These crops hold great promise for diversifying agricultural systems, creating resilient agroecosystems, diversifying diets and creating economically viable dynamic value chains for food and non-food uses.

The project works with three categories of underutilized crops – legumes, cereals and vegetables -, some examples are: lentils, different varieties of beans, peas, traditional fruit trees, millet, among others.

The RADIANT project adopts the ‘Theory of Change’ approach, through the exploration of traditional varieties that allow environmental sustainability, promote human health, combining climate neutrality and the resilience of the agricultural system, through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the greenhouse effect.

Other characteristics of these cultures are the prosperity of cultivation systems in hostile environments and poor soils; greater environmental resilience and crop quality from the efficient use of water and essential nutrients, and local growth as a culturally acceptable way of realizing nutritional diversity.

The project has 20 pilot farms, the “AURORA farms”, covering different agro-ecologies across Europe, and where good practices will be tested and demonstrated.

More information can be found on the official RADIANT website, as well as on the project’s social networks: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn e Twitter.