About this Research Topic
The world is facing unprecedented challenges. Despite all the scientific and technological advances, we are still far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of “Zero Hunger”. The situation is going to be worse in the coming years due to climate change, increasing population, and diminishing as well as deteriorating agricultural resources. Besides, there is a need to ensure nutritional security as well for a healthy and disease-free population. The only solution is to improve the climate resilience of our major staple crops while also promoting the diversification of modern diets with healthy and indigenous alternatives. Orphan crops are perfect for ensuring the food and nutritional security of the global population in this era of unpredictable weather and limited agricultural resources. In addition, the genetic diversity of these crops can provide important insights for making the major staple crops more tolerant of the looming threat of climate change.
This Research Topic envisions orphan crops solving many challenges within humanity. Through diversification of food resources, orphan crops can overcome nutritional deficiency and ensure the future food security of communities around the globe. However, the lack of domestication limits the yield and nutritional potential of these orphan crops. Despite progress in recent years, only a few orphan crops have been the focus of research. More indigenous crops need to be improved for better agronomic traits. In addition, orphan crops are a treasure trove for agricultural scientists to design climate-smart crops. Novel stress tolerance mechanisms of these orphan crops can be a guide for improving the stress tolerance of major crops. Hence, this Research Topic aims to promote research on the various indigenous orphan crops for future food and nutritional security.
This Research Topic aims to explore many aspects of orphan crops, with a focus on food and nutritional security. Hence, we encourage authors to submit research that covers the following themes (but not limited to):
• Improvement of agronomic traits in indigenous orphan crops.
• Exploring the genetic diversity of orphan crops to decipher complex traits.
• Modern tools and techniques that can be used to speed up the domestication of orphan crops.
• Discovering the nutritional superiority of indigenous orphan crops.
• Discovering the extreme stress tolerance strategies of orphan crops for survival in extreme weather conditions.
• Multi-omics analysis of orphan crops for better physiological insights.
• Effects of diversification of food sources using indigenous orphan crops.
Since most of the orphan crops are from developing and under-developed countries, this Research Topic encourages research submissions from these countries.
This Research Topic envisions orphan crops solving many challenges within humanity. Through diversification of food resources, orphan crops can overcome nutritional deficiency and ensure the future food security of communities around the globe. However, the lack of domestication limits the yield and nutritional potential of these orphan crops. Despite progress in recent years, only a few orphan crops have been the focus of research. More indigenous crops need to be improved for better agronomic traits. In addition, orphan crops are a treasure trove for agricultural scientists to design climate-smart crops. Novel stress tolerance mechanisms of these orphan crops can be a guide for improving the stress tolerance of major crops. Hence, this Research Topic aims to promote research on the various indigenous orphan crops for future food and nutritional security.
This Research Topic aims to explore many aspects of orphan crops, with a focus on food and nutritional security. Hence, we encourage authors to submit research that covers the following themes (but not limited to):
• Improvement of agronomic traits in indigenous orphan crops.
• Exploring the genetic diversity of orphan crops to decipher complex traits.
• Modern tools and techniques that can be used to speed up the domestication of orphan crops.
• Discovering the nutritional superiority of indigenous orphan crops.
• Discovering the extreme stress tolerance strategies of orphan crops for survival in extreme weather conditions.
• Multi-omics analysis of orphan crops for better physiological insights.
• Effects of diversification of food sources using indigenous orphan crops.
Since most of the orphan crops are from developing and under-developed countries, this Research Topic encourages research submissions from these countries.
Keywords: orphan crops, genetic diversity, sustainability, food and nutritional security, climate resilient agriculture
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
