Neglected Plants in Need of Attention - the Role of "Opportunity Crops"

If you’ve never heard of jute mallow, you’re not alone. Virtually unknown to farmers and consumers in Europe, this short bushy plant – also known as African Spinach or corchorus - produces shiny, jagged, dark green leaves. Native to Africa, its leaves contain a secret: they turn slimy when cooked. For consumers in West Africa, this is a prized trait with jute mallow the basis for the Beninese staple dish crincrin, a thick, vibrant green soup containing seafood, beans and spices. If crincrin isn’t really slimy, it simply isn’t crincrin.

The sliminess of jute mallow isn’t just a culinary quirk - it may also come with health benefits. Some studies suggest its mucilage helps with digestion and has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and cholesterol-lowering properties. And the plant’s appeal doesn’t stop there: its raw leaves outshine ordinary spinach in potassium, vitamin C, and protein, and beat both spinach and kale in terms of calcium and iron. In the field, jute mallow is a powerhouse too: fast-growing (ready in just 30-60 days from planting), highly tolerant of heat, drought, and poor soils, and requiring little to no fertiliser, irrigation, or pesticides.

So why have so few people in Europe heard of it?

Quite simply, jute mallow is one of the almost 7,000 edible plants that exist beyond the fringes of a global food system that is dominated by three key staple crops: rice, wheat, maize. These crops account for more than 50 per cent of our plant-based calorie intake, and for good reason: high in carbohydrates, they’ve received decades of attention from policymakers and scientists, and billions of dollars in research funding to make sure they are productive, resilient, easy to harvest, easy to store, and more. They have become huge global commodities, grown on every continent except Antarctica. In many ways, they are a success story in humanity’s fight against hunger. But their dominance has crowded out other often more nutritious and resilient plants from farms and diets.

“Researchers have spent decades trying to perfect a handful of crops to feed the world - now it’s time to extend the table,” says Dr Maarten van Zonneveld, Head of Genetic Resources at the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, which hosts the world’s largest public genebank for vegetables. “But there are thousands of resilient, lesser-known plants that have been quietly nourishing communities for generations, from leafy greens to ancient grains. With the support of researchers, governments, donors and the private sector, it’s time to give these plants a chance to shine.”

This includes jute mallow, one of many “opportunity crops” gaining attention for their ability to help farmers respond to emerging challenges in nutrition, climate change resilience, and sustainability - particularly in Africa, but elsewhere too.

Previously referred to as neglected or underutilized species, the new nomenclature confers a sense of optimism and untapped potential  They include the hardy pseudocereal amaranth, a distant cousin of quinoa, valued for its iron-rich leaves and protein-packed grain; drought-tolerant finger millet; Bambara groundnut, a climate-smart legume that grows in poor soils and provides a balanced source of protein and carbohydrates; okra, rich in fiber and antioxidants; protein-rich mungbean, which also improves soil fertility through nitrogen fixation; and moringa, prized for its medicinal properties and vitamin-rich leaves.

Many of these are traditional crops that have been displaced by the global staples. But recent research awarded with the National Academy of Science’s Cozzarelli Prize showed that opportunity crops have significant potential to support agricultural communities to adapt to climate change with nutrient-dense foods. (1) They also strengthen local ecosystems by bringing crop diversity onto farms - and because they’re locally adapted, farmers often need less fertiliser or fewer pesticides to grow them. In Africa, many are also produced and sold by women, who play a central role in conserving traditional vegetable varieties and passing on knowledge across generations.

Seizing the opportunity

Unlike the globally traded staples supported by decades of international research, opportunity crops are typically products of their local environments. While this often limits their availability, it also means they’re highly adapted to local conditions - a significant advantage as farmers face the growing pressures of climate change. Opportunity crops might be able to tolerate or repel particular pests and diseases, low-nutrient soils, or long periods of drought having co-evolved alongside them for generations. In fact, they often outperform staple grains in terms of nutrition and profit. And as crincrin consumers in Benin will tell you, they are often culturally important too.

But due to their history of neglect, opportunity crops face a major constraint: there’s no proper system to ensure farmers can consistently get hold of good-quality seeds. Most just keep seeds from their own plants or trade with neighbours or at their local market. That makes these crops - though full of promise - hard to rely on.

To produce reliable seed, breeders first need something to work with: a diverse, well-conserved seed collection. That’s where genebanks come in. These range from simple community facilities, where seeds might be stored in old plastic bottles on shelves, to sophisticated international genebanks like the one van Zonneveld manages at the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, which looks after thousands of samples of opportunity crops.

These advanced facilities store seeds under strict temperature and humidity controls, as part of international genebank standards. They conserve a wide range of plant types - from wild relatives and farmer-developed varieties (called landraces) to modern improved varieties bred for traits like yield or disease resistance. But if a crop - or its wild or traditional forms - is missing from these collections, it’s much harder for scientists to study or improve it. That’s why filling the gaps in genebank collections of opportunity crops is key to unlocking their potential.

In recent years these some of these gaps have been filled, for example by Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) and the Germany-funded Choose, Grow, Thrive project. This latter project worked with over 2,000 farmers and a various local seed enterprises in Benin and Mali to evaluate varieties of jute mallow, amaranth, and okra to scale quality seed of these crops to improve the supply of these crops to local markets. This project ended 31^st of December 2024.  It was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) commissioned and administered through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Fund for International Agricultural Research (FIA). 

Recent studies show that the lack of quality planting material of these vegetables is a major constraint to increase food supply alongside limited market availability, diminishing knowledge on these crops.

It means that today around 2,500 distinct types of jute mallow are conserved as seed in genebanks, with the largest and most diverse collections housed at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin and the WorldVeg genebanks in Benin and Tanzania. Most are landraces - traditional varieties handed down through generations of farmers - alongside a smaller number of wild relatives. Over 400 farmers in Benin and Mali tested local vegetable varieties, revealing clear differences in yield, leaf shape, and flowering - offering strong potential for breeding climate- and market-adapted crops.

Yet despite this rich diversity, jute mallow has seen just two improved varieties developed by researchers, compared to more than 1,000 for rice. Breeding new crops takes time, investment, and a sustained research pipeline, something jute mallow is yet to enjoy. But the opportunity is clearly alive and well: farmers and schools participating in TAVI in Eswatini identified jute mallow as one of the most promising vegetables for inclusion in school meals, being easy to grow, resilient, tasty, and nutritious.

Acts of recognition

Unlocking the potential of opportunity crops also depends on how the international community prioritises and shares them. Ask most crop conservation experts, and they’ll point to one big bottleneck: the UN’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture - better known as the Plant Treaty. This global agreement between over 150 countries prioritises 35 major food crops and 29 forage crops (used to feed livestock) for collection, conservation, and exchange with genebanks at the heart of the action. The list – contained in the Treaty’s Annex 1 - includes familiar names like wheat, maize, barley, soybean, lentil, chickpea, potato, and carrot.

The Treaty was designed to help countries share seeds, cuttings and roots of these priority crops so they can be studied, improved, and used to strengthen food security worldwide. And the system has worked well: since 2002, over 4 million samples of Annex 1 crops have been exchanged globally, giving them a huge boost in terms of research funding and scientific attention. But only around 0.5% of shared samples come from crops outside the Annex, leaving a long list of opportunity crops stuck on the sidelines. (2) Van Zonneveld is among many experts now calling for the UN to expand the Annex.

“There’s no doubt we’ve made huge progress with a few major crops, but now we need to bring more of the world’s edible diversity into the spotlight,” he says. “It’s high time to diversify the portfolio, recognize the treasures we’ve been overlooking, and give opportunity crops the boost they need.”

And that brings us back to jute mallow - a reminder of just how much potential is out there, even if it is green and slimy. With a bit more attention - and a lot less neglect - opportunity crops like this could play a much bigger role on farms, in markets, and on plates. Crincrin is just one dish in one country; the possibilities go far beyond.

References:

1) van Zonneveld, Maarten, Roeland Kindt, Stepha McMullin, Enoch G. Achigan-Dako, Sognigbé N’Danikou, Wei-hsun Hsieh, Yann-rong Lin, and Ian K. Dawson. "Forgotten food crops in sub-Saharan Africa for healthy diets in a changing climate." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120, no. 14 (2023): e2205794120.

2) van Zonneveld, M., Castañeda-Álvarez, N.P., Achigan-Dako, E.G., Almekinders, C., de Haan, S., Hugo, W., Otieno, G., Ortiz, R., Raneri, J., Roa, C. and Sperling, L.J., 2024. Improving healthy diets in a changing climate. Policies for mainstreaming the inclusion of neglected ‘opportunity crops’ in seed systems.