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Underutilized climate-friendly African legumes: food, nutritional and health-promoting aspects
G. DUODU (1), A. Minnaar (2). (1) University of Pretoria, Department of Food Science, Pretoria, South Africa; (2) Department of Food Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Climate change is a topical issue and there is a growing awareness of its potential effects on food security. A major portion of the most food insecure populations reside in the sub-Saharan African region which is also vulnerable to some of the extreme symptoms of climate change such as severe flooding on one hand and drought on the other. A wide variety of legumes are important food sources in Africa. Examples of such legumes include cowpeas, Bambara groundnuts and marama beans. A major feature of such legumes is the fact that they are drought-tolerant and therefore may be regarded as climate-friendly legume crops. Another significant feature of these legumes is the fact that they are greatly underutilized in comparison with other well-known legumes such as the common bean. Taking the looming crisis of the adverse effect of climate change on food security into consideration, these underutilized climate-friendly legume crops could be expected to play a pivotal role in combating food insecurity in Africa. This paper will discuss the potential of underutilized legumes such as cowpeas, Bambara groundnuts and marama beans as strategic climate-friendly crops in Africa by highlighting their food uses, nutritional value and health-promoting properties.
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