Commentary [Volume 22 No. 3 (2022)]

Prof Roger RB Leakey rogerleakey@btinternet.com www.rogerleakey.com

The future of food - Africa adopting a new research agenda for better forms of smallholder farming.

A review just published in Sustainability (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2355) presents recent advances in the development of new crops from 59 indigenous African trees producing edible fruits, nuts and leaves. From next to nothing in the 1990's, over the last 10 years over 750 research papers have been published in 318 science journals by 532 local research teams from 37 African countries in partnership with authors from 30 European, America, and Asian countries. This mainstreaming of ethnobotany in farming systems is aimed at resolving food insecurity, poverty, land degradation, social injustice and climate change by the promotion of farming systems diversified with perennial crops that create new business and employment opportunities in local communities. As this review explains, the initiative underpins the sustainable re-booting of tropical agriculture and advocates to the international community that 'African Lives Matter'.