Agrifood Chains and Sustainable Development

With increasing urbanization, the commercialization potential for underutilized food resources grows and business opportunities along value chains arise. Parallel we observe low diversity in diets and further manifests of the triple burden of malnutrition. In the larger context of the sustainable development goals the talk takes a food systems perspective and traces how food chains evolve at the example of underutilized food resources in East Africa. The talk identifies business opportunities for women in emerging food value chains and factors shaping integration of emerging food crops into diets. The talk concludes by questioning the implications of value chain emergence for conservation of the underlying resource base.