RADIANT

ReAlising DynamIc vAlue chaiNs for underuTilised crops

RADIANT was approved under the SFS-01-2020 subtopic c: From Agrobiodiversity to Dynamic Value Chains. 

A suite of strategic and fully inclusive multi-actor engagement methods are realised in RADIANT via Dynamic Value Chains (DVCs), to co-develop solutions and tools promoting agrobiodiversity in the form of underutilised crops (UCs). RADIANT characterises DVCs as ’a system-state where open information sharing among all value-chain actors allows resilient adaptation to disruptions and sustainable economic development’. In RADIANT, desired system-level states such as crop diversification, environmental and agrobiodiversity preservation, and fair economic development will be monitored and mapped to identify and implement the necessary transformation avenues that foster agrobiodiversity in educational, financial, technological settings; and effectively provisions UCs to farmers’ fields and consumers’ tables. This will be achieved via complementary work packages to: identify, collect, and multiply the genetic resources of core UCs for breeding and farming; widen UC recognition by capturing their ecosystem services; enhance their processing by co-creating novel food and non-food products; invite stakeholders and aspiring participatory farmers into a capacity-building, mentoring-network to trial, test, and embed UCs in sustainable DVCs; co-create Apps and ‘UC-Transition Diaries’ to record their transformation; and engage stakeholders to co-design policy instruments, and deliver a decision support tool to create sustainable avenues for DVCs. In sum, the RADIANT approach will empower value chain and policy actors to promote the uptake of UCs in farming, processing, manufacturing, and retailing practices. Our research group at PlantStressLab is mainly involved in phenotyping UCs (namely, tomato landraces) for abiotic stress resilience. For more info, visit https://www.radiantproject.eu/