The development of underutilized species has been perceived as a potential alternative to alleviate these problems. The success story of yacon, a formerly underutilized plant species, in Brazil, for instance, inspires this conviction (Weber, 2003). The term "underutilized plant species" covers an enormous range of plants that have the potential to contribute to food and nutritional security, and poverty alleviation. Nowadays, about 7,500 plant species are considered edible. Yet, global food security is increasingly based on a narrowing range of animal and plant species. For example, 95 per cent of the world's food energy needs is provided by just 30 plant species and 50 per cent of the requirement for protein and calories is met just by maize, wheat and rice (Bordoni, 2005).

However, there are many inhibiting factors that restrict the wider use of underutilized species. From a socio-cultural perspective, domesticated species are historical products that are embedded in culture and even shape culture. Widening the diversity of human alimentation involves changing cultural habits and requires prolonged efforts. From an economic perspective, the agro processing industry and large-scale distribution enterprises have progressively acquired such market powers that they today impose standardized products on consumers. As a result they shape our tastes and preferences and shrink the natural food base diversity in the name of economies of scale and immediate profit. In addition, the dominance of the western consumption pattern that has developed from more limited biodiversity limited to the continental/Mediterranean ecosphere, further narrows the diversity of the diet. Besides, and related with this trend, agricultural research has also traditionally prioritized only a few dominant plant species, placing less or no attention on the allegedly "underutilized" , neglecting their potential.

As poor people living in marginal areas usually grow most of these crops, they represent an opportunity for poverty alleviation. Developing niche markets for these crops is often presented as the basic approach (Bourgeois, 2005). However, this strategy entails two major constraints related to its contribution to poverty alleviation. Firstly, to enter a niche, producers need capital, information, communication skills, access to market, and infrastructure for processing. Unfortunately, most poor farmers lack these requirements, a fact that usually makes them unable to extricate themselves from the grasping clutches of poverty. Secondly, a niche market is by definition limited to a small quantity of products and a small number of consumers and thus, of producers. The overall impact of even a few successful niche markets on poverty at the national or world levels would be limited and unlikely to meet the MDG 1 objective. As such, is there nothing that can be done to turn underutilized crops into an opportunity for the rural poor?

Actually, poverty alleviation is a public moral obligation, in other words, reducing poverty is not merely a decision based on exclusively economic criteria. Fighting poverty has gained substantial support from international organizations and governments, at least on paper, but this must then support and facilitate the access of the poor to niche markets for products based on underutilized plant species.

There are many ways in which this can be achieved. Policies and actions can prioritize the poor and marginal areas by making use of niche markets. These policies can be in the form of incentives to the buyers of products produced by the poor or entry-barriers for non-poor farmers. They also must be comprehensive, including capital provision, market information, institution-building and investment in infrastructure development to support poor farmers' products based on underutilized plant species. Reorienting agricultural research and development activities towards resource-poor populations in marginal areas and underutilized plant species is another aspect of a more inclusive strategy for rural poverty alleviation. With this renewed focus on the problems and situations related to how the rural poor may take advantage of niche markets, not only will the contribution of underutilized species to poverty alleviation be enhanced, but also the overall conditions under which the rural poor struggle to improve their lives, and that is development. The question is whether we have a strong enough commitment to make it happen?.

Written by Robin Bourgeois and Wayan R. Susila, IS/DB Programme Leader and Staff, Respectively, UNESCAP-CAPSA, Bogor, Indonesia.

(References available upon request)