For centuries, people in Asia and the Pacific have been growing and consuming a wide variety of highly nutritious food crops, including native and wild varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, fishes, and other foods found in the mountains, forests, or bodies of water, or grown on community farms and gardens. Smallholder family farmers have been the custodians of these species and their biodiverse systems.
However, modern agriculture, aiming to achieve immediate profits, encourages the use of commercial seeds and crops instead of native ones. “Since the 1900s, farmers worldwide have abandoned many of their traditional crops in favor of even more genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties. Today, over half the world’s plant-based nutrition comes from just 3 crops: corn, wheat, and rice” (GFAR, n.d.).
As many communities moved away from producing indigenous foods, many of these crops have disappeared from the production chain and are now close to being forgotten. These crops are referred to as “neglected and underutilized species” by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as well as “forgotten foods” and “minor crops”. According to the FAO, “these crops are often overlooked by policymakers, researchers, and extension agents. In fact, governments rarely allocate resources for their promotion and development. That results in farmers planting them less often, reduced access to high-quality seeds, and loss of associated traditional knowledge” (FAO as cited in GFAR).
Some of these forgotten foods include pseudo cereals (grain amaranth, buckwheat, and chenopods), small millets (finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, kodo millet, and barnyard millet), underutilized grain legumes (rice bean, moth bean, adzuki bean, faba bean, horse gram, and winged bean), tuber crops (taro, cassava, sweet potato, yams, potatoes), minor fruits (jackfruit, custard apple, jewish plum, ber, and tamarind), seabuckthorn, red gram or pigeon pea, and sorghum.
Moreover, the underutilization of native food crops also resulted in the changing of people’s food habits. “Our ecosystem biodiversity is threatened, and people are malnourished” (GFAR, n.d.).
These forgotten foods are crucial for their multiple environmental, economic, social, and nutritional benefits. Many forgotten indigenous foods “have the power to combat hunger and malnutrition, respond to climate change, promote biodiversity, improve rural livelihoods and support healthier and more secure food systems” (GFAR, n.d.) “Adding new species to our diets can result in better supply of particular nutrients, i.e. essential amino acids, fiber, proteins. Neglected and underutilized crops also provide economic and environmental benefits. Farmers can grow them on their own, as part of crop rotation systems, or inter-plant them with other crops, protecting and enhancing agro-biodiversity at the field level. Having a bigger number of species to choose from in a crop rotation system allows farmers to have a more sustainable production system. By changing species in a crop rotation system, the cycle of some pests and diseases is disrupted and probabilities of infestations are reduced” (FAO as cited in GFAR, n.d.)
Due to their multiple benefits, it is important to revive traditional agriculture and reintroduce and reproduce these neglected species and varieties of indigenous crops.
In celebration of International Women’s Day (March 8), the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and La Via Campesina (LVC) invites female members of the farmers’ organizations under the Asia-Pacific Farmers Program (APFP), Farmers Organizations for Asia (FO4A), and Assuring Resiliency of Family Farmers Amidst COVID-19 (ARISE-Farmers) to join the “Women Ensuring Food Security and Nutrition: Forgotten Foods Cooking Contest”. In this cooking contest, the challenge is to prepare native dishes that will highlight the use of forgotten indigenous/native/heirloom food crops as one of the main ingredients.
OBJECTIVES
This activity aims to:
- Raise awareness on many forgotten native or indigenous food crops and promote the production and consumption of these crops;
- Recognize the role of farming communities, in particular women farmers, as keepers and conservators of indigenous crops;
- Recognize the role of women in promoting nutrition in their households by integrating native foods into local cuisines;
- Highlight the nutritional value of forgotten indigenous foods;
- Showcase the rich biodiversity of Asia and the Pacific;
- Put into the spotlight the exquisite native cuisines and food cultures of Asia and the Pacific; and
- Boost the visibility of APFP-FO4A on social media.
WHO CAN JOIN
- Women farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, forest users, herders, pastoralists, etc.
- Must be a member of a farmer group under the APFP, FO4A, and ARISE platform (as certified by the National Farmer Organizations (NFO) and National Implementing Agency (NIA))
MECHANICS
Selecting and preparing the dish
1. Within your farm or village, identify native/traditional/heirloom/wild food crops that are neglected and underutilized but have high nutritional value and are climate resilient. Choose at least one of these crops that you will be using for this contest. It can be a root or tuber, a leafy vegetable, a fruit-bearing vegetable, legumes (beans, peas), etc.
2. Think of an innovative and appetizing way to prepare this food crop. It can be in the form of a meal, snack, salad, soup, dessert, pastries, etc. You can invent a new recipe or follow a traditional method of cooking the food crop.
If you use a recipe that is published in a book, magazine, or online, you will need to give credit to the original publisher of the recipe.
3. Write down the name of the dish/meal, the necessary ingredients (e.g., name of the vegetable, cooking oil, salt, spices, etc.), and the step-by-step preparation instructions. Write the recipe in your local language with an English translation. Use the template below.
| Name of the dish | |
| List and amount of ingredients | |
| Preparation instruction |
4. Prepare all the ingredients and the cooking utensils and equipment.
Cooking the dish
1. Take a video of yourself preparing the ingredients and cooking the dish.
2. In the first part of the video, briefly describe your recipe and the ingredients. You can include the origins or history of the ingredients, their health benefits, taste, etc.
Follow this structure for the video:
- Short description of the recipe
- Preparing the ingredients
- Cooking the dish
- Showcasing the final product
3. In the video, make sure to highlight the native ingredient/s used in your recipe.
5. In explaining the preparation and cooking processes, you can speak in your native language but you have to add an English subtitle.
6. Make sure that the female farmer participant/s is/are also visible in the video.
7. Once done, you can edit the video to shorten it or add simple effects such as short text descriptions. The final video should be a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 5 minutes.
8. Send your entry to afairish@asianfarmers.org and asiapacificfarmers@gmail.com which includes the following:
- Typewritten recipe in your native language with an English translation in word format. If you prefer to write your recipe in English, there is no need to submit a recipe written in your native language.
- A minimum of 3 photos of yourself doing the preparation and cooking.
- Your video entry in mp4 format
9. The deadline for submission of entries is on 31 December 2022.
Notes:
- Participants can send an entry as an individual or as a group. If joining as a group, it should be all-female.
- There is no limit to the number of entries from each organization or country.
- Videos depicting racism, violence, or other inappropriate content or messaging deemed to advocate curtailment of the rights of others will be disqualified.
To sponsoring organizations (NFOs) or national implementing agencies (NIAs), provide assistance in:
- Translating the recipe into English, if needed
- Adding English subtitles to the video, if needed
- Editing the participants’ video entries, if needed
- Sending the participant’s entry consisting of the following:
– The recipe
– Good quality photos of the participant/s while doing the preparations and cooking
– Video entry
HOW THE WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED
The winners will be judged according to the following criteria:
Category 1: Exceptional Recipe
- Originality and creativity – The recipe is from your local cuisine or can be an original creation and utilizes forgotten indigenous foods from your community.
- Nutritional value – The dish is nutritionally well-balanced.
- Appetizing appearance – Plating, design, and presentation of the final product
- Commercial viability – The dish has a potential for commercialization.
Note:
- The participant must follow the required content of the video and strictly follow the mechanics
- To be decided by a jury consisting of international partners
Category 2: Popularity
Number of likes, views, and shares on YouTube and Facebook
- Each YouTube vote will be counted as 2 votes
- Each Facebook vote will be counted as 1 vote
- Open for public voting
AWARDS
Grand Winner – USD 500
1st Runner-Up – USD 300
2nd Runner-Up – USD 200
Social Media Favorite – USD 100
Winners can claim their award after submitting a farm or agribusiness plan.
__________
Information Sharing Consent and Copyright
By entering the competition, I acknowledge and guarantee that the submitted entry is an original work created solely by the entrant and that it does not infringe on copyrights; trademarks; and the rights of privacy, publicity, or intellectual property rights of any person or entity.
I hereby agree to the AFA photographing and/or recording me and give permission to the AFA to use any material in the photographs and/or recordings where the copyright or any other rights are owned by me; confirm that the AFA shall be entitled to use, free of charge, the photographs and/or recordings made of me (without having to identify me by name), in their original format or edited, adapted or altered, for the purposes of the AFA internal and external promotional and publicity materials and for any programmes, publications, websites, regular electronic publications and social media services and agree that the AFA shall be entitled to pass the photographs and/or recordings of me, and my name, to external press and media agencies, publishers and broadcasters, and to partners and other third parties with which the AFA works, anywhere in the world, for the purposes set out in this consent.
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