From Niche to Noteworthy: A multi-country study on consumer views towards neglected and underutilized crops

Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) are crops that belong to niche agricultural systems, yet they possess desirable benefits both for human consumption and the environment. While the advantages of cultivating NUS seem attractive, there is still little interest among consumers to consume more food from NUS. Hence, the goal of this study was to ascertain the degree of familiarity and perceived benefits among consumers towards a selection of NUS, as well as factors that can potentially drive interest in these commodities. Through a consumer survey of 4802 individuals, this study revealed that consumers were already familiar to some NUS crops while there were other crops that were not as popular. This study also exhibited that consumers generally perceived baked products such as breads to be suitable carriers of NUS ingredients as opposed to packaged soups but geographic variation was observed, as presented by correspondence analysis in mapping country-preferred NUS applications. Furthermore, consumer appreciation of NUS stemmed from their perceived health and environmental benefits while some did not necessarily associate the economic benefits for farmers with NUS crops. Lastly, binary logistic regression showed that environmental beliefs (OR: 3.94) and health and taste attitudes (OR: 5.76) seemed to drive an individual’s curiosity to learn more of NUS, signalling potential consumer psychographics that can initially forward the expansion of NUS consumption.