“Promoting Agri-Food Chain Diversification through Underutilized Crops: Socio-Economic Dilemmas and Policy Solutions” – a workshop successfully held on 26th August 2025 at the University of Bonn, as part of the XVIII European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) Congress. Co-organized by the Horizon 2020 sister projects BioValue and RADIANT, and led by JLU Giessen, the event shed light on the untapped potential of underutilized crops in enhancing biodiversity and resilience within Europe’s agri-food systems.
Selected from a competitive pool of applications, the workshop brought together a diverse group of experts to engage in rich discussions around socio-economic challenges, innovative strategies, and policy solutions for fostering crop diversity.
It featured two rounds of impulse presentations, highlighting real-world case studies from across Europe. It showcased contributions from some of Europe’s foremost agricultural research institutions, including: Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), The James Hutton Institute (Scotland), Wageningen University (Netherlands), and CIHEAM (Greece), among others. Presentations addressed a wide range of key topics—consumer behaviour and market acceptance, value chain development, stakeholder collaboration, sustainability assessments, and innovative adoption strategies.
The first block of impulse talks focused on specific value chain agents and covered the following topics (shortened titles):
- Value Chain Collaboration for Underutilized Crops: Evidence from Italian Farmer
(Simone Piras – James Hutton Institute, UK)
- Biodiversity Strategies Among Retailers in Italy’s Lentil Value Chain
(Luca Mulazzani – University of Bologna, Italy)
- Consumer Insights and Labelling for Underutilized Crops
(Burkhard Schaer – ECOZEPT, France)
- Consumer Response to Underutilised Crops: With and Without Context
(Tareq Mzek – The James Hutton Institute, UK)
The second block of impulse talks focused on aspects concerning whole value chains and covered the following topics (shortened titles):
- From Recipe to Market: A 6Ms Framework for Underutilised Crop-Based Foods
(Amine Zouaghi – MAICh CIHEAM, Greece)
- Potential and challenges of lentils in four European agri-food value chains
(Irina Solovieva – Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany)
- Resilience assessment in value chains processing underutilized crops
(Marie-Fleur Bremaud – Wageningen University, Netherlands)
- A decision support systems for innovation in agri-food business value chains
(Marko Debeljak – Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia)
The impulse talks were followed by an interactive session that actively involved participants through methods such as pinboard brainstorming, index card feedback, and live polling, fostering the generation of concrete insights and actionable recommendations. Through dynamic exchanges and co-creation, around 30 participants from the EAAE Congress discussed the main challenges and opportunities and developed recommendations to mainstream underutilized crops in agri-food systems. The participatory part found that risk sharing among the different value chain actors; raising consumer awareness about the environmental and health benefits of underutilised crops; as well as technical and financial support are the best strategies to promote integration of underutilised crops in value chains.
