How does the decision to cultivate underutilized crops influence food and nutrition security in rural areas?

The neglect in the cultivation, utilization, and diverse edible indigenous crops (ICs) threatens food-nutrition security (FNS) and rural development. Here, we (i) profiled the socioeconomics, ethnobotanicals and factors influencing the decision to cultivate edible ICs among smallholder farmers and (ii) factors influencing the FNS status of the ICs farmers in rural communities in South Africa using descriptive statistics and Heckman's probit-selection model to evaluate the factors influencing the decision to cultivate ICs and FNS. In the study, the household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was 7.01 and the household's food insecurity access scores (HFIAS) was 4.40. In addition, the food security indicator shows that 40.60 % of the participants were food insecure. Taken together, these metrics shows a significant existence of food and nutrition insecurity among the participants. Additionally, the decisions to cultivate ICs among the participants was driven by the household size, access to seeds, produce market, perceived nutritional benefits of the ICs and proportion of land used for cultivation significantly affects FNS status of the participants. Overall, the cultivation of these ICs is important as their cultivation significantly contributed to the FNS of the rural communities. Policy interventions, targeted at improving the present land tenure pattern, awareness on the value of ICs and incentives for production as a means for stimulating wider acceptance, cultivation, and sustainability in South Africa was recommended. • The neglect in the cultivation of diverse edible indigenous plants threatens food-nutrition security (FNS) and rural development in South Africa. • Understanding the factors that undergirds the decision to cultivate and factors influencing the FNS of the indigenous plant farmers is pertinent. • The decisions to cultivate indigenious plants pants was driven by socio-economic factors and perceived nutritional benefits of the indigenious plants. • Policy interventions, targeted at improving the awareness on the value of indigenous plants and incentives for cultivation can drive food sustainability in South Africa.