Characteristics and socioeconomic performance of neglected and underutilized plant species (NUS) production systems in Burkina Faso

Abstract Agricultural systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are often characterized by low agrodiversity and high vulnerability to climate change, both of which can compromise food security and livelihoods. Many neglected and underutilized plant species (NUS) are known for their nutritional value and climate resilience, presenting a potential solution to conserve agrodiversity and contribute to local livelihoods and food security. However, NUS is commonly used as an umbrella term, obscuring potential differentiation between NUS systems in terms of their characteristics and socioeconomic performance. Here we characterize NUS production systems in three regions of Burkina Faso, a country experiencing food insecurity, poverty and arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, where many local communities rely on NUS for their food and livelihoods. We conducted 432 in-person surveys with households cultivating NUS on farms and/or collecting from the wild. Using principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis we identify three distinct NUS production systems: NUS cultivation on farms predominantly for market sales (Cluster 1), NUS collection from the wild predominantly for market sales (Cluster 2), and NUS collection from the wild predominantly for self-consumption (Cluster 3). Through propensity score matching we identify that households in Cluster 1 had better socioeconomic performance compared to the other two clusters across all five income and food security variables considered here. However, there are no significant differences in the socioeconomic performance of Clusters 2 and 3. Our results indicate that: (a) NUS systems are not homogenous but can have a high degree of differentiation; (b) NUS are not solely emergency resources during severe food insecurity periods, (c) many NUS producers exhibit strong market orientation. Such findings can provide nuance in the current debates on whether and how can NUS provide promising alternatives to the other more widely produced crops in SSA.