The European Horizon 2020 project RADIANT has reached its formal conclusion, culminating in a highly productive review meeting held today. Coordinated by Universidade Católica Portuguesa, the project brought together 29 partners across 12 countries (including FAO) and mobilised a broad, multi-actor network of researchers, value-chain actors, farmers, and consumers.
Through four years of research and practical pilots, RADIANT – Realising Dynamic Value Chains for Underutilised Crops has delivered a rich portfolio of outputs, including over 40 open-access scientific publications, twenty AURORA pilot farms, participatory tools (“Agrobiodiversity Toolbox”), an inventory of underutilised crops (UCs), a data warehouse platform, and a detailed policy recommendations repository. With pilot farms, participatory farmers and multi-actor approaches across 12 countries, the project generated context-sensitive lessons for adaptation in diverse agro-ecologies (including Hungary).
The final review meeting reaffirmed RADIANT’s core mission – to unlock the full value of underutilised and genetically diverse crops, making them more competitive and supporting EU strategies for sustainable agrifood chains, while fostering synergies between production and ecosystem services.
Several major insights emerged for policy-makers, value-chain actors and stakeholder networks:
• Agrobiodiversity should be considered a strategic asset. The project underlined how UCs can strengthen resilience in agri-food systems, diversify diets, reduce dependence on a narrow set of crops, and deliver environmental co-benefits.
• Dynamic value chains (DVCs) are enabling structures for underutilised crops. DVCs facilitate open information flows among producers, processors, transporters, marketers, and consumers, thereby creating resilient and adaptive chains for UCs.
• Policy enablers are needed. Our analysis also highlighted that existing policy frameworks (e.g., seed marketing regulations, CAP subsidies, market access, and labelling) often limit the scaling up or deep scaling of UCs. Strategic policy windows exist but are underexploited.
• Tailored incentives are available for decision makers. The project developed the “Policy Incentive Repository” and other co-developed tools to assist policy actors in designing interventions that support UC production and consumption.
As a partner in the RADIANT consortium, ESSRG has contributed to and now inherits a wealth of evidence and tools that can be harnessed for the food policy agenda. With the completion of RADIANT, the consortium is entering the legacy phase, promoting the uptake of the tools, continuing networking through the UC-Cluster, and ensuring knowledge dissemination to farmers, value-chain actors, and policymakers. For ESSRG, this means integrating RADIANT’s outputs into upcoming policy engagements, translating key findings for diverse audiences, designing tailored pilots (e.g., underutilised crops in urban-peri-urban food systems), and leveraging the multi-actor approach to foster more collaboration.
Our journey toward diversified, resilient, and equitable agrifood systems continues.