African Orphan Crops under Abiotic Stresses: Challenges and Opportunities

Table 2

Diverse types of benefits related to orphan African crops.

Beneficial trait	Crops	Reference
Agronomy-related
Drought-tolerant	African rice, bambara groundnut, cassava, cowpea, enset, Ethiopian mustard, grass pea, pearl millet, tef, yam	[10–16]
Waterlogging tolerant	Tef	[17]
Salinity-tolerant	Sorghum (moderately tolerant)	[18]
Heat-tolerant	Cow pea, pearl millet	[19]
Adaptation to poor soil	African rice, cassava, cowpea	[12, 14, 19]
Early maturing (drought escape)	African rice, amaranth, fonio	[12, 13]
Erosion control (fast ground cover)	Cowpea	[20]
Disease tolerance	African rice, Ethiopian mustard, tef	[12, 16, 17]
Pest tolerance	African rice, Ethiopian mustard, tef	[12, 16, 17]
Nutrition-related
Complete food (protein, carbohydrate, fate)	bambara groundnut	[13]
Rich in essential amino acids	Amaranth, bambara groundnut, cowpea, finger millet, fonio, grass pea	[10, 12, 13, 21]
Rich in iron	Banana, fonio, tef	[12, 22]
High vitamin A content	Banana	[23]
High oil content	Noug [Guizotia abyssinica (L.f.) Cass.]	[24]
Health-related
Gluten-free	Tef, millets	[25, 26]
Low glycemic index	Finger millet	[27]
Anticancer property	Millets	[28]