About

Importance of Minor Crops

Minor crops are essential to nutrition security, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity. They are often high-value crops that have cultural importance, or are important for trade and economic growth in developing countries. They are also often overlooked in agriculture since they represent less of a percentage of total tonnage and acreage. The Minor Use Foundation serves minor use growers around the world, providing technical assistance and helping set standards that allow them to access international markets.

Annual Report

About the Minor Use Foundation

The Minor Use Foundation (MUF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the goals to refine and implement processes for generating global, regional or national residue data to establish Codex Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) (and/or other national MRLs). This will be achieved via collaborative data generation projects, through engagement with global stakeholders including specialty crop growers, grower groups, governments, universities, non-profit and for-profit organizations. The MUF will establish research priorities and coordinate and educate stakeholders, policy makers, legislators and the public on the value and need of technology for minor uses in specialty crops and solicit support necessary to conduct programs. In addition, the Foundation will sponsor the Global Minor Use Summit meetings, facilitate the Global Minor Use Priority Setting meetings, and coordinate with partners to ensure that data generation, JMPR submissions, and CODEX MRL activities are optimized. The MUF works very closely with the IR-4 Project in the United States, United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS), the Canadian Government’s Pest Management Centre, and other stakeholders to accomplish the goals and objectives associated with the Foundation.

See examples of how activities are determined, funded and actioned based on examples from partner organizations. The actual process will be determined and communicated prior to the September 2020 meeting. Activity Decision Process Examples

• If you would like to learn more about MUF’s research programs, visit our Programs area.

• If you would like to learn more about ongoing MUF’s collaborations, visit our Partners section.