There are different approaches and frameworks for the assessment of sustainability
in agriculture and food systems, but only a few of them focus on crops. This gap is
even more evident when it comes to the so-called neglected and underutilised
species (NUS). To bridge this gap, the present paper describes an approach for the
assessment of the environmental, social and economic sustainability of NUS
developed within the project SUSTLIVES (Sustaining and improving local crop
patrimony in Burkina Faso and Niger for better lives and ecosystems). The
indicators identified through a literature review, based on the Web of Science, have
been integrated with other indicators used for sustainability evaluation in the agri-
food sector. Based on that, a sustainability assessment approach (list of indicators,
evaluation methods and units; scoring system and mode of aggregation of scores;
reference crops for the selected NUS) was developed. Then, two workshops were
organized in Niamey (January 2023) and Ouagadougou (February 2023) to validate
the sustainability assessment approach. The validated sustainability assessment
matrix contains 27 indicators divided into different themes covering the three
dimensions of sustainability: environmental (environmental integrity, agronomic
performance and productivity), social (cultural importance and relevance,
nutritional quality and diversity, employment, equity and accessibility) and
economic (competitiveness, profitability). A scoring system was proposed for each
indicator; from 0 (unsustainable) to 10 (very sustainable) with 5 corresponding to
the sustainability benchmark value. Besides sustainability assessment, the developed approach allows selecting the NUS with the highest potential in view of
their promotion and the development of their value chains.

orphan crop, NUS, indicator, scoring system