Raw Organic Amaranth Grain In A Bowl With Wooden Spoon Raw Organic Amaranth Grain In A Bowl With Wooden Spoon

Harvest for Health

The Harvest for Health initiative aims to accelerate development of underutilized crops.
Generating Food Systems Solutions
The Harvest for Health initiative aims to accelerate development of underutilized crops.

Program Contact

Constance Gewa
Cgewa@foundationfar.org

Partnerships & Development Contact

Carmen Ruiz
cruiz@foundationfar.org

About Harvest for Health

The Harvest for Health Initiative aims to accelerate the development of underutilized crops and to increase the diversity of nutritious foods in the marketplace.

Many nutritious, resilient crops remain underutilized, contributing to poor dietary diversity and health outcomes. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), with support from the RF Catalytic Capital, launched the Harvest for Health Initiative to accelerate development of underutilized crops.

Introducing new and exciting nutritious foods with various tastes and flavors will expand the food and agriculture industry’s consumer base and contribute to our food system’s health and environmental sustainability. While underutilized crops have incredible functional and nutritional potential, the development of such crops for consumption or use in other products is prohibitively expensive and time intensive.

The Harvest for Health Initiative consists of two distinct phases.

Harvest for Health Phases

Phase I: Breakthrough Crop Challenge

  1. Phase I focuses on a concept note for building a predictive model to identify underutilized crops with properties of interest to food and ingredient companies.
  2. Phase I consists of two parts:
    • Part 1: Seed Funding
      • Phase I focuses on a concept note for building a predictive model to identify underutilized crops with properties of interest to food and ingredient companies.
    • Part 2: Predictive Model and Validation
      • Part 2 focuses on developing and validating predictive models that effectively identify underutilized crops with properties of interest to food and ingredient companies.

Phase II: Commercial Development of Select Crops

  1. Phase II uses the developed predictive model to prioritize underutilized crops for commercial development based on their potential for increased public and private investments.

Awarded Grants

FFAR Program Aims to Catalyze Development of Underutilized Crops, India

Year Awarded  2023

FFAR award amount   $74,997

Total award amount   $74,997

Location   Telangana, India

Program   Harvest for Health

FFAR Program Aims to Catalyze Development of Underutilized Crops, Davao del Sur, Philippines

Year Awarded  2023

FFAR award amount   $58,950

Total award amount   $75,650

Location   Davao City, Philippines

Matching Funders   UPSTREAM

Grantee Institution   University of the Philippines Strategic Research and Management Foundation, Incorporated (UPSTREAM)

FFAR Program Aims to Catalyze Development of Underutilized Crops, England

Year Awarded  2023

FFAR award amount   $65,813

Total award amount   $65,813

Location   London, United Kingdom

Program   Harvest for Health

Grantee Institution   International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

See all Harvest for Health Awarded Grants

The Latest

Insights

Our Insights highlight unique perspectives from across the food and agriculture community.

See all Insights

Illuminating Pest Management with the Help of the Washington State Wine Commission 

Alexa McDaniel

FFAR Fellow, Washington State University

National Nutrition Month: FFAR’s Bold Solutions Addressing Food Insecurity 

Headshot of CGEWA member.

Dr. Constance Gewa

Senior Program Director

Engineering Beneficial Bacteria to Improve Human Health 

FFAR Fellow, Echo Pan

The Map of Food: Why We Need a World Atlas of What We Eat 

Nancy Brown

Every Day is Indigenous Peoples’ Day 

Dr. Kim Paul, Dr. Kristin Ruppel

Founder of the Piikani Lodge Health InstituteProfessor of Native American Studies in the College of Letters and Science and director of MSU’s Native Land Project

PIP is Pioneering Indoor Agriculture Collaborations 

Portrait of John Reich.

John Reich, Ph.D.

Scientific Program Director Bolstering Healthy Food Systems

Feedback Loops & Food Access 

Portrait of Gwen Donley.

Gwendolyn Donley

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

News

The latest news and updates from FFAR.

See all News

Funding Opportunity Drives Innovation & Commercialization in Sustainable Packaging for Specialty Crop Exports 

FFAR Grant to Improve Sorghum & Strengthen Nutritional Security 

Advancing Circular Bioeconomy with Biomass Feedstocks 

Student Teams Combat Climate Change 

FFAR & NWO Launch Greenhouses in Transition & Welcome Proposals 

FFAR Accepting Applications for Harvest for Health Breakthrough Crop Challenge 

FFAR Grant Unites Urban Agriculture Operations to Increase Food Security 

Researchers Investigate the Promise of Food Procurement 

Pairing Regenerative Farming and Solar Energy Production to Improve Urban Resilience 

FFAR Announces Harvest for Health Prize Criteria 

FFAR Grant Develops Premium Strawberry Flavors for Indoor Growing Environments 

FFAR Program Develops Underutilized Crops 

FFAR & Schmidt Futures Release Report to Advance a Circular U.S. Bioeconomy 

Grant Aims to Reduce Food Waste 

FFAR, NPB Seek to Improve Air Quality on Pig Farms 

FFAR & WUR Launch Nature-Based Future Challenge 

FFAR Grant Tackles Peanut Allergy 

FFAR Grant Advances Equitable Food Access 

FFAR Grant Addresses Food Waste Reduction Challenges 

FFAR-Funded Periodic Table of Food Initiative to Standardize Food Analysis 

Breakthroughs

Tools, technologies and strategies from the research we fund.

See all Breakthroughs

Loyalty Shopper Card Intervention Creates Behavior Change 

Breakthrough for Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Increased Fiber, Same Great Taste 

Breakthrough for Increasing Dietary Fiber in Wheat Crop

Connecting Growers & Markets 

Breakthrough for FFAR Grant Develops Tools to Predict Consumer Demand, Reduce Food Waste

Want to do more to support our pioneering research?