Leafy Greens like Mutthi Saag Are Ideal For The Poor

Leafy greens like mutthi saag come in handy for poor people to meet their nutritional requirements

- Shalini Dhyani

A large proportion of India’s rural population, particularly those living in remote areas, are not able to produce enough foodgrains to meet their food requirements. So they collect and cultivate a wide variety of wild plants for their nutritional and medicinal attributes. “Local communities relish a number of wild plants and they are part of our traditional food systems,” says Somyakanta Behera, a native of Sambalpur, Odisha.

As I was traveling in Kendrapara district in the east coast of Odisha, I saw local women collecting leaves in already harvested paddy crop fields. Though the soil of this district is highly productive, it is still prone to cyclonic storms that result in flooding every monsoon. Salinity ingress, as well as heavy rain water during monsoons results in crop failure and hence, only a single crop of paddy, can be harvested every year.