Reclaiming lost crops

Of the roughly 7,000 plant species used historically as human food, only about 150 are now cultivated on a significant scale, and merely 30-odd are used to meet the bulk of the nutritional needs of the people.

- SURINDER SUD

In fact, just three grain crops — rice, wheat, and maize — account for over 60 per cent of the food intake. Most of the remaining edible-plant species have either gone extinct or are being grossly underexploited mostly because they do not conform to the modern lifestyle-driven dietary habits and the current farming systems.

Foods based on neglected or underutilised plants include numerous nutrient-dense cereals and pseudo cereals like ragi, quinoa, kuttu, kodo, and kangni; fruit varieties like ber and karonda; and vegetables like moringa and amaranthus. Many useful herbs and plants having healing properties have also fallen into disuse. This has resulted not only in the unwarranted shrinkage of the contemporary food basket but also the disappearance of the niche markets for these products, and livelihood loss for those resource-poor farmers who have traditionally been the main producers of these crops.