All India Coordinated Research Network on Potential Crops, Progress Report Rabi 2019-20

Abstract

Potential crops or crops for the future constitute those plant species that occur as life support species in extreme environmental conditions or threatened habitats, having appropriate genetic make up to survive under such adverse situations and also possess promising nutritional or industrial utility for a variety of purposes for the present as well as future needs of human kind. Their cultivation is restricted to specialized geographical pockets in different agro-ecological regions mainly by the poor farming communities, who have little access to modern agro-inputs and well organized marketing and communication infrastructure. Having superior nutritional quality, these crops provide household food and nutritional security to the millions of impoverished people living in remote corners of the country often in inhospitable terrains, where public food distribution system is not yet strong. The dependence of human kind on plant resources is inevitable. Since the dawn of agriculture, domestication and necessity based gathering of plant species have helped in the evolution of specially useful plant species. Living in close contact with the nature, human beings have learnt to use plants for food, fodder, fibre, medicine and other economic purposes. Over the years, these biological resources have been generously exploited for the advantage of mankind. So far, out of the estimated global wealth of 80,000 edible plant species, only about 150 have been widely used and of these only about 30 species provide 90 per cent of the food for the world’s population. This has resulted in narrowing down of our food basket and restricted the options for future unforeseen times that may arise from the unpredictable global climatic changes and other natural catastrophes. Therefore, the underutilized plant species of economic importance are the key to sustainable agriculture in most of the developing countries facing acute resource crunch as well as rapid depletion of natural resources due to everincreasing population, rapid industrialization and urbanization. The population experts have predicted that the world population will grow by an unprecedented 90 million people per year, which is equivalent to Mexico’s entire population in 1995. Unfortunately, changing land use patterns, rapidly increasing pressure on land both for agriculture and forestry, massive development projects as well as expanding demand for industrial and urban sectors have posed serious threat to the existing agro-biodiversity, including the underutilized plant species that hold immense potential for the future.