Potential Nutri-Crops from Uttarakhand Hills for Diversifying Food Basket in a Changing Climate

Abstract

Combating malnutrition under changing climate is the biggest hurdle in ensuring nutritional security for the burgeoning population. Rigorous efforts are being made globally in recent past to design major food crops for superior nutritional quality but the potential of existing traditional food crops has been seriously overlooked despite of their ability to produce nutritious grains even under harsh climatic conditions besides their nutraceutical properties against modern lifestyle generated ailments. These ignored locally grown nutri-crops can serve as an alternative way to address the food, nutrition uncertainty with additional health benefits but social disdain, changing lifestyle and lack of synergistic research and development policies rendered the existence of these crops localised mainly in traditional subsistence farming systems. Potential of these underutilised nutri-crops is now being recognised and need for their revival and/or infusion in existing cropping systems is also being felt globally for food and nutritional security of the future. Keeping the need of nutritious, climate resilient and low input demanding crops for future in view, multifaceted efforts have been made by ICAR-VPKAS, Almora for mainstreaming nutri-crops of Uttarakhand hills to benefit both farmers and consumers of the region and country.