Forgotten crops may hold answers to India's food and climate needs

India's neglected fruits and vegetables could be the key to nutrition security, climate resilience, and rural livelihoods - if policy and markets revive them

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. 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. 

Interestingly, many of the neglected and commercially under-tapped food crops, often referred to as “orphan crops”, have significant salubrious and therapeutic traits because of their unique nutrient profiles. These were the smart foods of the past, and have the potential to become the superfoods of the future as well. While some of the gradually vanishing foods, notably coarse cereals like millets, are sought to be rehabilitated through national and international campaigns, no such move has till now been forthcoming for fruit and vegetables going out of cultivation. Even policymakers and researchers are guilty of disregarding these undeservedly undervalued fruit and vegetables. They are focused largely on improvement of the commercially important finer food products rather than endeavouring to enhance the productivity and profitability of the underutilised, but nourishing, foods. 

The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Naas) has done well to draw attention to this group of plants through a recent publication titled “Underutilized Fruits and Vegetables for Nutritional and Health Security”. Released in October 2025, this Policy Paper (No. 140) has picked 10 varieties of fruit and 10 vegetables, which have undergone a significant decline in production and consumption. These are the products which were quite common till the recent past but are rarely seen in the market these days. 

The underused fruit varieties identified by Naas are aonla, bael, jamun, ber, custard apple, karonda, phalsa, tamarind, wood apple, and mulberry. The list of similar vegetables has amaranth, moringa, basella, winged bean, faba bean, pointed gourd, round melon, cluster bean, yam bean, and jute mallow. 

The publication has pointed out that these underexploited fruit and vegetables can play a vital role in ameliorating the nutrition of undernourished, and malnourished, people. Besides, thanks to their capacity to thrive in diverse, as also adverse, agro-climatic conditions, including arid, semi-arid, and rain-dependent ecosystems, these crops can ensure sustainable production in areas where major crops often fail. Hardy species, such as ber, karonda, lasoda, and khejri, require few inputs and can survive on rainwater. Plants of aonla, tamarind, custard apple, and bael can withstand drought and perform well on poor-quality soils. These are also ideal crops for growing under low-investment wasteland horticulture systems because of their capacity to withstand climate change and innate resistance to pests and diseases. 

Outlining ways and means for resurrecting such fruit and vegetables, the Naas paper has suggested that large tracts of fallow (uncultivated) and degraded lands be used to grow these sturdy crops, requiring low initial investment and meagre aftercare. This would, in turn, transform unproductive landscapes into sources of food, nutrition, and rural livelihoods. Naas essentially projects these crops as “treasures of nutritional and therapeutic resources”. 

Fruit varieties like tamarind, custard apple, bael, khirni, karonda, phalsa, mulberry, wild noni, and wood apple are excellent sources of vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibres, which are essential for numerous physiological functions. Their inclusion in a regular diet could help combat malnutrition, anaemia, hidden hunger, and lifestyle-related disorders. Thanks to their fine composition of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, proteins and bioactive compounds, these crops can play a pivotal role in improving community nutrition and health, especially in vulnerable populations. 

However, many of these uncared-for fruit and vegetables have a short shelf life and, therefore, require some post-harvest preservation treatment to facilitate their year-round (read off-season) availability to the consumers. Some of them are traditionally preserved through conventional methods, such as sun-drying and pickling, by rural communities. But commercial processing of the minor fruit and vegetables into value-added and shelf life-prolonged products can go a long way to boost their marketability and profitability. The need is to encourage industrial-scale processing of these varieties of fruit and vegetables through various government schemes being implemented for the promotion of horticulture in the country. This would benefit both producers and consumers of the underrated, but highly valuable, traditional fruit and vegetables. 

surinder.sud@gmail.com