Abstract
With the rapid rise in the population, there is higher demand of the food supply to fed millions of people. As such dependence on the few major staple crops to meet the needs of the people has led to increases in starvation and poverty. Underutilized edible plants offer a cheaper and affordable option in providing more crop diversification to tackle these problems and provide food security to the poor to the world in general and to the developing countries in particular. In the present investigation, a total of 142 underutilized edible plants were collected, identified and documented from three districts (Kohima, Phek and Tuensang) of Nagaland, India. The collected plant consists of 126 species of plants and 16 wild edible mushrooms or macro fungus species. The collected plants were categorized according to types of plant and their parts used collected during the period 2012-2016 with their scientific name, family, common name, vernacular name and accession number. The study discusses the need to promote these plants for providing food security and income generation through sustainable collection, cultivation and marketing and to workout proper conservation strategies to prevent depletion and lost of the natural habitat caused by anthropogenic activities. The study also encourages more survey and researches in the rest of the districts of the state and to study the phytochemical constituents to harness the nutraceutical properties of these plants.
Highlights
The study discusses the need to promote these plants for providing food security and income generation through sustainable collection, cultivation and marketing and to workout proper conservation strategies to prevent depletion and lost of the natural habitat caused by anthropogenic activities
Forest resources especially wild edible plants plays a major role in supplementing the staple foods in many tribal areas [31] [32] [33], many of the wild edible plants are unknown to people outside the state and remains insufficiently exploited, despite their nutritional values, becoming underutilized crops at the global level
The collected underutilized edible plants from the three districts of Nagaland consist of 3 cereal crops which are mostly cultivated by the farmers of Kohima, Phek and Tuensang district
Summary
Human health depends on the quality of the environment in which they live. The interrelationships between society and nature, and the importance of environmental health to human health depend on biodiversity which have direct impact on human-well being as well [1]. Millions of people in many developing countries depend on forest resources including wild edible plants to meet their food needs especially in periods of food crisis [4] [19]. Forest resources especially wild edible plants plays a major role in supplementing the staple foods in many tribal areas [31] [32] [33], many of the wild edible plants are unknown to people outside the state and remains insufficiently exploited, despite their nutritional values, becoming underutilized crops at the global level. Jaenicke Höschle-Zeledon [34] defined Underutilized crops as “those species which are under exploited for contributing to food security (nutritional/medicinal), income generation and environmental services” They are referred as “Neglected and Underutilized species”/“Orphan crops”/“Minor crops” [35] [36]. Present study has been undertaken to survey and document the Underutilized Edible Plants (UEP’s) from three districts (Kohima, Phek and Tuensang), Nagaland, India
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