Survey of Underutilised Leafy Vegetables in South Karnataka of India to Attain Nutritional Security

Abstract

Plants are gifts of God for mankind. In India most rural inhabitants depend on wild edible plants to meet their additional food requirements and to attain household food security. India, being blessed with diverse climatic conditions, has a wide array of edible green leafy vegetables (GLV) some of which are locally grown and utilized from ancient periods as source of food as they contain many nutrients and minerals which can nourish the ever growing human population and helps to attain nutrient security. Many of these greens are growing as weeds in the crop fields which are resilient, adaptive and tolerant to adverse climatic conditions and need less investment and don’t require much investment, hence it is described as ‘poor man’s vegetables’. Although, they can be raised at lower management costs even on poor marginal lands, they have remained underutilized due to lack of awareness and popularization of technologies for utilization. It is essential that the locally available GLV, which are inexpensive and easy to cook, be used in the diets to eradicate micronutrient malnutrition and also to prevent the degenerative diseases. Therefore, the present study was undertaken with the objective of exploring potentialities of the lesser known underutilized green leafy vegetables in different districts viz., Kolar, Chickballapura, Mysore, Davanagere, Shimoga of Karnataka state, South India to create awareness among the public and for encouraging further research by scientific community. During the present study, 45 species of green leafy vegetables such as Amaranthus sp., Cleome sp., Solanum sp. were documented and tabulated as per botanical name, family, common name, and local name and also mentioned their mode of consumption