Wild Food Plants For Zero Hunger And Resilient Agriculture

The edited volume brings out a comprehensive collection of information relevant to wild food plants, their importance for global sustainable food security, future-readiness, and resilient agriculture. The book's primary focus is to cover topics on the diversity of wild food plants across the globe, their nutraceutical importance, production-consumption trends, integration into the current food menu, and marketing and livelihood opportunities to the indigenous people. Sustainable development goals 1, 2, and 3 are significant for a poverty-free, hunger-free world and ensure good health and wellbeing of the people, respectively. The three goals are important and interlinked as achieving zero poverty will help reduce hunger among the people. Availability of nutritional and balanced food ensures good health. Wild food plants are an essential part of a nourishing and healthy diet for indigenous communities. They are globally collected from natural habitats or cultivated at more minor scales. Although consumed locally, they are an essential part of the diets of tribal and indigenous communities worldwide and hold immense potential to alleviate global hunger. Considering their importance for global sustainable food security, it is essential to clearly understand the future role of wild food plants for future readiness and resilient agriculture. Therefore, this book provides a piece of important information on these aspects. The book is a valuable resource for the audience ranging from undergraduate science students to the NGOs and institutions involved in poverty alleviation programs, policymakers, dieticians, horticulturists, plant breeders, farmers, health experts, and food enthusiasts.

The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. It encompasses 17 volumes, each devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume addresses SDG 2, namely "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" and contains the description of a range of related terms, to allow for a better understanding and foster knowledge. Our planet produces enough food to feed everyone. Malnutrition and hunger are the result of inappropriate food production processes, bad governance and injustice. SDG 2 seeks to guarantee quality and nutritious food to ensure healthy life by adopting a holistic approach that involves various actions targeting different actors, technologies, policies and programs. These initiatives have to face challenges coming from extensive environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and the interrelated effects of climate change. Concretely, the defined targets are: End hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round End all forms of malnutrition, including achieving the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment Ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality Maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility Editorial Board Datu Buyung Agusdinata, Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari, Usama Awan, Nerise Johnson, Paschal Arsein Mugabe, Vincent Onguso Oeba, Tony Wall/div

This text focuses on underutilized wild plants that can help to reduce food deficiency in developing nations. Edible wild plants are viewed as a potential solution for overcoming food insecurity for families in these regions, with a specific focus on sustainable production and conservation measures. Detailed analysis of specific wild plants is provided, including the nutritional contents of each plant. A full list of edible wild plants is included for the benefit of researchers, plus a pictorial guide for easy identification of these plants. Specific case studies are provided in which edible wild plants are used to reduce food insecurity, and the diversity of edible wild plants is studied from a global perspective. In developing countries, a significant obstacle to human survival is the increasing gap between food availability and the growing human population. Food insecurity results in less consumption of fruits and vegetables and leads to mineral and vitamin deficiency for individuals in these regions. Edible Wild plants: An alternative approach to food security focuses on growing and using wild plants in order to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition. Wild edible plants are inexpensive and are a rich source of antioxidants, vitamins, fiber, and minerals. As the first book to specifically focus on edible wild plants and their vital role in food security and nutrition, this text is incredibly valuable to any researcher studying innovative potential solutions to food deficiency in the developing world.

This book examines the idea that to achieve global food security, we need to exponentially increase food production over the coming decades. The book argues that if food sources are not able to contribute to a balanced, nutritious diet, then the implications for health and productivity of the population could be significant.

Although they are neither technically classified as grasses nor as actual cereal grains, pseudocereals are plants that yield fruits or seeds that are utilized and consumed like grains. Pseudocereals are complete grains that are usually high in protein and free of gluten. Supposedly many of the “ancient grains” are actually pseudocereals. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has also noted that pseudocereals greatly improve health and nutrition, as well as an individual’s food supply and standard of living, all of which can contribute to future food security and sustainability. Their protein-derived peptides have been shown in previous investigations to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertensive, anti-cancerous, and hypocholesterolemic qualities. Because pseudocereals have these intriguing qualities, more research is required to determine how best to incorporate them into the diet and what health benefits they may offer, which is exactly what this book is about. It provides essential information to scientific and non-scientific communities alike to keep interest in pseudocereals alive for the overall health and wellness of the planet.

This publication provides an overview of the common and unique sustainability elements of Indigenous Peoples' food systems, in terms of natural resource management, access to the market, diet diversity, indigenous peoples’ governance systems, and links to traditional knowledge and indigenous languages. While enhancing the learning on Indigenous Peoples food systems, it will raise awareness on the need to enhance the protection of Indigenous Peoples' food systems as a source of livelihood for the 476 million indigenous inhabitants in the world, while contributing to the Zero Hunger Goal. In addition, the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) and the UN Food Systems Summit call on the enhancement of sustainable food systems and on the importance of diversifying diets with nutritious foods, while broadening the existing food base and preserving biodiversity. This is a feature characteristic of Indigenous Peoples' food systems since hundreds of years, which can provide answers to the current debate on sustainable food systems and resilience.

Given the uncertainties in future food and nutrition security due to climate change compounded with an increasing global population, sustainable development is essential for the survival of much of the world's population. Besides the conceptual evolution of food and nutrition security, exploration of new scientific areas aids in reshaping our knowledge of nutritional requirements, and innovation of novel technologies can be utilized to tackle production and security issues in sustainable ways. Emerging Solutions in Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security provides comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of the current problems and issues, emerging ideas, and pragmatic solutions in sustainable nutrition. The book is designed to promote an understanding of the fundamentals and changing landscapes of food systems, nutrition, and environmental sustainability. Emerging issues such as the growing importance of traditional foods in improving nutrition security, the exploration of biodiversity to promote food diversity, the sustainable management of current agroecosystems, the progress made in utilizing biotechnology to enhance crop production, the utilization of bio-fortification and food fortification as means of nutritional management, the latest research advancements in mineral research, and the functional foods are comprehensively addressed. For researchers seeking a deeper insight into sustainable nutrition security and the current technical developments, these chapters cover current technologies across the four pillars of food security, food availability, food accessibility, food utilization, and food stability, and provide a platform for critical scientific thinking in the field of food security, safety, and environmental sustainability in conjunction with Sustainable Development Goals such as Zero Hunger and Climate Action.

This publication provides an overview of the common and unique sustainability elements of Indigenous Peoples' food systems, in terms of natural resource management, access to the market, diet diversity, Indigenous Peoples’ governance systems, and links to traditional knowledge and Indigenous Peoples' languages. While enhancing the learning on Indigenous Peoples' food systems, it will raise awareness on the need to enhance the protection of Indigenous Peoples' food systems as a source of livelihood for the 476 million Indigenous inhabitants in the world, while contributing to the Zero Hunger Goal. In addition, the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025) and the UN Food Systems Summit call on the enhancement of sustainable food systems and on the importance of diversifying diets with nutritious foods, while broadening the existing food base and preserving biodiversity. This has been a characteristic of Indigenous Peoples' food systems for hundreds of years, and it can provide answers to the current debate on sustainable food systems and resilience.