Essay On Food Supply

In the developing world, a serious challenge to human survival is the ever growing gap between human population and food supply. Lack of nutritious food, poverty, poor hygiene and lack of health care always aggravates the problem (Basu et al., 2014a). This would directed the search and exploration of newer nutritionally versatile plant sources to feed the billion mouths, medicinally useful phytocompounds showing diverse biological activities leds to improving vitality and resistance against numerous human diseases/disorders (Figure 1.1). In the recent years, demand for plant food and plant derived products, herbal medicines have been substantial and this trend is likely to continue in future.

Plant-derived substances have recently become of great interest owing to their

India has one of the largest concentrations of tribal population in the world. The forest plays a vital role in the economy as well as daily needs of the tribals. In times of scarcity when the staple food is in short of supply, tribal’s collect many types of wild roots and tubers to supplement their meager food available at home (Vidyarthi, 1987). Tuber crops are the third important food crops after cereals and legumes. World production of the crop is estimated to be 5.5 million tons annually and provides about one third of food intake of more than 400 million people in the tropics. Tubers serve to be good source of carbohydrates and hence provide high calorific value. According to previous research, carbohydrates are pivotal nutrients required for adequate diet. Their prime role is to produce energy required for the smooth functioning of the body (Basu et al., 2014b). Protein content in the starch root crops is marginal to poor, but they contain wide variety of minerals and trace elements, including relatively large quantities of iron and calcium, as well as potassium and magnesium (Englberger et al.,