Nutrient composition and product development of edible non-farm produce

Non farm produce have a tremendous potential as a source of food, besides meeting multipurpose needs of local communities. These foods are more fit or adapted than the introduced species for cultivation in their native areas and can sometimes significantly out perform the introduced premier foods. As most of these foods grow wildly (unattended), they adapt themselves to adverse conditions and thus may be easy to cultivate. The vast numbers of those unused and underutilized species represent enormous untapped commodity resources which can help to meet the increasing demand for food, nutritional, medicinal and industrial needs. With the development of modern agricultural practices the potential of many of these commodity resources have been neglected. However, this book highlights the nutritional significance of the edible non farm produce and then can be adopted as systematic agricultural produce. Processing of these foods can play an important role in value addition, product formation, market potential and improving the shelf life of farm produce. The variety products of these foods can become increasingly important in food and nutrition security.