Status and potential of wild edible plants of Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

The consumption of wild plants is one of the strategies, adopted by the local people for sustenance, is intrinsically linked to their strong traditional & cultural system and is inseparable. The indigenous communities continuously include wild edibles to their daily food intake and sales from the surplus add to their income. Simultaneously, an emphasis on the sustainable harvesting of wild edible plants will help enhance and maintain the region’s biodiversity. As the local people are endowed with a vast knowledge concerning the utilization of wild plants, the paper focuses on their knowledge and illustrates the need to select local priority plant species with potential to become valuable staple foods and important alternatives to the usual cultivated agricultural crops.