AROIDS FOR ENSURING LIVELIHOOD SECURITY IN INDIA: A REVIEW
Amit Kumar Singh*, A. K. Chaurasiya and Surajit Mitra
ABSTRACT
We live in a crazy world. On the one hand we read of a surplus of wheat and mountain of butter and meat, and on
the other we see on our TV screens the spectre of starving people. We can attempt to rationalise this by pointing to
the unequal distribution of food and wealth between the developed (rich) and the developing (poor) countries, and
the further inequalities of wealth between individuals within any particular developing country. India support more
than 17 % of the population with only 2.4 % land share. At the global level, it appears that we are slowly moving
towards global food crisis. Recently published special report of UN on the “Right to Food” estimated that nearly
one billion people sleep without food across the world, and among every six seconds a chield dies of malnutrition.
Agricultural production is an important contributor to India economy and providing nearly 67% of the country‟s
employment. Aroids comprise a small group of plants adapted to a wide range of ecological condition that exists
in the tropics. It comprises five main genera Alocasia, Amorphophallus, Colocasia, Christospama and Xanthosoma
of which Colocasia, Amorphophallus and Xanthosoma grown in India for their edible corm/cormels. Aroids along
with other tropical tuber crops has now become an obvious candidate as food security crop because of its capacity
to do well on marginal soils even with low annual rainfall and its ability to give some return even in the years of
droughts and flood.
Keywords: Alocasia, Amorphophallus, Colocasia, Christospama and Xanthosoma of which Colocasia, Amorphophallus and Xanthosoma grown in India for their edible corm/cormels.
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