Underutilized legumes: nutrient status and advanced breeding approaches for qualitative and quantitative enhancement

Ipsita Samal; Tanmaya Kumar Bhoi; M Nikhil Raj; Prasanta Kumar Majhi; Sneha Murmu; Asit Kumar Pradhan; Dilip Kumar; Amit Umesh Paschapur; Dinesh Chandra Joshi; P N Guru

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1110750

Underutilized legumes: nutrient status and advanced breeding approaches for qualitative and quantitative enhancement

Front Nutr. 2023 May 18:10:1110750. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1110750. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Sri Sri University, Cuttack, Odisha, India.
² Forest Protection Division, ICFRE-Arid Forest Research Institute, Jodhpur, India.
³ Division of Entomology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
⁴ Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Keonjhar, Odisha, India.
⁵ ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
⁶ ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, India.
⁷ ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi, India.
⁸ ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Uttarakhand, India.
⁹ ICAR-Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana, India.

Abstract

Underutilized/orphan legumes provide food and nutritional security to resource-poor rural populations during periods of drought and extreme hunger, thus, saving millions of lives. The Leguminaceae, which is the third largest flowering plant family, has approximately 650 genera and 20,000 species and are distributed globally. There are various protein-rich accessible and edible legumes, such as soybean, cowpea, and others; nevertheless, their consumption rate is far higher than production, owing to ever-increasing demand. The growing global urge to switch from an animal-based protein diet to a vegetarian-based protein diet has also accelerated their demand. In this context, underutilized legumes offer significant potential for food security, nutritional requirements, and agricultural development. Many of the known legumes like Mucuna spp., Canavalia spp., Sesbania spp., Phaseolus spp., and others are reported to contain comparable amounts of protein, essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), dietary fiber, essential minerals and vitamins along with other bioactive compounds. Keeping this in mind, the current review focuses on the potential of discovering underutilized legumes as a source of food, feed and pharmaceutically valuable chemicals, in order to provide baseline data for addressing malnutrition-related problems and sustaining pulse needs across the globe. There is a scarcity of information about underutilized legumes and is restricted to specific geographical zones with local or traditional significance. Around 700 genera and 20,000 species remain for domestication, improvement, and mainstreaming. Significant efforts in research, breeding, and development are required to transform existing local landraces of carefully selected, promising crops into types with broad adaptability and economic viability. Different breeding efforts and the use of biotechnological methods such as micro-propagation, molecular markers research and genetic transformation for the development of underutilized crops are offered to popularize lesser-known legume crops and help farmers diversify their agricultural systems and boost their profitability.

Keywords: climate resilience; comparative genomics; food and nutritional security; genetic improvement; underutilized legumes/orphan legumes.

Publication types

Review