Sustainable Processing and Commercialization of Underutilized Fruits in North East India

Abstract

The Eastern Himalayan region of India are known for its diverse nature of soil, climate, topography and also rich diversity of less-known, indigenous, underutilized and ethno-medicinally important fruit crops. The underutilized or neglected fruit crops represent an enormous wealth of agrobiodiversity growing wildly in the forest and in almost every homestead and backyard without much care and attention. These crops have great potential for contributing to food security and nutrition, health (nutritional/medicinal), income generation, environmental services and combating the hidden hunger caused by micronutrient deficiencies. Though having many incredible potential, they are less or poorly documented as they have lesser demand in the market, neither they are grown commercially nor traded, lesser known to people about its cultivation, distribution and its value. Through social media and advancement of technology, some tribals have come forward to promote their ways of consuming and preserving by becoming an entrepreneur and making their products commercially available online and offline. Commercialized value-added products of some underutilized fruits from different northeast India were documented here. The commercialization of underutilized fruits in Northeast India holds significant potential for economic, nutritional, and social impacts and also holds significant potential for future research and development. It is high time that the communities, researchers and the entrepreneurs all work together to make these minor fruit crops a commercially viable fruit crop of future.