Improving the Diversity of Native Edible Plants and Traditional Food and Agriculture Practices for Sustainable Food Security in the Future

By the year 2030, agriculture will have to provide the food and nutrition requirements of some eight billion people. These include eradicating hunger, improving access to food, ending all forms of malnutrition, promoting sustainable agriculture, and preserving food diversity. Food security is one of the global challenges. Simultaneously, research and development are focused on improving the productivity of a small number of existing crops that will improve global food production instead of increasing the diversity of crops. The result is the loss of agrobiodiversity. Humans cultivate about 150 of the estimated 30,000 species of edible plants worldwide, and most of our diets consist of just 30 species. New commercial crops and local wild plants can diversify global food production and better allow local acclimation to the diverse environment humans inhabit. We consider the values of and advantages and barriers to using local traditional food plants and knowledge in Sri Lanka. Also, we examine the missed opportunity to commercially produce local wild plants in Sri Lanka. We examine how wild species have been determined to improve crop varieties and where efforts must be concentrated to harness their value in the future. This chapter aims to improve the use of traditional food plants through the diversification of food for sustainable food production and practices in Sri Lanka. This will benefit fighting hunger and improve sustainable biodiversity.