Rediscovering Buckwheat: A Review on its Restorative Capacities

Abstract

Shifa Rayeen, Arunima Paliwal*, Ajay Kumar, Pankaj Kumar, Manish Deorari and Dheeraj Sharma

Biodiversity may significantly decline in many nations where agricultural production is based solely on a small number of crops. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum sp.) is a pseudocereal and one of the earliest cultivated plants of Polygonaceae family, includes around 30 species with F. esculentum and F. tataricum being the most widely cultivated and consumed. Despite a global production volume of 4.65 million tons in 2023, its cultivation has declined due to low yield and agronomic limitations such as seed shattering, lodging and asynchronous maturation. A promising environmentally friendly crop, buckwheat can help to maintain a balance between the benefits of biodiversity and crop productivity. Additionally, it can be utilized as a cover crop to eradicate weeds and replenish plants in harmed ecosystems as well as strengthen the soil. It is a raw material crop that produces honey and is valuable as a foreground crop since it improves the soil and is grown without pesticides. With the help of Azospirillum bacteria and other organisms, buckwheat can fix nitrogen in the root rhizosphere non-symbiotically. It was evaluated as a green manure crop that helps to fertilize the soil with a variety of important macro and microelements. To address the concerns of food and nutritional security, the current analysis underlines the multifaceted potential of buckwheat as a super-crop.

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