Goals: Grow food

The hardiest pulse of the dry deccan, grown where rain is unreliable.

Upright, bell-flowered and ancient; the oilseed of the dry season.

The grain that carries the western desert through a bad monsoon.

The big white-waxed gourd of the south, stored for months after harvest.

A tough small-grained millet of the southern and Himalayan hills.

Sprawls generously and stores well; the leaves and flowers are food too.

Fast, thirsty and best trained up a net where air can move around it.

A long curling gourd of southern and eastern kitchen gardens.

Drought-hardy bean of the west — fixes nitrogen and crops where little else will.

Pods, beans and green manure from one undemanding monsoon plant.