Regions: North India

An old and quick millet, sown as a catch crop when the rains come late.

Grown for seed rather than leaf; magenta heads over the whole monsoon.

A Himalayan pseudo-grain that flowers white and feeds every bee for miles.

Ground cover, greens and tubers from a few cuttings pushed into soil.

The fastest useful tree there is — 3 m in a year, edible leaves and pods.

A small tree that lives happily in a deep pot and gives leaves all year.

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

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

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.