Regions: North India

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.

Jowar — drought-hardy grain and fodder in one, on almost no inputs.

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.

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.

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

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