Regions: west

A shrubby pulse that stands two years, fixes nitrogen and shelters small birds.

A winter pulse that also gives the sour green leaf of the north.

Sixty days from sowing to dal, and sproutable on a kitchen shelf.

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.

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

Palmarosa — a scented grass of the central hills, distilled for its rose-like oil.

The winter weed worth sowing — mineral-rich leaves through the cold months.

A thick-leaved climbing spinach that thrives in the worst of the monsoon heat.