In Odisha’s Malkangiri district, the indigenous crop Roselle, or Bhenda Dal, is helping tribal communities adapt to climate change.
Thriving on rainfed uplands with minimal inputs, it offers vital nutrition, income opportunities and resilience against erratic monsoons.
As traditional food plants vanish, Roselle shows why protecting indigenous crops and knowledge is crucial for climate-smart, diverse food systems.
Every year on August 9, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples recognises the knowledge, cultures and traditions that Indigenous communities have preserved for generations. At a time when climate change threatens food systems across the world, many of these traditional practices are gaining renewed relevance. Among them are Indigenous food crops that have quietly sustained communities in some of India’s most fragile landscapes.
Odisha, home to 64 tribal communities including 13 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) possesses one of India’s richest traditions of food biodiversity. For centuries, Indigenous communities have cultivated and gathered a remarkable diversity of millets, pulses, tubers, leafy greens, mushrooms, fruits and medicinal plants, adapting their farming practices to forests, hills and rainfed landscapes. These foods represent generations of ecological knowledge, cultural identity and resilience.
One such crop is Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa).
With its tangy green leaves and bright red fleshy flower cups, Roselle locally known as Bhenda Dal has long been cultivated by tribal communities in Odisha’s Malkangiri district. Though largely absent from mainstream agricultural discussions, the plant continues to nourish households, support livelihoods and withstand increasingly unpredictable weather.
Roselle was documented under the Forgotten Foods Programme, implemented by Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha. The initiative seeks to revive traditional food biodiversity and document Indigenous food species that contribute to nutrition, livelihoods and climate resilience.
The crop is widely grown in the Swabhiman Anchal region of Chitrakonda block, where agriculture is almost entirely rainfed. It thrives on uplands and hill slopes with minimal external inputs, making it well suited to the local farming system.
In tribal households, Roselle is valued as both food and medicine. The tender leaves are cooked as saag or combined with pulses and vegetables, lending a distinctive sour flavour to everyday meals. The bright red fleshy flower cups are used to prepare pickles, chutneys and refreshing drinks that are especially popular during summer.
Scientific studies have also highlighted the plant’s nutritional value. Roselle contains vitamin C, anthocyanins, flavonoids, polyphenols, iron, calcium and dietary fibre. The deep red colour of the flower cups comes from anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that help protect the body against oxidative stress.
Yet Roselle’s importance extends beyond nutrition.
Its ability to grow on marginal land with relatively little water makes it particularly valuable as climate change intensifies pressure on rainfed agriculture. According to government estimates, nearly 52 per cent of India’s net cultivated area remains rainfed, leaving millions of farmers vulnerable to erratic monsoons, prolonged dry spells and rising temperatures.
For tribal farmers in Malkangiri, Roselle has become a dependable crop in uncertain seasons. Its tolerance to moisture stress reduces production risks while ensuring that households continue to have access to nutritious food even when rainfall is irregular. In landscapes where crop failures have become increasingly common, such traditional species offer an important layer of resilience.
The crop also holds economic promise.
Growing consumer interest in natural, nutritious and minimally processed foods has created opportunities for value-added products such as herbal beverages, preserves, pickles and health drinks made from Roselle. Supporting community-led processing and local enterprises could improve rural incomes while encouraging the continued cultivation of Indigenous crops.
However, many traditional food plants across India are disappearing from farms and diets. Commercial monocultures, changing food preferences, migration and the spread of uniform agricultural systems have gradually reduced the diversity of crops cultivated by Indigenous communities. As these foods disappear, so too does the knowledge associated with cultivating, harvesting, processing and preparing them.
That loss carries consequences beyond culture. It also weakens the diversity that makes food systems more resilient to climate shocks, pests and changing environmental conditions.
Roselle demonstrates that Indigenous knowledge systems are living repositories of climate adaptation. Long before terms such as “climate-smart agriculture” entered policy discussions, tribal communities had identified crops that could survive harsh conditions while meeting nutritional needs and sustaining local ecosystems.
As governments and researchers search for solutions to build resilient agriculture, these traditional food systems deserve far greater recognition. On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Roselle reminds us that some of the most effective climate solutions have long existed in Indigenous fields. Protecting these crops means protecting the knowledge that can help build more resilient food systems.
Rasmi Ranjan Sahoo works as a Program Officer for Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN), in Malkangiri, Odisha.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth