Revitalizing Indigenous and Native Plants for Food Security of Arid Lands Countries in Changing Climate Conditions

Climate changeClimate change heavily impacts global food production, posing threats of insecurity inArid arid regionsArid regions. A notable limitation of sustainable food production in arid land regions is the inadequacy of arable landArable land and water resources, making food availability and accessibility harder for the escalating populationEscalating population. The alternative preference for communities living in rural areas is to abide by local food resources viz., indigenous and native traditional wild plants, as substitutes to mitigate hungerHunger and malnutrition through exploiting traditional food systems. There are evidences that wild herbs, vegetables, fruits and nuts, are nutritionally rich with a high profile of secondary metabolites serving as phytochemicals that are imperative for endorsing healthy and balanced diet that may solve malnutrition especially in young children. The use of native plants in the food management system requires specialized historical knowledge about indigenous edible plants and their safety for direct consumption as herbs by human or through feeding the animals as pastures. This requires a broad analysis of the ethnic indigenous and native vegetation in theArid arid regionsArid regions and to highlight those having the potential to be added into the food management systems for food and nutritional securities. There is a huge prospect to filter potential plants, which are underutilized for food purposes, especially the indigenous inhabitants of arid region. Such a comprehensive review on the list of potential indigenous and local plants, with their nutritional factsNutritional facts, geographical distribution and the areas where these are already part of the food production scheme are the focus in this chapter.