Growing Food: A Guide to Food Production

UTILISATION

• Watermelons are normally grown for the refreshing ripe fruit, eaten fresh.
  About 94% is water, but each 100 g contains Vitamin C (8 mg), Vitamin A


• The seeds are much more nutritious, containing 20–45% of an edible semi-
  drying oil and 30–40% protein; they are also rich in the enzyme urease. They
  can be dried and then chewed, as in southern China, or ground up and baked
  into bread, or roasted. The oil extracted from the seed is used in cooking and for


• The rind (skin) is sometimes preserved as a pickle.

LIMITATIONS

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  many varieties available with good resistance to these, and other, diseases.

  
  

2G. UNDER EXPLOITED FOOD CROPS

At some time or another mankind has used at least 3000 plant species for food, of
which only about 150 have been cultivated commercially. About 60 of these 150
species are described in detail in this document, in Section 2A–2G, pages 107–287.
However, these days only about 20 plant species feed most of the people in the
world, and it may be very risky to depend on such a small number of crops.
Monocultures can be vulnerable to catastrophic failures arising from changes in
climate or the uncontrolled development of pests or diseases.
One of the reasons that these days we are only cultivating a small proportion of
edible crops may well be because these crops have been studied more intensively by
plant breeders, agronomists and research workers than other “local” or “traditional”
crops.
In colonial times, these workers were often trained and financed by European
governments; market demands by European consumers dictated which crops were
imported, and so which crops were encouraged in the colonies—examples include
pineapple, banana, rubber and oil palm. In this way many traditionally grown crops,
adapted over many generations by local farmers to the particular growing conditions
of their area, were neglected or even deliberately suppressed.

(570IU), Vitamin B6 (0.045 mg) and some thiamin and riboflavin.

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266 TONY WINCH

Low nutritional value of the fruit, mainly useful as a source of clean water and/or

cash.

The fruit is easily damaged & does not travel well, though some does enter

international trade.

The fruit has relatively short storage time (“shelf life”).

The plant is killed by frost and needs high temperature for germination and

growth.

The plant is also susceptible to Fusarium Wilt and Anthracnose, though there are

lighting the seed cake ( presscake ) which remains is used for animal food. “”