Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia): a minor legume with major potential to address global agricultural challenges

Abstract

Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) is an orphan legume of Vigna genus, exhibiting wide adaptability and has the potential to grow well in arid and semi-arid areas, predominantly across different eco-geographical regions of Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent. The inherent adaptive attributes of this crop have made it more tolerant towards a diverse array of abiotic and biotic stresses that commonly restrain yield among other Vigna species. Additionally, the legume is recognized for its superior nutritional quality owing to its high protein content as well as amino acid, mineral and vitamin profile and is utilized as both food and fodder. Moth bean can play a vital role in sustaining food grain production, enhancing nutritional security as well as provide a source of income to resource-poor farmers amid rise in global temperatures and frequent drought occurrences, particularly in rain-fed cropping systems which accounts for about 80% of the world’s cultivated land. However, this minor legume has remained underutilized due to over-exploitation of major staple crops. With the exception of a few studies involving conventional breeding techniques, crop improvement in moth bean for traits such as late maturity, indeterminate growth habit, shattering and anti-nutritional factors has not garnered a lot of attention. Recent advances in sequencing technologies, modern breeding approaches and precision phenotyping tools, in combination with the available crop gene pool diversity in gene banks, can accelerate crop improvement in moth bean and lead to the development of improved cultivars. Considering the recent surge in awareness about the development of climate-smart crops for sustainable agricultural future, collective effort towards effective utilization of this hardy, neglected legume is the need of the hour.

Moth Bean (Vigna aconitifolia) Starch: Properties, Modifications and Applications—A Review

“…Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolium L.) is an undervalued legume despite its high protein and carbohydrate content (Kanishka et al 2023). It is commonly identified as dew bean, Indian moth bean, moth gramme, and matki, which is predominantly cultivated in the Indian subcontinent during the monsoon season from June to November (Bhadkaria et al 2022;Sedani, Pardeshi, and Dorkar 2021).…”

Morphological and Biochemical Changes in Moth Bean during Drought Stress

“…Ecologically, it is an annual legume of dry and warm regions and the most drought-hardy species in arid regions. Moth bean has a deep and fast penetrating root system, which helps them to survive up to 30-40 days in open fields without any irrigation [2,3]. Moth bean plants generally grow 15-40 cm tall, having short internodes.…”