Genetic Improvement of Underutilized Legumes for Climate-Resilient Agriculture and Food Security: A

As climate change tightens its grip on global agriculture, a handful of ancient, climate-hardy legumes grass pea, cowpea, pigeon pea, and Bambara groundnut are emerging from obscurity as powerful weapons against hunger. Thriving in drought, poor soils, and scorching heat, these orphan crops pack more protein and micronutrients than modern staples, yet their potential has been shackled by a cruel paradox: the same grass pea that saves lives during famine carries a neurotoxin that can cripple those who depend on it. In this landmark book, Mr. Usman Mohammed Ali delivers the first comprehensive systematic review of the genetic revolution poised to break those shackles. Drawing on 186 studies and his own groundbreaking gamma-irradiation experiments, he reveals how mutation breeding has already produced stable grass pea lines that boost grain yield by up to 75 % while slashing the dangerous β-ODAP toxin by nearly a third a feat once thought impossible. But the book goes far beyond a single crop. It is a master blueprint for integrating cutting-edge CRISPR gene editing, genomic selection, multi-omics, high-throughput phenotyping, and speed breeding into a unified pipeline that can rapidly domesticate and improve all underutilised legumes. With unflinching clarity, Mr. Usman maps the scientific triumphs alongside the stubborn real-world barriers: fragmented gene-editing regulations, crippling infrastructure gaps, entrenched consumer stigma, and agricultural policies blindly tilted toward a handful of cereal giants. He then charts an ambitious, actionable roadmap from tapping the genetic treasure troves of wild crop relatives and landraces to embedding improved varieties into national school-feeding programmes and open-science data networks. This is not merely a review; it is a strategic manifesto for transforming forgotten crops into resilient, nutrient-dense pillars of twenty-first-century food systems. For plant breeders, molecular geneticists, agronomists, policymakers, and anyone committed to feeding a hotter, more crowded planet.