**2. What are underutilized grasses?**

Among agriculture terminologies, perhaps underutilized term has given rise to wider discussions and debates since long. It is normally applied to grass species whose yield or usability potential remains unrealized. However, this definition might be declared inconclusive owing to missing information regarding underutilization in what sort of geographical regions, cultures and economic feasibilities. Thus, using this term inevitably needs a clarification to explicitly describe the exact meanings and applicability of the term. For instance, with respect to geographical implications of the term, a grass species might be underutilized in some regions compared to others. Regarding economic applicability, some grass species might constitute as vital component of masses daily diet, but these may largely remain underutilized in other regions owing to poor marketing conditions and lower economic turnout for growers. As far as time factor is concerned, dynamic marketing systems might improve the degree of underuse due to vigorous attention in few regions while the same species could continue to witness poor marketing owing to lesser attention of growers and researchers in some regions. For example, hulled wheat which represents the collective name of *Triticum monococcum*, *Triticum dicoccum* and *Triticum spelta* has attained the status of a speciality crop in Italy along with many other European countries, whereby numerous ex situ and in situ techniques for its conservation are being developed through integrated research efforts. However, the same grass constitutes the status of a life support crop in Turkey's remote areas. Few underutilized grasses are being marketed as new crops. However, the fact is that different commercial companies and researchers have recently started working on them for boosting their productivity and nutritional value. The reality is that local populations have used underutilized grass species for generations while these remained unattended historically. It is worth mentioning that locally based knowledge and traditional uses of underutilized grasses at limited scale have contributed to portray such underutilized grasses as new crops [1, 4, 11].
