**5. Need of underutilized grasses promotion**

Many underutilized grasses if promoted appropriately hold the potential to gain local, regional, national importance in terms of generating economic activity. For promoting underutilized grasses, securing resource base in developing countries is vital for maintaining the safety net comprising of diversified products and food stuffs and thus contributing to ensuring food security strives. Another justification for promoting underutilized grasses is to ensure diversification of agricultural systems and to offer support to fragile social groups having lesser affordability to rely solely on staple commodities [1, 14]. In addition, underutilized grasses cultivation on marginal, degraded and fellow lands can serve as a poverty alleviation strategy by empowering marginal sections of farming community. These also hold bright perspectives by allowing rural communities to adopt resources-based development instead of commodity focussing development. Along with poor segments of farming community, underutilized grasses can offer additional benefits to wider strata of communities through provision of balanced diets, diversified source of income to growers and marketing agents, sustainable preservation of agro-ecosystems and putting into use large swathes of marginal lands without disturbing the cultural identity.
