ABSTRACT
Buckwheat is an important underutilized crop and is being grown in many countries around the world, such as Japan, China, South Korea, Finland, Russia, Slovenia, Poland, the United States, Canada, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. China has a rich diversity of buckwheat and is regarded as the center of the origin of buckwheat. The history of buckwheat reveals that it originated in central Asia where it was widely cultivated as a main or supplementary food and was brought to Europe during the Middle Ages. Russia, China and Japan are the leading producers as well as consumers of buckwheat. In India, it is grown along the Himalayan region from the western Himalayas (Jammu and Kashmir) to the eastern Himalayas (North east). Currently many researchers all over the world are focusing on buckwheat cultivation due to its tremendous nutritional and medicinal properties. Here, we summarize the origin, history and distribution of buckwheat throughout the world. Moreover, we will also discuss how buckwheat was introduced into the Kashmir valley through the old silk road, once the only route for trade with central Asia.
