Over the course of human history, scientists believe that humans have cultivated more than 6,000 different plant species. But over time, farmers gravitated toward planting those with the largest yields. Today, just three crops – rice, wheat and corn – provide nearly half of the world’s calories.

That reliance on a small number of crops has made agriculture vulnerable to pests, plant-borne diseases and soil erosion, which thrive on monoculture – the practice of growing only one crop at a time. It has also meant losing out on the resilience other crops show in surviving drought and other natural disasters.

As the impacts of the climate crisis become starker, farmers across the world are rediscovering ancient crops and developing new hybrids that might prove more hardy in the face of drought or epidemics, while also offering important nutrients.As the planet warms, these five drought-tolerant and highly nutritious crops offer hope for greater resiliency:

Amaranth: the plant that survived colonization
Fonio: the drought-resistant traditional grain
Cowpeas: the fully edible plant
Taro: adapting the tropical crop for colder climes
Kernza: the crop bred for the climate crisis

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