Palms are the most useful after grasses in taxonomy. In fact, unlike other species they   offer not only  their fruits, but also their life fluid (neera sap), and roots as tubers. They are effortless, easy to reach as food sources in vicinity.Simultaneously they serve as carbon sinkers, and climate coolers .Palms being single stemmed with high canopy are very convenient to be raised on the field edges without causing any damage to the food crops. Thus they serve as additional food crops in the same field. In addition, they serve as wind breakers also, and help in soil amendment, and  stopping soil erosion. They are convenient to be raised in homesteads, community parks, along canals, river banks, road margins,degraded and barren lands etc. They serve ornamental purposes too. They are hardy, least pest prone, and not feral too. They serve as perennial sources of sap food which can serve as a substitute to food, milk, and water not for humans and even for domestic animals pets too. There are more than 2500 varieties of palm trees spread all over the world in different types of habitat. 

 

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India advocated palm sap as panacea to poverty.Before moving to Sevagram village in April 1936, Gandhi had started experiments in various industries at Wardha. He trained many workers in rural reconstruction work such as making Neera from palm trees, Jaggery, etc. Gandhi said "Neera [sap extracted from Borassus flabellifer] can be converted into Jaggery sweet as honey itself. This Jaggery is superior to cane Jaggery. Cane Jaggery is sweet, but Palm Jaggery is sweet and delicious; it can be produced worth crores of rupees. Palm Gur gives mineral salts too. Doctors have told me to eat Jaggery and I always eat Palm Gur. Nature has made this product in such a way that it cannot be manufactured in the Mills; it is produced in the Cottages. Where there are Palm trees, this Jaggery can be easily produced. Andhra Desha has thousands of Palm trees; there, Jaggery is produced in every hamlet. This is the way to banish poverty from the land. This also is an antidote to poverty." Mahatma Gandhi [From a speech delivered at the opening of the village industry exhibition in Brindawan Bihar (3 May 1939)].