Genetic resource conservation of horticultural crops in India-Achievements and issues

Abstract

India is one of the eight Vavilovian centres of origin for crop plants and one of the 12 megacenters of diversity. Four of the biodiversity hot-spots exist in the country. consequently, India is rich in genetic diversity of plant species of cereals, millets, fruits, condiments, vegetables, pulses, fibre crops and oilseeds. India is the centre of origin and/or centre of diversity for many horticultural crops such as mango, banana, citrus, jackfruit, bael, black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, Garcinia and several medicinal and aromatic plants. Genetic diversity is being lost due to human interventions, natural vagaries or climate change. thus, the conservation of plant diversity is of critical importance. Horticultural genetic resources can be conserved in situ and ex situ as complementary strategies. Germplasm of vegetatively propagated horticultural crops are being conserved ex situ, mainly in the field genebanks of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes, State Agricultural Universities or orchards. National Genebank at IcAr-National Bureau of Plant Genetic resources, New delhi houses state of art facility in the form of seed-, in vitro-and cryo-genebanks to conserve the diversity and genetic resources of horticultural crops. this review presents conservation aspects of important horticultural crops and crop groups in India.