Handbooks of Crop Diversity: Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources

Agrobiodiversity refers to the variation found among plants, animals, fish, insects, microbes, avian etc., species used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture. In case of crop and cultivated plant species, it mainly refers to the genetic diversity of plant genetic resources (PGR), found in the form of landraces and varieties of crops species used for food, fodder, fibre, fuel, pharmaceuticals, etc., and breeds of livestock. As per the FAO definition, it may also include the diversity of non-harvested species that support production system (soil micro-organisms, predators, pollinators) of these species and those in the wider environment support that agroecosystems (agricultural, pastoral, forest and aquatic) of their cultivation/production.  However, the controlled genetic improvement of the cultivated species to facilitate continued breeding of cultigens with greater resilience to stresses and productivity is mainly dependent on overall genetic variation found in individuals belonging to the cultivated species and/or the ancestral species related to cultivated species. As these are the plant sources from where transfer of gene (genetic introgression) is possible through controlled breeding process of genetic improvement, incorporating desirable features, the accessibility to the information about these plant genetic resources is key to the success of the breeding efforts. Therefore, comprehensive information is required about these resources to facilitate their conservation and long-term sustainable use in research and crop improvement. The present effort of bringing out a series of volumes dealing with different crop groups containing comprehensive filtered information regarding these genetic resources and the availability of genetic diversity in each crop species of the group is aimed at facilitating their priority conservation in gene banks, and research and use in crop improvement.

Plant genetic resources are basic building blocks in the crop improvement and the quality of information and access to PGR is key to scientific efforts of genetic engineering of crops species, developing better cultigens, mitigating various challenges posed by increasing population and climatic change. This series of volumes compiles information regarding the available genetic diversity among various cultivated species belonging to diverse crop groups and within a crop species of food and agriculture, from all possible perspectives of conservation and use (in genetic improvement of cultivated species). It would be able to enlist most genetic resources available globally, offering opportunities to be used in genetic engineering of crop species, and that would facilitate more predictive and productive genetic engineering programmes to breed new cultivars. The content of these volumes on agro-biodiversity are very useful for technology-poor developing countries as this is not going to cover only major food crops but the whole range of crop/economic species cultivated or used for support livelihood.