फ्रूट क्रॉप्स में प्लांट जेनेटिक रिसोर्स का उपयोग
Plant genetic resources in horticultural crops and their wild relatives are of immense value to mankind as they provide food, fodder, fuel, shelter and industrial products. India is the second largest fruit-producing country in the world. A number of problems including diseases, insects, pests and various disorders are associated with fruit growing in India these problems can solve by utilising of Plant genetic resources.
Inferior quality of planting material and poor orchard management are some of the reasons for the low productivity. Plant genetic resources are of great importance as they form the basic raw material to meet current and future needs of crops improvement programmes. The specific role that plant genetic resources have to play in addressing the challenges in securing food to humanity in a sustainable way is discussed.
The diversity of plant species and of varieties of a range of crop types (cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables) and the intraspecific genetic diversity that make up PGR are fundamental to our food system. Furthermore, the links between their production and consumption are important to sustainable food systems in order to have the richest possible food diversity on plates, sustainably sourced from the biological diversity that underpins agricultural systems.
Plant genetic resources are the biological basis of food security. Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture consist of diversity of seeds and planting materials of traditional varieties and modern cultivars, crop wild relatives, and other wild plant species. These resources are used as food, feed for domestic animals, fibers, textiles, and energy. Their conservation and sustainable use is necessary to ensure crop production and to meet growing environmental challenges and climate change.
Seed conservation is aimed at maintenance of high seed quality in terms of viability and vigour for various periods. The erosion of these resources poses a severe threat to the world's food security in the long term.
India has one of the 12 world mega biodiversity centers and 17 mega diverse nations and also one of the 8 centers of origin of crop plants and three of the 34 Hot Spots of Biodiversity- Himalayas, Indo-Burma, and Western Ghats found India.
Important features of plant genetic resources
- Represent entire genetic variability and diversity of crop species
- Important for sustainable food security
- Includes cultivated, wild species and relatives of crop plants
- Basic material for crop improvement programme
- Reservoir of useful genes
Type of plant genetic resource
Landraces:
- Primitive cultivars which are selected and cultivated by the farmers for many generations.
- They have high level of genetic diversity which provides them high degree of resistance to biotic & abiotic stresses.
Obsolete Cultivars:
- Improved varieties of recent past are known as obsolete cultivars.
- These varieties which were popular earlier and now have been replaced by new varieties.
Modern Cultivars:
- Presently cultivated high yielding varieties are known modern cultivars.
- These varieties have high yield potential and uniformly as compared to obsolete varieties and landraces.
Advanced Breeding Lines:
- Pre-released plants developed by plant breeders for modern scientific plants breeding known as advanced breeding lines
Wild Forms:
- These are important source of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. These can cross easily with cultivated species.
Wild Relatives:
- Those naturally occurring plant species which have common ancestry with crops and can cross with crop species are referred to as wild relatives or wild species.
- They are important sources of resistance to biotic & abiotic stresses.
Mutants:
- In mutation breeding does not found is desired characters in the cultivated species and their wild relatives because mutations do occur in nature but can be induced through the use of physical and chemical mutagens.
Use of Plant genetic resources
The potential of crop genetic resources is to improve the quality and quantity of the world’s food supply. The need to increase and improve our food supply is inescapable given current and projected human population statistics. Clearly, our success at producing food has played a role in the tremendous growth in population.
Higher-yielding fruit crops will not directly address world hunger issues. However, an accumulating body of research suggests that an increased intake of fruits and vegetables, replete with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and undiscovered nutriceuticals, can contribute to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer and in addition to providing the well-known benefits of the essential vitamins and minerals.
The production of high-quality fruit crops also serves to diversify the agricultural economy, providing opportunities for growers to produce high-value crops. The fruit germplasm collections were maintained as seed or clonal accessions at various ex situ locations.
A primary weakness of an ex situ germplasm preservation system is that the collections become genetically static, no longer being subjected to pests and pathogens, abiotic stresses, and other selective agents that result in continued evolution of new traits and characters.
Authors
Ankit Kumar Pandey1 and Sakshi Shastri2
1Department of Fruit & Fruit Technology
Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur 813210 (Bihar)
2Department of Agricultural Extension,
Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, C. G, India,-492 001