A study was conducted to understand trends in the conservation of the locally adapted critically endangered radish landrace ‘Newar ’ (Raphanus jaunpurensis sp. nova.), conventionally grown in certain saline areas of Jaunpur city, Uttar Pradesh for use in salads, and for other traditional household uses, as well as the sale of fresh roots and seeds. An exploratory research design was adopted to collect data from 40 respondents, including 5 key informants.

Since 1976, in the northeastern hill region of Mizoram intensive collections of maize landraces were made by ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi and diversity of landraces maize from this region comprised 36% of the total collection from whole India, which was the highest number of accession among other regions . The maize landraces in this region were reported to show extensive variability for plant, tassel, ear and kernel characteristics, and are interesting from the viewpoints of breeding, diffusion and evolution of maize. (Correspondence)

For millennia, seeds have been freely available to use for farming and plant breeding without restriction. Within the past century, however, intellectual property rights (IPRs) have threatened this tradition. In response, a movement has emerged to counter the trend toward increasing consolidation of control and ownership of plant germplasm.

Domestication and breeding have influenced the genetic structure of plant populations due to selection for adaptation from natural habitats to agro-ecosystems. Here, we investigate the effects of selection on the contents of 51 primary kernel metabolites and their relationships in three Triticum turgidum L. subspecies (i.e. wild emmer, emmer, durum wheat) that represent the major steps of tetraploid wheat domestication. We present a methodological pipeline to identify the signature of selection for molecular phenotypic traits (e.g. metabolites and transcripts).

Agricultural practices routinely create opportunities for crops to hybridize with wild relatives, leading to crop gene introgression into wild genomes. Conservationists typically worry this introgression could lead to genetic homogenization of wild populations, over and above the central concern of transgene escape. Alternatively, viewing introgression as analogous to species invasion, we suggest that increased genetic diversity may likewise be an undesirable outcome.

Original Source

Anecdotal accounts regarding reduced US cropping system diversity have raised concerns about negative impacts of increasingly homogeneous cropping systems. However, formal analyses to document such changes are lacking. Using US Agriculture Census data, which are collected every five years, we quantified crop species diversity from 1978 to 2012, for the contiguous US on a county level basis. We used Shannon diversity indices expressed as effective number of crop species (ENCS) to quantify crop diversity.

Humans require resilient, rapidly renewable and sustainable supplies of food and many other plant-derived supplies. However, the combined effects of climate change and population growth compromise the provision of these supplies particularly in respect to global food security. Crop wild relatives (CWR) contain higher genetic diversity than crops and harbour traits that can improve crop resilience and yield through plant breeding. However, in common with most countries, CWR are poorly conserved in England.