Role of informal seed system in promoting landrace diversity and their on-farm conservation: a case study of rice in Indian Himalayas

Role of informal seed system in landrace diversification, in situ conservation on-farm and sustainability in production were investigated as a case study for rice diversity in Indian Himalayas. The diachronic pattern of landrace occurrence revealed substantial increase, both in landrace number and f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genetic resources and crop evolution 2011-12, Vol.58 (8), p.1213-1224
Main Authors: Pandey, Avinash, Bisht, I. S., Bhat, K. V., Mehta, P. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Agriculture
Agrobiodiversity
Biodiversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Case studies
Conservation
Crop improvement
Cultivation
Farms
Food production
Genetic structure
Germplasm
Life Sciences
Niches
Oryza
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Plant Physiology
Plant Sciences
Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Population genetics
Research Article
Rice
Sustainability
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Role of informal seed system in landrace diversification, in situ conservation on-farm and sustainability in production were investigated as a case study for rice diversity in Indian Himalayas. The diachronic pattern of landrace occurrence revealed substantial increase, both in landrace number and frequency, in time. The local level seed supply in Uttarakhand Himalaya revealed that about 96% seed supply originated from informal system and a mere 4% seed supply is met from formal seed supply networks. In higher elevation ranges, beyond 1200 masl, largely landrace cultivation is practiced and a greater landrace diversification in traditional production was observed. Substantial variations due to environmental adaptations in niche habitats help provide important donor germplasm for crop improvement to users. Further, the population genetic structure also indicated enough diversity being maintained on-farm. Developing pathways for strengthening local level seed system for landrace diversification linked to sustainability in food production and conserving agro-biodiversity has been emphasized.
ISSN:0925-9864
1573-5109
DOI:10.1007/s10722-010-9654-5