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

The volume on oilseed crops is developed as a part of a series on “Handbook of Agrobiodiversity: Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources”. The handbook would function as a ready reference book for availability of PGR globally, along with specific source, wherefrom they can be procured, and used breeding programs, particularly to overcome various crop production constraints and to improve productivity and quality. The volume on floriculture and ornamental plants will be the source of basic information on origin and evolution and global dispersal of cultivated species of ornamentals. Presently, floriculture has established its credibility in improving income through increased productivity, generating employment and in enhancing exports. All research and developmental activities on ornamental crops are essentially multi-disciplinary in nature recognizing local issues as well as country issue. Floriculture is developing as an area of high technology based frontier interdisciplinary area on scientific excellence. Floriculture has progressed both scientifically and commercially due to concentrated efforts made on multidisciplinary research. It is developing as an area of high technology based frontier interdisciplinary area on scientific excellence. The volume will contain all information about different ornamentals. This shall be put together to develop a complete documentation of the results of the research and demonstrations conducted by different scientists. The volume will provide an illustrated horto-taxonomical account of important ornamental species and cultivars, germplasm status and their usages, propagation, nursery management, techno-economics, conventional breeding, induced mutagenesis, new varieties, cytogenetics, tissue culture, characterization of varieties, dehydration of flowers etc. This volume will give a coherent and concise account on recent developments. It will deal with all the important and relevant aspects of floriculture. The publication of this volume is planned to reveal multifarious activities done on different aspects of floriculture so that innovations made so far can be used judiciously for this sector. This book shall provide authoritative review account of many aspects of current interest and progress in the field of floriculture. The topics included in the book are interdisciplinary and cater not only classical floriculture but also relevant modern aspects. The book will provide valuable data on different aspects and will be widely accepted by by professional scientists, researchers, teachers, students, floriculturists, technocrats and planners. The volume will be an invaluable asset to floriculture scientists.

The volume on Vegetable Crops as a part of series entitled “Handbooks of Crop Diversity: Conservation and Use of Genetic Resources” will be a unique resource, first of its kind, which will elaborate on origin, evolution, taxonomy, identification, chemical characterization, and genetic improvement of Vegetable Crop Plants. Vegetable crops are an important group of crops comprising solanaceous vegetables, Cole crops, Cucurbitaceous crops, Bulb crops, Root crops, Tuber crops, legume vegetables, leafy & salad vegetables, Okra etc. There is tremendous diversity within each group of vegetable crops. This genetic diversity is from the point of view of landraces and varieties of vegetable crops species used for food, processing, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, etc. Vegetables being an integral part of human diet being rich source of diverse nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, they play an important role in balancing the diet and tackling malnutrition. Besides, due to their intensive cultivation, they also play an important role in enhancing per unit area production and productivity, cropping intensity enhancing, thereby, the farmers income, especially that of small and marginal farmers, and providing job opportunities.The genetic improvement of vegetable crops facilitate continued breeding of varieties with greater resilience to stresses and productivity is mainly dependent on overall genetic variation found in individuals belonging to the cultivated species and/or ancestral species related to cultivated species of vegetable crops. Since genes of interest can be tapped from plant sources for their introduction through controlled breeding processes for genetic improvement, and incorporating of desirable external and internal quality traits, therefore accessibility to the information about these plant genetic resources is key to the success of the breeding efforts.Since there is a need of comprehensive information about the genetic resources, therefore it is important to facilitate their conservation and long-term sustainable use in research and improvement. The comprehensive information on the availability of genetic diversity in each vegetable crop species in this volume would facilitate priority conservation in gene banks, research and use in vegetable crop improvement. Realizing the importance of genetic variability in the improvement of vegetable crops from the point of view of biotic and abiotic stress resistance, enhanced micronutrient, climate change, enhanced shelf life, nutraceuticals, bioactive compounds, especially national and international efforts further need to be stepped up for collection, characterization, evaluation, and conservation  of vegetable crops genetic resources to facilitate search for new genes, research and their use in vegetable crops improvement.During 21st century, genomics and marker assisted tools have gained importance for hastening the crop improvement programmes by enhancing breeding efficiency. Realizing that population in South Asia and Southeast Asia is facing acute problem of under and malnutrition, the emphasis on dietary diversification with vegetables is therefore being stressed. Besides, to enhance farmers income much emphasis is being laid on development of varieties having diverse maturity, growth habit, resistance to diseases and insect pest to reduce the use pesticides, enhanced nutrients and shelf life. For these traits, we have to look into landraces, and wild relatives for the traits of interest. Therefore, it has been felt to bring out a vegetable volume with additional accessory and supplemental information, analyses and specifically filtered information  which can go a long way in promoting research, search for new genes/alleles, revealing the opportunities available for  exploitation of PGR in generation  of cultivars to meet upcoming challenges of vegetable crop improvement and diversification and requirement of cultivars for processing, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry which will promote contract farming. This will also help identification of geographical and genetic diversity gaps for future search of new genes/collections.Plant Genetic Resouces(PGR) serve as treasures of genes of interest for developing improved future vegetable varieties/hybrids, besides being key to scientific efforts of developing gene pyramided varieties, they are important for mitigating various challenges posed by increasing population, climate change and health conscious society looking for nutraceuticals. The proposed vegetable volume on agro-biodiversity conservation and use of plant genetic resources with information on available genetic diversity among various groups of vegetable crops and component cultivated species with in a group of food and agriculture in all possible perspectives would be able to reflect the opportunity available for genetic engineering of vegetable crop species. It will also go a long way in facilitating more predictive and productive genetic engineering programme to breed futuristic vegetable crops varieties/hybrids.