Agro-Morphological Characterization and Nutritional Profiling of Traditional Himalayan Crop Landraces for Their Promotion Toward Mainstream Agriculture

Abstract

The northwest Indian Himalayas are often regarded as a biological hotspot for the presence of rich agro-biodiversity harboring locally adapted traditional crop landraces facing utter neglect owing to modern agricultural systems promoting high-yielding varieties. Addressing this challenge requires extricating the potential of such cultivars in terms of agro-morphological and nutritional attributes. In this study, 29 traditional crop landraces of maize (11), paddy (07), finger millet (03), buckwheat (05), and naked barley (03) were characterized and evaluated for target traits of interest. In maize, Chitkanu emerged as an early maturing landrace (107 days) with high concentrations of zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and potassium (K), and Safed makki showed the highest 100-seed weight (28.20 g). Similarly, Bamkua dhan exhibited high concentrations of K and phosphorus (P), and Lamgudi dhan showed a high protein content (14.86 g/100 g) among paddy landraces. Ogla-I and Phapra-I showed high contents of protein (14.80 g/100 g) and flavonoids (20.50 mg/g) among buckwheat landraces, respectively, followed by Nei-I, which exhibited the highest protein content (15.66 g/100 g) among naked barley landraces. Most of the target traits varied significantly (p < 0.05) among evaluated samples, except those associated with finger millet landraces. The grouping pattern obtained by principal component analysis (PCA) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) was congruent with the geographical relationship among the crop landraces. This study led to the identification of elite crop landraces having useful variations that could be exploited in plant breeding programs and biofortification strategies for future crop improvement. Our endeavor would aid in conserving the depleting Himalayan agro-biodiversity and promoting versatile traditional crops toward mainstream agriculture vis-à-vis future nutritional security.

Nutritional analysis of rice landraces from southern Odisha, India

“…On the contrary, Malhotra et al. ( 2022 ) studied nutritional profiling of rice landraces from northwest Indian Himalayas and found significant differences in protein content among rice landraces of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, for example, they reported protein 14.86 g/100 g in Lamgudi dhan which is much higher than the results of the present study. These variances are primarily associated with an alteration in their geographical origin (Kumar et al., 2015 ).…”

“…These results are comparable with other reports that the Korean rice landraces contain 6.99 g/100 g protein (Li et al, 2014) and 6.7 g/100 g protein reported in LELLI AAM, Arunachal rice landraces (Longvah & Prasad, 2020) indicating the potentiality of these varieties as a functional food. On the contrary, Malhotra et al (2022) studied nutritional profiling of rice landraces from northwest Indian Himalayas and found significant differences in protein content among rice landraces of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, for example, they reported protein 14.86 g/100 g in Lamgudi dhan which is much higher than the results of the present study. These variances are primarily associated with an alteration in their geographical origin (Kumar et al, 2015).…”

Genetic Relationships and Diversity of Common Buckwheat Accessions in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…Specifically, Pop18 had an average seed weight of 32 g per 1000 seeds. The most recent study on morphological traits among common buckwheat landraces, conducted on Himalayan germplasm, reported that the 1000 seed weight among their accession ranged between 17.42 and 22.64 g [46]. One of the less desirable traits found in Pop18 is its stem color, which was green.…”