Collaborative exploration and collection of native plant genetic resources as assisted by agrobiodiversity fair

Abstract

This article describes the agrobiodiversity fair aided exploration and collection expedition of native plant genetic resources in southern Lalitpur, jointly organized by the National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre (NAGRC) and Group of Helping Hands (SAHAS) Nepal. In-district one-day agrobiodiversity fairs were organized in February and December month of 2019, altogether two times, and these agrobiodiversity fairs were used as a tool to explore plant genetic resources found in Bagmati and Mahankal Rural Municipalities of Lalitpur district. To collect these explored genetic resources during agrobiodiversity fairs, the joint field expedition, key informant survey, diversity rich farmers discussion was used as a collection tool. The present study explored, inventoried, collected and conserved 148 accessions of 44 crop species, the highest number (18 accessions) was of chayote followed by 10 accessions each of soybean, cowpea and maize and 9 accessions of common bean. Collections are generally new and unique. Many landraces, mostly from rice (13 landraces) were identified as extinct from the surveyed areas and few are under extinction mainly due to attraction of farmers to new high yielding varieties. The collected species with orthodox seeds were tested for germination ability and those that passed a minimum of 85% germination, were preserved in seedbank of NAGRC. NAGRC plans to characterize these accessions in the coming seasons depending upon the season of crop growing. The current expedition collected eight species for which mode of propagation is vegetative or those for which seed storage behavior falls under intermediate mode. NAGRC has been started expanding field genebank coverage using these accessions.

Crop genetic erosion: understanding and responding to loss of crop diversity

“…More sophisticated, larger scale, direct comparative methods are needed. These will surely build on established methods and protocols, but may also be supplemented by new applications, such as crowd‐sourcing farmer knowledge using mobile phones and social media (Fadda et al ., 2020), the organization of local events to engage farmers in research (Mainali et al ., 2020), and the greater use of remote sensing tools (Hutchinson & Weiss, 1999). The establishment of useful baselines for crop diversity through the creation of a network of collaborative observatories in appropriate sites around the world and the development and application of robust, semistandardized methods to document change, as has been done to provide a research resource regarding impacts on native plants due to climate change (Franks et al ., 2008), would provide an invaluable resource for further crop genetic erosion research (Mercer et al ., 2019).…”

Agro-Morphological Characterization and Intra-Varietal Diversity of Akabarechilli (Capsicum spp.) Landraces of Nepal

“…Demand for fresh as well as dried powder of akabarechilli is increasing in international market i.e., Indian, Bhutan, Tibet as well as in domestic market has creating an opportunity for Nepalese farmers to grow for commercial scale (Chapagai et al, 2011). Nepalese people believe that the consumption of an excessive amounts of ordinary chilli can cause injury to the stomach but more pungent and hotter 'AkabareKhursani' varieties do not cause stomach upset (Nemoto et al, 2016) and also take these varieties as a medicinal value for curing gastritis (Mainali et al, 2020).…”

Morpho-agronomic Characterization of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) Germplasm for Yield and Yield-associated Traits

“…Although cucumber is one of the major cucurbitaceous crops grown in Nepal, its yield is considerably low due to the non-availability of high-yielding varieties that are wellsuited for specific production zones, diseases and pest infestation, and the lack of appropriate cultural practices such as fertilizers, irrigation, staking, drainage, and hoeing (Khanal et al, 2020;Mainali et al, 2020). Considering these factors, cucumber production can be increased by adopting superior varieties that are well-suited to the production zone and superior cultural practices, or by extending the production area under cultivation.…”