Chapters authored
Mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek): Retrospect and Prospects
Mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) is economically most important crop of Vigna group. It is also known as green gram, golden gram, moong, Chickasaw, Oregon pea, and chop suey bean and this legumes have a strategic position in Southeast Asian countries for nutritional security and sustainable crop production. Being rich in quality protein, minerals and vitamins, they are inseparable ingredients in the diets of a vast majority of Indian population. When supplemented with cereals, they provide a perfect mix of essential amino acids with high biological value. These crops have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen (58–109 kg per ha in kg per ha mungbean) in symbiotic association with Rhizobium bacteria, which enables them to meet their own nitrogen requirement and also benefit the succeeding crops. This crop has also been reported to smother weed flora appreciably (20–45%) when intercropped with tall cereals or pigeonpea and consequently, minimize the cost incurred on weed control. On account of short duration and photo-thermo insensitivity, they are considered excellent crops for crop intensification and diversification. A seed of mungbean is highly nutritious containing 24–28% protein, 1.0–1.5% fat, 3.5–4.5% fibre, 4.5–5.5% ash and 59–65% carbohydrates on dry weight basis and provide 334–344 kcal energy. Mungbean protein is considered to be easily digestible. Mungbean are tropical grain legumes widely grown in the sub-tropical countries of South and Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, these crops are cultivated over a wide range of latitudes in the regions where average diurnal temperatures during the growing season are warmer than about 20°C.
Part of the book: Legume Crops
Current Scenario of Breeding Approaches in Rice
Rice is the predominant crop in India and is the staple food in eastern and southern Indian populations. One of the oldest grown crops is rice. The initial discovery of cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) three-line system made it possible to produce hybrids that significantly increase rice yields compared to its inbred counterparts. Further genetic and molecular studies help elucidate the mechanisms involved in CMS male sterility. Additional CMS types were also discovered with similar genetic control from wild sources by interspecific hybridization. In India more than 1200 varieties were released for cultivation suitable different ecosystems and out of them 128 varieties have been contributed from NRRI, Cuttack. A list of these varieties are furnished below with their duration, grain type, yield potential, reaction to major disease and insects grain quality and tolerance to different adverse situations. Recent advances in molecular approaches used in modern rice breeding include molecular marker technology and marker-assisted selection (MAS); molecular mapping of genes and QTLs and production of hybrids and alien introgression lines (AILs). Genomic selection (GS) has been projected as alternative to conventional MAS. GS has huge potential to enhance breeding efficiency by increasing gain per selection per unit time. Due to the adaptation of semi dwarf high yielding varieties, combined with intensive input management practices, the country witnessed an impressive rice production growth in the post-independent period. Rice production was increased four times, productivity three times while the area increase was only one and half times during this period. The projected rice requirement by 2025, in order to keep up with increasing population, is about 130 m.t. The challenge of growing rice production is made more difficult by declining trends in HYV’s yields, decreasing and degrading natural resources such as land and water and a severe labour shortage.
Part of the book: Cereal Grains
Natural Drugs for Diabetes: Needs of Developing Country
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic issue and genuine worldwide wellbeing annihilating issue. The plague ascends in the quantity of new pace of diabetes mellitus is perhaps the most disturbing statistic with respect to wellbeing association overall premise. Notwithstanding, customary information could be utilized to help present-day or ordinary diabetes medicines. Here, we distinguish therapeutic plants that have been utilized as medicines for diabetes dependent on Chitrakoot ethnobotanical information. According to individuals’ viewpoint, it is demandable and OK to incorporate homegrown concentrates as a component of the clinical intercession that the homegrown medication is viewed as normal and that the training might have been trailed by numerous ages. In this possibility, the utilization of therapeutic plant concentrates to treat a particular sickness was noticed for millennia. Therefore, Natural herbal phyto constitute a potentially important natural resource to provide inexpensive treatment of a disease commonly affecting the population of rural community as well as country. The plants used for diabetes treatment should be tested for pharmacological efficacy to help select the most useful for traditional medicines.
Part of the book: Medicinal Plants
Breeding of Major Legume Crops through Conventional and Molecular Techniques
Legume crops are universally applicable for human and animal food and sustenance because of their relatively high protein and essential amino acid content. Furthermore, they have been linked to sustainable agriculture, noting their ability to bind to atmospheric nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Despite this, several technical limitations of leguminous crops keep their world production far behind that of cereals. This chapter of the book focuses on current developments in breeding and biotechnology of major legume crops. Conventional breeding has primarily set out to recover a number of vegetative and reproductive traits that are associated with different heritability values, which reflect how susceptible each character is to genetic improvement. In conclusion, legume breeding programs using classical breeding methods and biotechnological tools face a promising boost for further application of knowledge and information that may boost their overall production. In plant breeding, the development of improved crop varieties is limited by very long periods of cultivation. Therefore, to increase crop breeding efficiency, they are using new strategies such as high-throughput phenotyping and molecular breeding tools. In this chapter, recent findings on various aspects of crop improvement, plant breeding practices, to explain the development of conventional and molecular techniques.
Part of the book: Case Studies of Breeding Strategies in Major Plant Species