Vegetables: Status and Priorities for Exploration and Germplasm Collection in India 2019 ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, India Citation: Pandey Anjula, NS Panwar, Rakesh Singh and SP Ahlawat (2019) Vegetables: Status and Priorities for Exploration and Germplasm Collection in India. ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Ge- netic Resources, New Delhi, India, 97p + i-xxvii Layout and design: Sh. Shashi Kant Sharma Cover page photo identity: front page- Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet (lablab bean) Published by: The Director ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi-110 012, India January 2019 © ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi- 110 012, India Preface The process of domestication of vegetable crops is thought to have started with about 1,500 wild species origi- nally involved (Grubben 1977). Interest towards vegetable production increased rapidly in different parts of the world especially in the tropical regions mainly due to increasing consciousness towards human health, food value and food security. In general the consumption of fresh vegetable has increased substantially in the present time as compared to near past, thus making cultivation of vegetables more viable. The natural distribution pattern of culti- vated vegetable species was largely influenced by the active transport across the regions and the continents along with human migration and trade. The minor vegetables (including wild types) and several other less known culti- vated species are recognized only at local level and thus have potential for commercialization. This publication provides information on the plant genetic resources (PGR) used as vegetables in the Indian con- text. This publication on scientific information on cultivated vegetables is attempted to list all major and minor spe- cies consumed as vegetables, either cultivated or available as volunteer crops in different regions of India. Strategy on collection of germplasm resources is also briefly covered. Tabulated information on vegetable crop origin, dis- tribution, germplasm resource value, time of collecting etc. offers background materials and to those associated with vegetable crop sciences. Thus, the authors have tried to prepare a baseline information for planning and exe- cution of exploration programmes, sorting out the priority areas/species for collection, multiplication, evaluation, utilization vis-à-vis effective management and adopting suitable conservation strategies in national perspective. In 1981 the ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR) published its first manual on plant exploration and collection giving technical guidelines and procedures. Since then, in past thirty years of journey in PGR collecting, the bureau has gained expertise in plant exploration and collection especially using the modern tools like GPS. Dearth of information has been published in the form of research paper, chapters, manuals and guidelines for the benefit of wide users. The present publication is the first one in series focusing on a specific crop -group giving renewed attention to deep understanding of the vegetable germplasm collecting on this special group. We are highly thankful to the Director, ICAR-NBPGR for his valuable guidance in compiling this information in the present form. Critical readings and suggestions by Drs ER Nayar, K Pradheep and Mukesh Rana are put on rec- ords to bring this publication to desirable shape. Thanks are due to Ms Urmila Singh for typing of manuscript and, Ms Rita Gupta, Sh. Shashi Kant Sharma and Sh. OP Dhariwal for providing technical input in various ways. We express our sincere thanks to reviewers who have offered their comments in improving this manuscript. Authors Contents Preface 1. Introduction 01-13 2. Collection of vegetables genetic resources: methodology and strategy 14-34 3. Collection of vegetable genetic resources 35-80 4. General considerations and overview 81-93 5. Selected bibliography 94-97 Annexures List of botanical/ common names, family, type of pollination, mode of i-xvi propagation, centre of origin, main areas of cultivation and part used as vegetable List of common names and botanical names xvii-xix Taxa under vegetable group: collected and conserved (National Gene Bank) xx-xxvii Introduction 1 Vegetables are an important part of the diet of millions of people around the world, more particularly in the tropics. Due to increasing global economic interdependence and trade in agricultural products it is desired to have precise estimation of the valuable diversity available in crops of a region. Vegetables have quick plant growth to produce maximum quantity of food for the area planted and fetch more income in short time as compared to other food commodities. They provide variety and flavours to the diet, making meals more palatable and appetizing. The food value of vegetables, especially leafy types and fruits is low because of large amount of water, low fat and calories but they are rich sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre. The term ‘Vegetables’ means an edible product of a herbaceous plant (a plant with a soft stem), and can be distinguished from the edible nuts and fruits produced by plants. The edible part of a vegetable, may be a root (potato, radish, carrot, turnip, sweet potato, cassava and beet root), stem (knol-khol, asparagus); stem tubers (potato, taro, yams), corm (taro), bulb (onion, garlic), bud (brussels sprouts), stalks (celery), leaf (spinach, lettuce, cabbage, parsley, chive), leaf stalk/ petiole (celery, rhubarb, Swiss chard), bracts/thickened receptacle (globe artichoke), flower stalk/ flower buds (broccoli, cauliflower), seeds (beans, pea), young fruits (brinjal, cucumber, sweet corn), mature fruits (tomato, chilli) and petals (pumpkin, bauhinia, moringa, silk cotton). Like any other crop groups, introductions have played a major role in diversifying the vegetable crop basket. In the sixteenth century variety of vegetables like gourds, pumpkins, water chestnut and melons were commonly grown in India. Some of these are still grown in different regions of India (Ref. Abul Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, pp 68-76). The most common one among them were the surans (elephant foot yam), the palwals (pointed gourd), the tura/ gourds (Luffa), the kachalus (yams/ taros), the chachindas (snake gourd), the kanduris (ivy gourd), sem (dolichos bean), petha (ash gourd), karilas (bitter gourd), kakuras (snake cucumber), singharas (water chestnut), carrots, etc. Sixteenth century was the century of plant introduction. American and African plants began to spread in India along the Portuguese sea routes, from Portugal to Brazil, round the Cape of Good Hope to Goa, Malacca, the Moluccas, Canton and Macao. Chillies were among the top list of vegetable crops representing diversity ranging from pea to a pear sized fruit introduced into India by the Portuguese. Some important introductions during the seventeenth century included potato from Chile and Peru regions (by the Portuguese) into to high altitude ranges of India and amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) from Brazil (the Malabar region). Over the period of time diversity in Indian gene centre got further enriched in cultivated vegetables to over 30 crops mainly the tuberous types, leguminous vegetables, leafy types and cucurbits (Zeven and de Wet 1982). About 400 species contribute to the global diversity in vegetable crops (Arora 2003). It is estimated that over 97 species of higher plants have been cultivated and used as vegetables in India (Pareek et al. 2000; Nayar et al. 2003). Nearly 60 vegetables are commercially grown by farmers and in home gardens for fresh consumption (Arora 1991; Kochhar 1998). More than seventy five per cent of this diversity is of exotic origin/ introduced. Good variability has been developed over times in exotic and indigenous cultivated vegetables. Primitive cultivars of some 1 native crops are still in cultivation under in situ/ on farm protection, in home gardens or grown in mix cropping. In addition, around 700 species (521 species used as leafy vegetables and 145 species as roots/tubers and 101 species as flower/ buds) out of over 1,200 species of higher plants are used as vegetable from wild plants growing in India (Arora and Pandey 1996) overlap with about 200 species of less-known types (Peter 2007-2008). 1.1 Diversity in vegetable crops Over 20 different families of higher plants have contributed to vegetable crops in India. Among them family Cucurbitaceae (25 crops), Fabaceae (16), Brassicaceae (12 crop) and Solanaceae (6 crops) are the major contributors (Table 1.1; Annexure 1, 2)). The mustard family, Brassicaceae, includes many important vegetables. Single species Brassica oleracea includes the ‘cole crops’ such as cabbage, cauliflower, knol-khol, brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale. The family Solanaceae, in addition to potato (Solanum tuberosum), provides several other vegetables like tomato, brinjal, chilli/ hot pepper and sweet pepper. Cucurbitaceae is among the important families providing large number of vegetables such as gourds, melons, pumpkin/squash and cucumbers. Legume family, Fabaceae which includes pea, bean and cowpea provides highly nutritional vegetables rich in proteins, and amino acids neatly complementing to the cereals. Among major crops the cucurbits are important for the Indian region, including 38 endemic species (Chakravarty 1982). Tuberous/root vegetables, rank next to cereals as rich source of carbohydrate but are poor in proteins