Overview

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.

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Professor (Dr.) Pritam Kalia, PhD, is an internationally acclaimed expert in Vegetable Genetic Research and Breeding, who served as Head & Professor of Vegetable Science Division, and Coordinator of School of Horticulture Sciences at IARI, New Delhi, India.  Prof. Kalia was engaged in both basic and applied research for the improvement of vegetable crops for more than 37 years; first at Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India for 19 years and later for 18 years at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India. His main fields of research were resistance breeding, exotic vegetables, molecular breeding, biofortification, transgenesis and quality (external & internal) improvement of vegetable crops for development of new and novel varieties, promotion and popularization of Indianized exotic vegetables. He contributed in improvement of garden pea, broccolis, leek, bunching onion, cauliflower, carrot, radish etc. Prof. Kalia has published more than 124 research papers in national and international journals of repute on vegetable crops improvement. He has published 14 books and compendium, 30 each of book chapters and popular articles, 2 e-manuals, 1 each of training & practical manual, 57 conference papers/abstracts and delivered 50 invited lectures. As ICAR-Emeritus Scientist at IARI, New Delhi from February 2017 to January 2020, Prof. Kalia did extensive work on a very important futuristic topic entitled, “Advances in biotic stress resistance breeding and β carotene biofortification in Indian cauliflower and nutraceutical mapping in carrot”, and contributed significantly on improvement of Indian cauliflower in areas, such as introgression of β-carotene enhancing Or gene, diversification of cytoplasmic male sterility, development of β-carotene rich CMS hybrids and insect resistant transgenic development besides developing nutraceutical rich recombinant inbred lines(RILs). Prof. Kalia was awarded Himachal Pradesh University Gold Medal and certificate of Honour and N. N. Mohan Memorial Gold Medal for first position in M.Sc at the then College of Agriculture, Solan (HP). He was awarded Commonwealth Scholarship by the Commonwealth Commission in UK for Post Doctorate in United Kingdom in 1985. For his contribution to improvement of vegetable crops & academic, he was awarded Dr. Kirti Singh IAHS Gold Medal, Dr. Bishwajit Choudhary ISVS Memorial Award, Himotkarsh Himachal Shree and Himachal Gaurav awards. Prof. Kalia’s outstanding contribution to Vegetable Science earned him VASVIK Award, IAHS Shivshkthi lifetime achievement Award and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of ICAR. During his career spanning over nearly 37 years, Prof. Kalia contributed significantly in the area of vegetable crops improvement having 33 varieties of different vegetable crops to his credit. Registered genetic stocks; 2 of CMS cauliflower, 4 of CMS tropical carrot, 1 resistant to each of black rot and downy mildew diseases of cauliflower and 1 resistant to powdery mildew disease in garden pea with NBPGR, New Delhi. His major contributions are in exotic vegetables, nutraceutical and resistance breeding and genetic mechanisms facilitating hybrid breeding in cauliflower and carrot. Prof. Kalia is credited with introduction of new vegetable crops in India such as broccoli, leek developing their indigenous varieties and popularized them.   Prof. Kalia contributed significantly in disease resistance breeding developing powdery mildew resistant garden pea variety Palam Priya, black rot and downy mildew resistant cauliflower varieties Pusa Paushja and Pusa Shukti. He established genetic mechanism cytoplasmic male sterility in tropical carrot and Indian cauliflower paving the way for hybrid development. He identified genes (Xca1bo & Xca1bc) which impart resistance to black rot disease in cauliflower which are being bred into commercial varieties through marker assisted breeding. Prof. Kalia has introgressed betacarotene enhancing Or gene in Indian cauliflower which will go a long way in tackling beta-carotene malnutrition problem in India.   Prof. Kalia has guided 5 M. Sc. and 6 Ph.D. students. Three of his PhD students were awarded Jawaharlal Nehru national award for best thesis. He is Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Indian Society of Vegetable Science (ISVS), Indian Academy of Horticulture Sciences (IAHS) and International Society of Noni Science (ISNS). Prof. Kalia represented India in APO sponsored meet on Quality and Safety Standards for Fruit and Vegetables in Taiwan during 2007. He also served as IAEA sponsored training expert on vegetable breeding to scientific staff in Mauritius during 2016. He has been elected as Vice-chairperson of the International Society for Horticulture Science (ISHS) for the Division of Horticulture for Development (DDEV) from August 2018. Prof. Kalia is serving consulting editor for the International Journal of Vegetable Science (IJVS) published by Tailor & Francis, USA since 1999 and also now from 2024 serving as editor of Agricultural Research Springer. He served as Editor- in-Chief of Indian Journal of Horticulture published by Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences for three year (2018-2020). He has been serving as reviewer of international reputed journals, such as Frontiers in Plant Science, PLOS One, Heliyon, Food Chemistry Advances, Agriculture Research Springer, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, International Journal of Vegetable Science, Indian Journal of Horticulture etc. Prof. Kalia visited United Kingdom, Japan, Belgium, Netherland, Portugal, Taiwan, Australia, Mauritius New Zealand and France in connection with post doctorate studies, presenting research papers in congresses/symposiums, international collaborative research project meetings and for imparting training to scientists.

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