Revisiting the Status of Cultivated Plant Species Agrobiodiversity in India: An Overview

Abstract

A revisit to the literature on cultivated plant species agrobiodiversity in India revealed that the floristic diversity is represented by 17,926 species of angiosperm, while Indian agriculture cultivates 811 plant species and harbours more than 900 wild relatives of the cultivated plant species distributed over 10 (+ 1) biogeographic regions of the the country, significantly higher than commonly cited in the literature. Further, it revealed the role of Indian communities in domestication to cultivation of around 215 economically important plant species, and adaption of around 600 exotic crop species. Based
on new evidence, several species require inclusion and others deletion, and many need further investigations to resolve the issue on country of their origin. Cultivation of crop species in diverse natural and man-made agroecological systems for centuries has generated a huge amount of genetic diversity in a large number of crop species, maintained by the farmers in the form of landraces or farmer’s varieties, and conserved as collections/accessions in the national agricultural research system.