Role of Under-Researched Crops in Food and Nutrition Security

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 1241

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Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland
Interests: crop breeding and genomics; plant breeding; crop intensification; enabling environment; plant ideotype; yield potential
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food and nutrition security is the main challenge faced in developing countries. Due to the inability of these nations to grow enough food for their citizens, they are obliged to import large quantities of agricultural products every year. Food and nutrition security is based on four pillars: (i) food availability, which refers to the availability of sufficient quantities; (ii) food access, which refers to having sufficient resources for acquiring appropriate food for a nutritious diet; (iii) stability, which refers to the availability and accessibility of quality food at all times; and (iv) utilization, which refers to the appropriate use of food-based knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation. Orphan crops, also known as under-researched-, underutilized-, or neglected crops, play vital roles in the food and nutrition security and livelihood of resource-poor farmers and consumers in the developing world. Similar to major crops, these crops are members of all food types—cereals, legumes, vegetables and root and tuber crops, which are considered to be orphan crops. Despite their huge importance for present and future agriculture, orphan crops have generally received little attention from the global scientific community. Due to this, they produce inferior yields in terms of both quantity and quality. In this Special Issue, the role of orphan crops in food and nutritional security will be presented and discussed for key crops considering ecological and geographical factors. The efforts and achievements made so far to improve these crops in the area of breeding, physiology, agronomy, nutrition, genomics, and other relevant topics can be submitted to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Zerihun Tadele
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • orphan crops
  • breeding
  • agronomy
  • genomics
  • nutrition
  • plant improvement

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 972 KiB  
Article
Unveiling Diversity for Quality Traits in the Indian Landraces of Horsegram [Macrotyloma uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc.]
by Manju Kumari, Siddhant Ranjan Padhi, Sushil Kumar Chourey, Vishal Kondal, Swapnil S. Thakare, Ankita Negi, Veena Gupta, Mamta Arya, Jeshima Khan Yasin, Rakesh Singh, Chellapilla Bharadwaj, Atul Kumar, Kailash Chandra Bhatt, Rakesh Bhardwaj, Jai Chand Rana, Tanay Joshi and Amritbir Riar
Plants 2023, 12(22), 3803; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12223803 - 8 Nov 2023
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Abstract
Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum [Lam.] Verdc.) is an underutilized pulse crop primarily cultivated in South Asian countries like India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It offers various nutraceutical properties and demonstrates remarkable resilience to both biotic and abiotic stresses. As a result, it has [...] Read more.
Horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum [Lam.] Verdc.) is an underutilized pulse crop primarily cultivated in South Asian countries like India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It offers various nutraceutical properties and demonstrates remarkable resilience to both biotic and abiotic stresses. As a result, it has emerged as a promising crop for ensuring future food and nutritional security. The purpose of this study was to assess the nutritional profile of 139 horsegram germplasm lines obtained from 16 Indian states that were conserved at the National Gene Bank of India. Standard analytical methods, including those provided by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), were used for this investigation. The study revealed substantial variability in essential nutrients, such as protein (ranging from 21.8 to 26.7 g/100 g), starch (ranging from 26.2 to 33.0 g/100 g), total soluble sugars (TSSs) (ranging from 0.86 to 12.1 g/100 g), phenolics (ranging from 3.38 to 11.3 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAEs)/g), and phytic acid content (ranging from 1.07 to 21.2 mg/g). Noteworthy correlations were observed, including a strong positive correlation between sugars and phenols (r = 0.70) and a moderate negative correlation between protein and starch (r = −0.61) among the studied germplasm lines. Principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted that the first three principal components contributed to 88.32% of the total variability, with TSSs, phytates, and phenols emerging as the most significant contributors. The cluster analysis grouped the accessions into five clusters, with cluster III containing the accessions with the most desirable traits. The differential distribution of the accessions from north India into clusters I and III suggested a potential geographical influence on the adaptation and selection of genes. This study identified a panel of promising accessions exhibiting multiple desirable traits. These specific accessions could significantly aid quality breeding programs or be directly released as cultivars if they perform well agronomically. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Under-Researched Crops in Food and Nutrition Security)
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