Status of Buckwheat in India

plant breeding Buckwheat is the most important life support, multi purpose and nutritious crop of the tribes living in the Himalyas. It is the only crop grown up to 4500 m elevation. Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tataricum are the two species cultivated in the Himalayas. Currently the cultivation and production of buckwheat is declining. In some of the areas, it has been completely replaced due to change in land use pattern for quick economic gains. A total of 577 collections was made {F. esculentum (284),F. emarginatum (55), F. tataricum (198), F. tataricum var. himalianum (30), F. giganteum (5) and F. cymosum (5) in 27 multi crop explorations covering diverse agro-ecological regions of the Himalayas}. 56 exotic introductions were also added. The germplasm has been conserved in a medium term storage at Shimla station. A set of 408 collections has been evaluated for 31 descriptors. A wide range of variation was found in plant height, number of branches, number of inter-nodes, number of leaves, leaf width, seed shape, size and colour. Leaf width had the strongest positive direct effect on yield. Leaf width and seed weight were observed to be the most potential traits for genetic amelio-ration. The entries Himpriya and IC18889 were found stable for branches per plant, seed weight and seed yield in a 5 year testing period. On the basis of average over three locations, Himpriya gave the highest yield of 13.8 q/ha. Based on the high economic importance of the crop in the Himalayas and to restict its declining culti-vation and production trends, a crop combination and diversification for various regions has been suggested. The most intensive cultivation areas have been identified for on farm conservation and participatory plant breeding to raise its production, highlighting the future exploration and conservation needs