Access to Crop Wild Relatives and Their Use: An Overview

The Crop Wild Relatives (CWR; wild species closely related to crop taxa) have the potential to contribute beneficial traits to crop plants. They are at great risk of threats due to habitat loss, degradation and climate change and hence require immediate collection and conservation to make use of their potential value. The plant genetic resource programmes at the national, regional and global levels provide strong recommendations for conservation and use of CWR. The present account mainly deals in the Indian context and provides a wide array of information on importance, approach, access and utilization of this group of genetic resources for various users.