An expedition for unexplored diversity of plant genetic resources in Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India

The Dibang Valley in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India is endowed with rich diversity in cultivated as well as wild plant species. Meagre ex situ germplasm collections from this remote valley together with on-going massive road-widening activity necessitated systematic collection of plant genetic resource wealth from this valley. An expedition aimed at augmenting genetic diversity in crops, their wild relatives and minor economically important plants during October-November 2017 had resulted in the collection of 138 accessions belonging to 56 taxa. Of these, 13 taxa belonging to minor economic were collected for the first time from the state of Arunachal Pradesh, include six unrepresented species in the National Genebank. Predominant collections were made in cereals (33), pseudocereals (21), grain legumes (18), minor millets (15) and vegetables (14) with remarkable variability. Germplasm of crops like tartary buckwheat, chenopod, proso-millet and adzuki bean were augmented for first time from this area. Some ethnobotanical observations and indigenous traditional knowledge on the crops and plants used by Adi and Idu tribes including the preparation of soybean recipe ‘adilyu-chhi’ gathered during survey has also been discussed in the present paper.