National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012.
* Based on the paper presented at the International Workshop on ‘Biodiversity of Traditional and Underutilized Crops’ held at Valleta (Malta), 12–15 June, 1991.
With ever increasing population pressure andfast depletion of natural resources, it has become extremely important to diversify the present day agriculture in order to meet various human needs. The underutilized plants which have tremendous potential for commercial exploitation but remained ignored, of fer a good scope in this context. The Hindustani gene centre houses 160 cultivated species, out of which 56 species are less known food plants. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to enlist underutilized plants of economic value which could, in future, serve as new crops and supplement agricultural production in India. The results of recent efforts on this group of plants made by the All India Coordinated research Project on Undertuilized Crops, the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi and other institutions towards germplasm collection, evaluation, documentation and utilization have been enumerated. The status of germplasm conservation and the future strategies have also been discussed.
