Landraces

In News 

• Recently, Rahibai Popere popularly known as Seedmother, from Maharashtra was awarded Padma Shri Award for recognition of her work to save hundreds of landraces (wild varieties of commonly grown crops) at the village level.

What are Landraces? 

• They refer to naturally occurring variants of commonly cultivated crops. 
• These are as opposed to commercially grown crops, which are developed by selective breeding (hybrids) or through genetic engineering to express a certain trait over others. 
• Example of Landraces: kalbhat is a unique landrace of scented rice. 
  • Over the years, this variant had almost vanished from cultivators’ fields as hybrid variants became popular. 
  • It has better climate resilience than popularly grown rice and can withstand floods or drought better.

• Importance:
  • Naturally occurring landraces have a large pool of still untapped genetic material, which can provide solutions. 
    • Genetic diversity is nature’s survival mechanism. 
    • The wider the gene pool, the more the chance of developing a trait that can help in surviving extreme climate events.
  •  A common misconception was that landraces have lower yields than hybrids. 
    • With proper agricultural practices, landraces can give better yield with lower input costs.

• Initiatives: Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF)has initiated a community-led programme to preserve landraces Since 2008. 
  • BAIF’s programme involves the community in saving this rich biodiversity in their own backyard.

Way forward

• At present, landraces survive in only a few rural and tribal pockets.
• Traditional knowledge needs to be grown, or how seeds are to be saved.
• There is much remains to be understood about the germplasms of the landraces.
  • Research is in the early stages. 
• It is necessary to understand how these landraces can contribute to climate-resilient agriculture; nutritional profiling too can hold the key to fighting deficiencies, as many landraces are richer in nutrients than commercially grown variants.

Source: IE