Executive Summary : | Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is a multi-purpose and nutritionally rich pseudocereal crop growing in the cold desert of the Himalayas. It can grow grown to an elevation of 4500 m, tolerate harsh cold and drought episodes, and flourish in nutritionally poor soils. It has become one of the vital food crops of the tribes living in high-altitude cold deserts. Buckwheat has gained special attention because of its stupendous agronomic, nutritional, and nutraceutical potential. It is a gluten-free substitute for major cereal like rice and wheat. Buckwheat has huge medicinal properties such as lowering serum cholesterol, cancer-fighting properties, boosting immunity, etc. Climate change poses a serious threat to agricultural productivity and food security. Also, the Himalayan region is warming up. The growing world human population will exacerbate the problems associated with food security and nutritional quality. The human population relying only on a few cereal crops like wheat, rice and maize have made the agriculture sector extremely vulnerable to climate change. Artificial breeding involves bringing beneficial traits in one population from diverse genotypes. This results in narrowing the genetic base and shrinking agricultural diversity. However, diversification of the agriculture system is needed wherein crops naturally adapted to harsh environments and nutritionally rich must be incorporated. Underutilized pseudocereals have emerged as future crops. Despite its superiority over traditional cereal crops, statistics show that the area of buckwheat cultivation decreased by 46% in 2016-17 compared to 1970-71 (Report of Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, India). The downfall in buckwheat area cultivation and production emphasizes its sensitivity to temperature rise and the lack of crop improvement efforts and selection of improved varieties. The adverse effects of high-temperature stress are investigated in detail in several cereal and horticultural crops. However, buckwheat is less explored, and genetic diversity for high-temperature tolerance remains untapped. Allele mining offers tremendous opportunities to capture genetic diversity, which can be utilized to develop buckwheat adapted to wider geographic range. The project has three objectives 1) to investigate the effects of high temperature on nutritional potential and yield of buckwheat, 2) to identify genomic regions associated with high-temperature tolerance in buckwheat, 3) to identify potential alleles and genotypes for breeding of high-temperature tolerant buckwheat varieties Overall, the project will provide unprecedented opportunities to increase our fundamental knowledge on high-temperature stress responses in underutilized pseudocereal buckwheat and the development of its genomic resources, which in the long run can be used to develop high-temperature resilient varieties. |