Varietal Diversity in Cereal Crops of the Jammu and Kashmir State

Abstract

The precious plant genetic resources existing in the Jammu and Kashmir State hold vast potential for current and future use. These precious resources, however, are now increasingly being threatened, mainly because of human population pressure and changes in climatic and land use pattern and also due to rapid replacement of adapted, indigenous cultivars by the modern high-yielding varieties. Getting impetus from the national and international concerns over the ever-increasing threat to plant biodiversity, it is imperative that a scientific management for conservation of invaluable plant resources is immediately and urgently taken up in this Himalayan region. It is in this context that the present attempt has been made to document, characterize, and enlist the agro-biodiversity of the J&K State with special reference to maize, rice, wheat, and barley crops.