Plant Genebank Utilization for Trait Discovery in Millets

This book provides global information on utilization of plant genetic resources (PGRs) of major millets. It discusses various aspects such as genebank resources, valuation of germplasm, genomics-assisted trait discovery and their utilization for cultivar development. PGRs are the backbone of crop improvement program essential for reaching global food security. Millets are an important crop globally as they provide food security, nutrition, cultural significance, livelihoods, and environmental health security. Its promotion by the enhancement of area under cultivation and varietal development by efficient use of PGRs is the need of the hour. Hence, for sustainable production of millets, efficient use and management of millets' PGRs are equally important.

Traditional methods of PGRs' management are being challenged by the ever-changing needs, priorities, climate, technologies, and policies. To address this issue of sustainable management of PGRs, there is a need to create awareness among the various stakeholders in a scientific manner covering all aspects from conservation to utilization. This book also discusses advances in tools and techniques used for phenotyping, genotyping, and genomic-assisted trait discovery in millet crops.

The target audience for this book are research scholars, scientists and academicians involved in the field of utilization and conservation of PGRs. This book serves as a reference material to postgraduate students studying millet crops.

Kuldeep Tripathi is working as a Scientist, at the Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. He has made enormous contributions to Plant Genetic Resources management, including pre-breeding and genetic enhancement of pulses that work seems quite unparalleled. His classic research work at ICAR-NBPGR since 2015 on legumes has brought to his credit 04 Indian pulse core sets developed in lentil, pea, grasspea and cowpea (From entire Indian national genebank collections) as the main developer; 26 legume genetic stocks registered. He has also contributed in development of varieties of mungbean (1), lentil (1) and pillipsera (1) for commercial cultivation. He published >80 research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals. Besides this, he has also been teaching as Post Graduate School faculty of ICAR-IARI for the last nine years and has contributed to teaching and guiding MSc and PhD students.

Jyoti Kumari, Ph. D. Principal Scientist, ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi obtained her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in the discipline of Genetics in 2002 and 2005 respectively. Her major scientific contribution includes mega characterization and evaluation of ~22,000 wheat germplasm, development of core (2226 acc.) and minicore (224 acc.) set from the entire wheat germplasm conserved in the Indian national genebank. She has identified several accessions with unique traits in wheat, barley, maize, lentil and pearl millet. She also identified QTLs for terminal heat tolerance, salt tolerance, seed size and seedling root architecture traits using genome wide association strategy. She has contributed in augmentation of rice and wheat germplasm from the drought and heat prone areas of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. She has published more than 140 publications, including 102 research papers in national and international journals, 18 book chapters, three books and one catalogue. She has developed four varieties in lentil and mungbean and registered 40 genetic stocks with Plant Germplasm Registration Committee. She is fellow of Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding since 2012 and recipient of prestigious award, Dr. Harbhajan Singh Memorial Award from the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding. As a faculty of Division of Genetics, she has guided nine M.Sc. and one Ph.D. student of Post Graduate School, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.

Sushil Pandey, Principal Scientist is working as millet curator in the Division of Germplasm Conservation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. He has more than 23 years of experience in the field of Seed and Plant Genetic Resources. He started his career as Scientist in National Research Centre for Soybean, Indore where he developed the “Guidelines for Production of Nucleus and Breeder Seed in Soybean – 2002”. Thereafter he worked as Senior Scientist at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and worked extensively on seed production of cereals and vegetables and developed hybrid seed production technology in rice and tomato. He has been working as millet curator for 15 years in ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi and has contributed significantly in the upgradation of the National Genebank facility. Dr Pandey has been involved in the formulation of ICAR mega project, “Consortium Research Platform on Agrobiodiversity”, and has been coordinating the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of different sub projects involving plants, animals, fish, microbes, insects, veterinary type culture collection, documentation of fungal biodiversity (fungal barcoding) and Island biodiversity during first phase of 2012-2017; second phase during 2017-2021 and the third phase during 2021-26. The Consortium Research Platform has more than 50 centers located in different parts of the country. Dr Pandey has also worked with FAO and ICARDA and provided several consultancies to their Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Services in different countries of Asia and Africa. He is Fellow of Indian Society of Seed Technology and also faculty member in the discipline of Seed Science and Technology and is presently involved in the large-scale characterization programme of millets for the development of core sets, triggering their enhanced utilization. 

Badal Singh is working as a Scientist, at the Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi and has more than 7 years of experience in the area of Plant genetic resources management. He is a graduate in B.Sc. (Agriculture) from Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU and post-graduation and PhD in Economic Botany and PGR from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi. He joined ICAR Agricultural Research Services at ICAR-NBPGR, RS, Shimla and worked on temperate agri-horticultural genetic resource management. He has been working for past 5 years on genetic resource management of potential crops which include millets and Nutri-cereals of the Himalayan region. Presently he is engaged in genetic resource evaluation of millets. He is also engaged in teaching at Graduate School, ICAR-IARI. He published >16 research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals.

Sunil Archak is a Principal Scientist and ICAR-National Fellow at the ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi in the areas of PGR Informatics and PGR Policy. He has 26 years of experience working with various aspects of Plant Genetic Resources including large-scale characterization of germplasm. He was instrumental in establishing National Genomic Resources Repository and a PGR Informatics Facility at NBPGR. He has developed many web-apps and mobile apps for enhancing access to PGR information including PGR Portal. Sunil Archak holds a dual faculty membership at IARI in the disciplines of Plant Genetic Resources as well as Bioinformatics. He has organized trainings on DNA fingerprinting, genomic data analysis, conservation of genomic resources, climate analogue tools, etc. He represents India in FAO-ITPGRFA and has participated in the Treaty Governing Body meetings at Kigali (2017), Rome (2019), Delhi (2022) and Rome (2023). He is currently the Co-Chair of the Treaty Working Group on MLS enhancement. He also represented India in FAO-CGRFA and CBD meetings.

Gyanendra Pratap Singh, Ph.D. Director, ICAR-NBPGR and former Director, ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal have more than 3 decades of agriculture research including 10 years of teaching and more than eight years of research management and administration experience. Dr. Singh is instrumental in the development of 60 wheat and 03 barley varieties and 01 potato variety benefitting multitude farmers, consumers and industries. Dr. Singh largely focused in intrinsic and strategic research on abiotic stress that led to publication of 300 peer-reviewed research articles of high impact, 18 books, 65 book chapters, 57 technical bulletins, 55 popular articles, 05 Policy/Strategy papers. His strenuous efforts on advancing the R&D led to several accolades at national and international level by honoring with 17 individual awards. He is an elected fellow of 3 prestigious academies i.e. INSA, NASI and NAAS and also fellow of 3 registered professional societies. His acumen on leading research programs and visionary perspective garnered recognitions like Gene Stewardship Award from the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, USA.