Large scale characterization of entire gene bank collections of cowpea and sesame at ICAR-NBPGR

Large scale characterization of entire gene bank collections of cowpea and sesame at ICAR-NBPGR

The ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi carried out the activity of large scale characterization and preliminary evaluation of entire germplasm in one go in collaborative mode under the Department of Bio Technology, Government of India funded Network Project on Minor Pulses and Oilseeds.

On his visit to the field experiments, Dr. Kuldeep Singh, Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi stressed on the need to develop the phenotyping technique for facilitating the large scale germplasm characterization and evaluation. He also emphasized on using the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as the need of hour to generate large scale characterization data in time bound manner and the images captured using drone helps in categorizing the entire germplasm for various purposes.

Dr. Ashok Kumar, Head, Division of Germplasm Evaluation, ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi outlined and demonstrated the live variability for different traits in both the minor crops.

Dr. Sanjay Kalia, Coordinator, Agricultural Biotechnology, Department of Bio Technology, Government of India suggested that the germplasm curators should develop the trait specific reference sets and identify the elite germplasm for accelerating their use in national breeding programmes.

(Source: ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi)