The Current Status of Genetic Resources of Some Tropical and Sub-Tropical South Asian Fruits and Nuts and Their Wild Progenitors

摘要

Farming for food is believed to have originated in the Near-East about 10,000 years ago with the domestication of the founder crops and is considered to be the most important development in human history. Today the Fertile Crescent itself is in a grip of political turmoil and food deficit and has to rely on imports whereas South Asia is self-sufficient in agricultural as well as tropical and sub-tropical fruit and nut products. Several of these fruits and nuts are not indigenous to South Asia and their wild progenitors are to be found elsewhere, such as in South America, Southeast Asia, and the Near East. This paper discusses aspects of the origin and domestication of some of the important as well as less well-known fruits and nuts of the South Asian continent and gives the current status of the genetic resources of the same. Global climate change will surely affect the manner in which these fruits and nuts will be cultivated and their impact on the farm economy cannot be under-estimated. Their wild progenitors and other wild relatives will play a major role in whether these fruits and nuts will continue to be cultivated and make major contributions to our economy as in the past. Or will they succumb to the ravages of global warming and climate change and go into oblivion?