What is the significance of landraces in crop improvement programmes?
The traditional farmers have given us a priceless heritage of crop germplasm. The diversity of crop is the outcome of thousands of years of deliberate selection, exposure to array of natural conditions, natural hybridization and other modifications which farmers have tried. The farmers in the areas of crop diversity often grow several crop varieties in one season especially where traditional agriculture is practiced. These traditional varieties or landrace population are often highly variable in appearance, but each is identifiable, having particular properties or characteristics, such as early or late maturing, adaptability to a particular soil type, etc. Landraces often have survived and adapted to different biotic and abiotic stresses in cultivation and thus offer a good source of genes with potential resistance, making them important for modern plant breeding.
