Agri-diversity in North-Western Himalayas Sharma B. D., Rana J. C., Joshi B. D. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla 171 004 (Himachal Pradesh). Abstract The North-western (N-W) Himalayas has highly varied agro-ecological conditions and predominantly vegetarian people. The high dependence on plants as food source resulted into the growing consumption of about 180 plant species by the inhabitants. The highly diverse ecology of the N-W Himalayas hosts much varied vegetation. As a consequence, wild relatives of crop plants have also an impressive array of diversity. Among these, the significant species diversity is found for Allium (18), Lactuca (16), Taraxacum (14), Agropyron (11), Vicia (11), Solanum (brinjal) relatives (9), Chenopodium (8) and Lathyrus (8), besides, wild relatives of species like Cicer microphyllum and Glycine max. Top Keywords North-western Himalaya, agri-diversity, food plants, wild relatives. Top |