Browsing by Author "Rakesh Bhardwaj"

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Adaptations of culturally and nutritionally important traditional foods in Eastern Himalaya: A case study with Adi women of Arunachal Pradesh
(2012) Anamika Singh; Ranjay K. Singh; Rakesh Bhardwaj; A.K. Singh
Adi tribal women living in far-flung areas of mountainous ecosystems of Arunachal Pradesh have evolved tremendous amount of traditionally knowledge (TK) to identify, collect, process and use biological resources as foods, nutrition and ethnomedicines. In this article, we discuss about the use of culturally important indigenous biodiversity used by Adi women as food, nutrition and ethnomedicines. Data reported in this study is based on three projects completed with Adi tribe in Arunachal Pradesh. Information pertaining to study was collected using conventional and participatory methods. Results reveal that Adi women are knowledgeable in accessing indigenous biodiversity to use in making culturally, nutritionally and medicinally rich foods. A number of uncultivated indigenous plants and crop resources are adapted to prepare traditional foods. Beside, a large number of wild animals and insects are integral part of food system. Most of the foods are consumed in boiled forms, fermented and alcoholic beverages. Few most commonly consumed indigenous plants are onger (Zanthoxylum rhetsa), poi (Basella rubra), dhenkia saag (Diplazium esculentum), marsang (Spilanthes acmella), ongin (Clerodendrum colebrookianum), kalmu (a creeper) and rori (a herb) and considered most dependable food plants. These ethnobotanicals are source of income and as well as the part of adaptive strategies on food security during the climatic variability. The other species such as banko, champa, fayong, gende, kekir, kopi, koppir, kordoi, mamang, marshang, onger, ongin, oyik, paput, etc. are observed as part of both food and ethnomedicines. A number of fermented foods and alcoholic traditional beverages are consumed by Adi tribe, and make them novel in food habits from others. Adi have rich socio-cultural capitals to sustain adaptive practices associated with traditional foods.
Mainstreaming Local Food Species for Nutritional and Livelihood Security: Insights From Traditional Food Systems of Adi Community of Arunachal Pradesh, India
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2021) Ranjay K. Singh; Rakesh Bhardwaj; Anamika Singh; Temin Payum; Arvind K. Rai; Anshuman Singh; Lobsang Wangchu; Sanjay Upadhyay
This study brings out the critical role of lesser-known local plant species in the food, nutrition and livelihood security of Adi community in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Considering women as a major custodian in knowledge and practices on foods, a total of 90 Adi women and 60 key knowledgeable community members (thus a total of 150 participants) were selected from East Siang and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Data were collected using combination of methods including recipe contest, focus group discussion, personal interviews and laboratory analyses. The results indicated that Adi women were able to identify 39 bioculturally important species from a range of locally available plant species. Used alone or with other foods, these plants remain central to the Adi people's cultural identity and livelihood security. In addition to improving food and nutritional security, these species accessed from different land use systems, are also sold on the local markets to generate decent incomes. Of the species identified by Adi women, 28 were culturally shared and used frequently in food and ethnomedicine. Laboratory analyses of the selected 22 species revealed exceptionally high levels of minerals and other nutrients, such as proteins and anti-oxidants, supporting their traditional use for health benefits. Our study results provide valuable insights to the researchers to explore the vast hidden potential of these and other similar species for improving nutritional well-being of local communities in marginal areas. Adequate policy support is needed to enable Adi and other such marginalized communities to cope with challenges being posed to traditional food systems. © Copyright © 2021 Singh, Bhardwaj, Singh, Payum, Rai, Singh, Wangchu and Upadhyay.
Multi-environment analysis to unravel bread wheat core collection to identify donors for grain quality, phenology, and yield traits
(CSIRO, 2024) Jyoti Kumari; R.K. Gupta; Arun Gupta; B.K. Honrao; S.S. Vaish; Achla Sharma; Sewa Ram; Gopalareddy Krishnappa; Shivani Sharma; Rakesh Bhardwaj; Sherry Rachel Jacob; Sundeep Kumar; V.K. Vikas; Sushil Pandey; J.C. Rana; Ashok Kumar; G.P. Singh; Kuldeep Singh
Context. Untapped wheat germplasm is conserved globally in genebanks. Evaluating it for grain quality and yield will help achieve nutritional and food security. Aims. We aimed to evaluate the Indian National Genebank bread wheat core collection for grain quality, phenology and yield, to identify potential donor germplasm. Methods. 1485 accessions were grown at three locations in India during winter 2015–2016 to evaluate test weight, grain protein content, sedimentation value (SV), days to spike emergence, days to maturity, grain yield and thousand-grain weight (TGW). Key results. Best linear unbiased estimates indicated mean protein of 13.3%, 14.7%, and 13.0% and yield of 73.0 g/m, 70.9 g/m and 66.6 g/m at Ludhiana, Pune, and Varanasi locations, respectively. The SV ranged from 26.6–65.6 mL and 17.7–66.6 mL at the Ludhiana and Pune locations, respectively. The top 10 accessions were identified for all the studied traits. Six high protein accessions, with consistent protein of more than 15% along with moderate Thousand-grain and test weights were further validated and assessed for stability across environments. Grain protein content was correlated negatively with thousand-grain weight and yield, but positively with days to maturity and spike emergence. Conclusion. The identified accessions with high trait values could be used in future breeding programmes to develop high yielding biofortified cultivars to address protein malnutrition and also cultivars with suitable end-product quality. Implications. The diversity in a core collection can be exploited to develop modern high yielding bread wheat cultivars with higher grain protein content and suitable end-product quality. © 2024 The Author(s).
Multi-locus genome-wide association studies reveal novel genomic regions associated with vegetative stage salt tolerance in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
(Academic Press Inc., 2020) Shiksha Chaurasia; Amit Kumar Singh; L.S. Songachan; Axma Dutt Sharma; Rakesh Bhardwaj; Kuldeep Singh
Soil salinity is one of the typical abiotic stresses affecting sustainability of wheat production worldwide. In the present study, we performed a 35 K SNP genotyping assay on association panel of 135 diverse wheat genotypes evaluated for vegetative stage tolerance in hydroponics. Association analyses using five multi-locus GWAS models revealed 42 reliable QTNs for 10 salt tolerance associated traits. Among these 42 reliable QTNs, 9, 17 and 16 QTNs were associated with physiological, biomass and shoot ionic traits respectively. Novel major QTNs were identified for chlorophyll content, shoot fresh weight, seedling total biomass, Na+ and K+ concentration and Na+/K+ ratio in shoots. Further, 10 major QTNs showed significant effect on the corresponding salt tolerance traits. Gene ontology analysis of the associated genomic regions identified 58 candidate genes. The information generated in this study will be of potential value for improvement of salt tolerance of wheat cultivars using marker assisted selection. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.