Conservation of Agro-biodiversity : Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Abstract

I began my research in the fi eld of agro-biodiversity in
1947 at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI),
New Delhi. The experimental material consisted of species
and varieties of non-tuber bearing Solanum (Family
Solanaceae). Solanum melongena, the eggplant (brinjal)
belongs to this group. I was amazed at the variety of
eggplants, from different parts of India, in the collections
made by my supervisor Dr Harbhajan Singh. The goal
of my study was to understand the genetic relationships
among non-tuber bearing Solanums. In 1949, Professor
JBS Haldane visited my experimental fi eld and observed: ‘I
have never seen such variability in quantitative characters
as in eggplant; this plant is ideal for studies in the fi eld
of quantitative genetics.’ He further observed that