AGRI-DIVERSITY IN NORTH-WESTERN HIMALAYAS

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 microphy/lum and Glycine max.