Format: ORAL

Satishkumar M Khadia1 and Falguni G Bhabhor2

1 Department of Botany, Bhavan's Sheth R A College of Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India 2 Department of Chemistry, Bhavan's Sheth R A College of Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India

A valuable resource for agrobiodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and overall food security are crop wild relatives, or CWRs. Genes for advantageous characteristics like high nutritional value, disease and pest resistance, resource efficiency, and climate adaptation may be present in CRWs. Their innate genetic diversity and the microbiota that coexists with it provide an abundance of resources for creating resilient, nutrient-dense, and productive crop varieties as well as for diversifying agricultural systems. Despite their value, a wide range of CWRs are threatened and face pressures, e. g. from the consequences of climate change, urbanization, pollution, and intensive agriculture. However, there is still a dearth of information regarding their deployment in breeding and conservation. As a result, there is a lack of understanding regarding the diversity that is present and the specific ways in which it can be applied to farming and crop improvement. Wild relatives of crops are an essential source of adaptive traits and genes, which can be used in plant breeding to improve sustainable food security in the face of obstacles like population growth and climate change. These traits and genes include resistance to diseases, pests, and stresses like drought and extreme temperatures. Crop wild relatives are valued at more than 120 billion US dollars annually (PwC, 2013). Their significance for maintaining agriculture in the future has been acknowledged internationally in the Convention on Biological Diversity (Aichi target 13), International Treaty on PGRFA, FAO Global Plan of Action, and The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2- Zero Hunger). The conservation of crop wild relatives is still an underfunded field of study, despite their economic significance to agriculture and the centuries-long influence they have had on the development of our food crops.