<div>We designate here the name designate &lsquo;oasis&rsquo; (Wit in Egyptian, Wah in Copte, Waha in Arabic et in Persian, Neve in Hebrew, et Ouasis in Greek), points located in the desert and which are distinguished from the surrounding environment by more or less abundant vegetation. The date palm (<em>Phoenix dactylifera&nbsp;</em>L.) is the backbone of the oasis and it is the one that must be protected. This review has the objective toexplain the typological and agroecosystem of saoura oasis and its contraints. The data obtained in this study are based on statistics from national and international institute like CRSTRA, ONID, ITDAS and RADDO and also from surveys and prospecting missions with the help of farmers who have given us all the routes carried out in their fields and the main constraints that affect this kind of crop. The data obtained showed that the oasis has certain pedoclimatic, geological and hydrogeological properties specific to the arid environment. The oasis agrosystem studied (saoura) has certain specificities compared to others, such as the absence or presence of certain constraints on the date palm such as the bayoud and the date moth. Regarding varietal diversity, &lsquo;Feggous and H-mira&rsquo;, these are the most important varieties in Saoura region, but are sensitive to certain constraints such as Bayoud, which requires the selection of new resistant varieties.</div>


<p>Varietal Diversity of Date Palm (<em>Phoenix dactylifera</em> L.) in South-western Oases of Algerian Sahara: A Review</p>


<div><strong>Background: </strong>Intercropping and mixed cropping based on two or more different crops have been widely used in Insect Pest Management to manage the population density of insect pests in various crops like maize with soybean, sorghum with soybean and sunflower with soybean. Genotypic diversity is the mixture or combination of various varieties/lines/genotypes of a crop. It decreases the insect-pests population by unfitness of crop to them due to intraspecific diversity such as mixture of susceptible and resistant varieties. Also, it increases the natural enemy population more due to longer period of flowering, availability of wide diverse food, more movement of herbivores <em>etc</em>. This concept has also been used successfully to manage insect-pests in maize, wheat and potato. In India, this connect is used in very small scale in crop. The objective of this study was to determine effects of genotypic diversity by comparing the population densities of major insect pests between monoculture of single variety and mixture of varieties.<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods: </strong>To test the effects of genotypic diversity on soybean insect-pest and their natural enemy population an experiment was laid in<em> kharif </em>2018 and 2019 at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore. All recommended agronomic package of practices were followed for raising of crop. Randomized block design with three replication having plot size of 9 rows of 5 meter row length was used. Totally 20 treatments were chosen for this experiment and out of 20 four treatments namely, T1, T6, T11 and T16 were the treatments of four varietal mixture treatments of almost similar maturity duration and agronomic traits and rest of treatments were of sole varietal treatments. Observations were made on insect-pests from 10 selected plants in each plot on three leaves selected at top, middle and lower portion of plant.<br />
<br />
<strong>Result: </strong>Effects of genotypic diversity in soybean revealed that for whitefly management T11 (NRC-86, JS-335, JS-2098 and RKS-45) was found most effective treatment. In case of mite, thrips and treehoppers management T1 (JS-9560, JS-20-34, MAUS-47 and MAUS-1460) was found most effective treatment. For leafhopper and mealy bug T6 (JS-9305, JS-2029, RVS-2001-4 and Dsb-28-3) was found most effective treatment. While for spittlebug T16 (NRC-37, JS-9752, RSC-1046 and RKS-113) was found most effective treatment. So, genotypic diverse treatments were found more effective than their respective sole varietal treatments.</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>


<p>​Effects of Genotypic Diversity on Insect-pests of Soybean</p>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> Association of several morphological traits such as trichome length and trichome density on the pod surface have been found to influence host plant resistance to insect pests. Genetic diversity analysis is used to identify the divergent genotypes and to utilize these genotypes to exploit heterosis. Further, morphological characters are stable across environments owing to oligogeneic nature, they serve as morphological markers in breeding which can be used in varietal or genotypic identification, varietal purification and even in seed production. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate on host plant resistance using portable paper microscope &lsquo;foldscope&rsquo;, genetic diversity and morphological characters.<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods:</strong> A total of 154 germplasm lines with three checks were evaluated in Augmented Block Design (ABD) at Zonal Agricultural Research Station (ZARS), Kalaburagi, during kharif, 2018 to study their genetic diversity. Trichome length and trichome density were recorded using &lsquo;foldscope&rsquo; 75 randomly selected genotypes, then correlated with shrivelled seed yield per plot due to pod fly incidence. Morphological characterization of 14 qualitative traits were recorded.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>Grouping of 157 germplasm lines into twelve clusters indicated a wider genetic diversity for the traits studied, of which 7 clusters were solitary with one entry each. The genotypes with more trichome density and length had less damage by the pod fly. Large variations for morphological characters was observed among the genotypes for qualitative traits such as pod colour, stem colour, flower colour, seed morphology and pod trichomes.&nbsp;</div>


<div>Pod Trichome Characterisation Using Foldscope, Morphological Characterization and Genetic Diversity Among Indigenous Collections of Pigeonpea [<em>Cajanus cajan</em> (L.) Millsp.]</div>


<p style="text-align: justify;">Forty nine genotypes of wheat were studied for generating scientific information on nature and magnitude of genetic variability and diversity for designing breeding programme. The experiment was conducted in randomized complete block design in three replications. The data were recorded on days to 50% flowering, plant height, peduncle length, number of productive tillers per plant, days to maturity, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, biological yield per plant, grain yield per plant, harvest index and gluten content. &nbsp;Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters under study. The highest estimates of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were observed for grain yield per plant. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for grain yield per plant. Based on D2 &ndash;Statistics, 49 genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. The highest inter-cluster distance was found between cluster VII and VIII followed by III and VII. This indicates that genotypes included in these clusters possess wide genetic diversity. Grain yield per plant (31.46%) showed highest contribution towards genetic divergence; therefore, this character was major determinant of genetic diversity. On the basis of divergence and cluster mean it may be suggested that maximum heterosis and good recombinants could be obtained in crosses between genotypes of cluster VIII, VII and III in varietal improvement programme. Thus, &nbsp;crosses between the genetically diverse genotypes of cluster VIII with genotypes HUW 655, HP 1937, DBW 88 and HD 3058 &nbsp;and cluster VII with genotypes like &nbsp;HP 1938, HUW 656, K1006, DBW83, DBW 84, K1004, UP2822 and NW5050 are expected to exhibit high heterosis and are also likely to produce new recombinants with desired traits.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Genetic variability and diversity analysis for yield and its components in wheat (<em>Triticum aestivum</em> L.)</p>


<div><strong>Background: </strong>Morphological characters are stable across environments owing to oligogeneic nature. Hence, they serve as morphological markers which can be used in varietal or genotypic identification, varietal purification and even in seed production. Genetic diversity analysis is being used to identify the divergent genotypes and to utilize these genotypes to exploit heterosis and also help to select desirable segregants.<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods:&nbsp;</strong>A total of 266 pigeonpea germplasm lines along with three checks were evaluated in augmented block design (ABD) at ZARS, Kalaburagi, during <em>kharif</em>, 2020. Observations are recorded on nine quantitative and fourteen morphological triats.<br />
<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> Grouping of 266 germplasm lines into twelve clusters indicated a wider genetic diversity for the traits studied, in which cluster I and cluster II are the largest comprising 105 genotypes each, while clusters V, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII were solitary with one entry each. Germplasm lines IC339062, IC343954, IC339074, IC418976, IC343931, IC437078, IC355599 and IC384490 fall into solitary cluster and are more often likely to have some unique characters which make them divergent. The genotypes IC 355599 and IC 343931 are trait specific for both seed weight and pods per plant.</div>


<p>Morphological Characterization and Genetic Diversity among Indigenous Collections of&nbsp;Pigeonpea [<em>Cajanus cajan</em> (L.) Millsp]</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Genetic diversity among 54 genotypes of field and garden pea of India were studied using 30 RAPD primers. A total of 168 amplicons were scored, of which 154 were polymorphic revealing 89.3% of polymophism. Out of 30 RAPD primers tested, 22 primers produced clear and reproducible bands. The number of products generated by these primers ranged from 04 to 14 with primer OPU-17 giving maximum (14) and primer OPC-08 giving minimum number of amplicons (04). Genetic similarity estimates based on the binomial data using Jaccard&rsquo;s coefficient ranged from 0.34 (Kaza-2/IC-218991) to 0.89 (IC-209118/IC-209123) with an average similarity index of 0.54 exhibiting considerable diversity among the pea genotypes studied. The dendrogram showed clear pattern of clustering according to the source of germplasm. This study indicated that Himalayan region germplasm exhibited higher diversity.&nbsp;</div>

Diversity analysis of pea genotypes using RAPD markers

<div style="text-align:justify">Modern intensive monocropping system is becoming unproductive, pest ridden, loss incurring, and resource depleting and hence turning out to be untenable. Lack of discrimination in input use by farm managers and overall poor management are accelerating degradation and desertification processes, and loss of biodiversity particularly add in endangered regions. &nbsp;While, properly designed diverse and strategically located tree/seasonal crop based land use systems can contribute to ecologic services by mitigation land degradation, climate change and desertification, while conserving natural resources and biodiversity. Besides providing, diverse goods and services, on-farm diversity can be considered as an adoptive strategy in areas climatically and biologically vulnerable. Being a potential C sink, tree based land use systems can also mitigate negative impacts of CO2 emission. As green belt/bank these have an important role in maintaining air, water and soil quality in mining and industrial areas. The so-called cellulosic feedstocks can be grown on marginal land, enhance soil fertility by promoting the growth of various soil organisms, and provide a climate- friendly source of energy. There are plenty of underexploited but potential plant species which can find niche in the existing agroecosystems with substantial addition to total production while contributing sufficiently to ecological services. These needs to be identified and useful models are developed for specific situations.</div>

On-farm crop diversity for sustainability and resilience in farming - A review

<div><strong>Background:</strong> Arecanut (<em>Areca catechu</em> L.) is an important plantation crop of India belongs to the family Arecaceae. As it is a highly cross-pollinated crop there is a significant difference among the genotypes. Morphological traits used for determining diversity and relationships among genotypes or variety are prone to environmental influences. Thus, the usefulness of molecular markers has been investigated as a means of characterizing and discriminating difference more precisely. Therefore, the present study was carried out to assess the genetic relationship and diversity among the arecanut genotypes by employing RAPD, ISSR and SSR markers.<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> A total of 11 genotypes are being grown in University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences (UAHS), Shivamogga, Karnataka, India, which includes both local and exotic collections. These 11 genotypes were evaluated for genetic variations using molecular markers <em>viz.</em>, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and simple sequence repeats (SSR).<br />
<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> All the markers studied showed significant polymorphism among the genotypes. Jaccard&rsquo;s genetic similarity coefficient values of RAPD, ISSR and SSR markers were found in the range of 0.56-0.76, 0.55-0.74 and 0.52-0.91. The higher similarity was observed between the genotypes Mohitnagar and Mangala, as well as Theerthahalli Local and Hirehalli Dwarf. The genotypes Maidan Local and Cameroon were placed in very distinct clusters, showing that they are having very distinct traits. The dendrogram prepared using SSR data separately and combining data of RAPD, ISSR, SSR markers showed similar results. Therefore, employing SSR markers for further studies will be more useful for identifying germplasm for varietal improvement programmes.</div>


<p>Genetic Relationship and Diversity Analysis in Arecanut (<em>Areca catechu</em> L.) Genotypes using Molecular Markers</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Tofu is a soybean curd precipitated from hot soymilk with a coagulant, followed by molding and pressing to remove whey. An initial survey reveals that soy processors in Punjab do not prefer varieties of soybean from Punjab for processing into milk and tofu. Three varieties viz. SL 958, SL 744 and SL 525 were procured from department of Plant breeding, PAU, Ludhiana and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Patiala. Control sample (locally available soybean, undescriptive variety) was procured from local soy processors for tofu making. Data is average of three replications. The yield of tofu was highest (1.55kg/kg) from SL 958 followed by control, SL 525 and SL 744 respectively. Organoleptically, overall acceptability score was 7.9, 6.9, 7.2 and 7.5 for tofu from varieties SL 958, SL 744, SL 525 and control, respectively. The values from hunter colorimeter, measuring lightness/darkness showed that varietal differences affected the colour of tofu.</div>

Varietal evaluation of soybean for tofu making

<div><strong>Background: </strong>The variety of indigenous duck germplasm contribute maximum to the poultry industry in India, besides chicken population. In southern part of India, the available duck genetic resource, particularly Arni ducks (comprises of Sanyasi and Keeri ducks) of Tamil Nadu, has its own characteristics with innate potentiality of higher productivity without any input system of management. Genetic characterization and diversity of indigenous duck genetic resources has not been properly studied. In the present study, the genetic diversity of Arni ducks with other indigenous and exotic duck germplasm were analysed with microsatellite markers.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods: </strong>Genomic DNA was isolated from the blood samples of six duck populations. Molecular characterization was carried out with duck specific FAO recommended microsatellite markers. The genotyping of ducks was done based on the size of 4324 PCR amplicons of 23 microsatellite loci, which were subjected to capillary electrophoresis using automatic sequencer.<br />
<br />
<strong>Result: </strong>A total of 222 alleles in six duck populations across 23 microsatellite loci with a mean of 9.65&plusmn;0.95 alleles were found. Kuttanad duck variety had the highest number of alleles (139) followed by Sanyasi (136), Keeri (129), Muscovy (118), Assam (91) and White Pekin (78) ducks. The mean observed number of alleles was 6.04&plusmn;0.59, 5.91&plusmn;0.76, 5.61&plusmn;3.17, 5.13&plusmn;0.44, 3.96&plusmn;0.76 and 3.39&plusmn;0.40 in Kuttanad, Sanyasi, Keeri, Muscovy, Assam and White Pekin ducks respectively. The overall mean polymorphism information content (PIC) values among the six duck populations was 0.6269. &nbsp;In most of the duck populations, the mean PIC value was more than 0.5 except in Assam (0.4815) and White Pekin (0.3725) ducks. The observed heterozygosity was the highest in Keeri ducks (0.5217) and lowest in White Pekin ducks (0.2766), while, the mean expected heterozygosity was the highest in Sanyasi (0.5628) and lowest in White Pekin (0.4038) ducks. The variations in the observed and expected number of alleles, differences in PIC of various microsatellite loci might be attributed to the genetic variability of the duck populations, number and type of microsatellite primers utilised for analysis and the genetic diversity of the duck breeds under study. Higher FST value indicates the substantial degree of breed differentiation among the studied duck populations.</div>


Varietal Diversity of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in South-western Oases of Algerian Sahara: A Review

Effects of Genotypic Diversity on Insect-pests of Soybean

Pod Trichome Characterisation Using Foldscope, Morphological Characterization and Genetic Diversity Among Indigenous Collections of Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]

Genetic variability and diversity analysis for yield and its components in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Morphological Characterization and Genetic Diversity among Indigenous Collections of Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp]

Diversity analysis of pea genotypes using RAPD markers

On-farm crop diversity for sustainability and resilience in farming - A review

Genetic Relationship and Diversity Analysis in Arecanut (Areca catechu L.) Genotypes using Molecular Markers

Varietal evaluation of soybean for tofu making

Genetic Diversity of Six Duck Populations in India