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Crop genetic diversity and in situ conservation of traditional varieties play a vital and complementary role in biodiversity conservation, capturing not only genetic resources but also the dynamic evolutionary processes that sustain them. In the present study, thirteen traditional Odisha finger millet varieties, selected from a larger set of 46 conserved by tribal millet farmers, were evaluated across four diverse growing regions. The study identified four traditional varieties Kundra Bati (1776.6 kg/ha), Laxmipur Kalia (1735.3 kg/ha), Malyabant Mami (1686.1 kg/ha), and Gupteswar Bharathi (1863.9 kg/ha) with stable grain yield levels under marginalized conditions and local preferences by farmers. Gupteswar Bharathi exhibited superior performance across all test locations (Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada), while Kundra Bati excelled at Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, and Rayagada; Malyabant Mami at Koraput and Rayagada; and Laxmipur Kalia at Mayurbhanj and Rayagada. The identified varieties also recorded superiority for grain iron (20.4 to 23.2 ppm), grain zinc (17.5 -19.6 ppm) and calcium content (2692-3221 ppm). Higher stover yields (>8000 kg/ha) recorded in the four traditional varieties indicates it scope in agro-pastoral utility. Considering the importance of conservation of traditional varieties in its growing regions supported with performance in evaluation trials and local acceptance by farmers, the four traditional varieties were notified for large scale cultivation in the target locations. Nutritional analysis of varieties grown at Koraput demonstrated ~20% higher grain protein and micronutrients indicating greater role of environment on the expression of these nutritional traits. These findings suggest scope for future research aimed at securing Geographical Indication (GI) status for finger millet production from Koraput and other traditional growing regions. Notably, Koraput, Odisha, India is, recognized as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), underscoring its global significance in agro-biodiversity conservation. The present study highlights the importance of integrating traditional knowledge with scientific approaches to effectively conserve and mainstream diverse traditional millet varieties into the cultivation system.

The introduction of 3D printing technology has revolutionised the manufacturing and electronic product design in the past few years, where it is used to even produce printed circuit boards. Printed electronics is one of the fastest-growing additive manufacturing technologies and is becoming invaluable to various industries. The evolution of several contact and non-contact types of fabrication techniques have been reported in the recent past. Leveraging these technologies, various types of printed electronic components have been realized. One method is inkjet printing technology, which has been widely accepted for printed electronics manufacturing. As 3D printing uses only those materials which are essential to create the product, it eliminates waste production, with a smaller equipment cost and minimizes the number of process steps, resulting in lower manufacturing costs with reduced turnaround time. Various kinds of conductive and non-conductive materials have emerged in the recent past in conjunction with many manufacturing techniques for printed electronics. Herein, we review the most commonly used substrates, electronic printing materials, and the widespread printing techniques employed at the industrial level, giving an overall vision for a better understanding and evaluation of their different features. The technical challenges of several contact and non-contact techniques with corresponding solutions are also presented. Finally, status on advances in the production of various kinds of materials employed in 3D printed electronics and the methods for producing them, shortcomings, technical challenges, applications, benefits, and the future opportunities pertaining to printed electronics are discussed in detail.

Jatropha curcas L., an important biodiesel plant, has been studied for its distribution and diversity in south east coastal zone of India using DIVA-GIS. The Grid maps were generated on the distribution pattern, plant height, number of primary branches, collar length, number of fruits per cluster and oil content. Flowering in the collected accessions were grouped in to very early (35%), early (29%), medium duration (10%), late (20%), and very late (6%) types. Analysis for richness using rarefaction method of DIVA-GIS showed that Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh is the potential area for germplasm with high oil content. The present study revealed that diverse germplasm accessions of J. curcas are distributed all over the south east coastal zone and enabled us to find out gaps in collection and diversity richness from SEC zone of India for conservation.

The Indian gene centre possesses a rich legume biodiversity––1,152 species comprising cultivated, underutilized edible and forage legumes. Majority of the underutilized food legumes are widely distributed as wild species in various agro-ecological regions of peninsular India. Indian legume species (62%) contribute to the food and health security of ethnic communities. A total of 66,546 accessions of legume gene resources including underutilized species are conserved in the National Gene Bank. Collection, characterization and conservation efforts regarding the diversity of these beans are described. The importance of genetic variation in legumes and their wild relatives as a source of desirable resistance to pests and diseases in a changing climate scenario is discussed. Information on legumes used in Indian and modern systems of medicine and ethno-botany as well as the scope for bio-prospecting are presented. Advanced biotechnological applications in legume research for sustainable utilization of these resources are highlighted. An integrated gene resource management strategy to combat malnutrition, identify gene resources for legume improvement and enhance their value as traditional food and medicine is described.

Safflower is a multi-purpose oilseed crop, primarily known for good quality oil containing highest polyunsaturated fatty acid content (>80%) among edible oils. In this study, a core subset of 148 safflower accessions representing 15 countries, predominantly of Indian origin, was evaluated for agronomic traits and characterized for genetic diversity, population structure and linkage disequilibrium (LD) using 44 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci across 11 linkage groups to enable its utilization in breeding and genetic mapping purposes. The collection had substantial variation for seed yield-related traits. SSR allelic variation was low as indicated by average number of alleles (3.6) per locus, gene diversity (0.314) and polymorphism information content (0.284). Cluster analysis (neighbour-joining tree) revealed five major genotypic groups with very low bootstrap support. STRUCTURE analysis showed recognizable population structure; based on membership coefficients ( ≥ 0.75), 52% accessions were classified into four populations (K= 4) and the remaining 48% accessions into admixture group. High F st values (0.30–0.48) suggested that the populations were substantially differentiated. Analysis of molecular variance results showed that maximum of genetic variation (85%) was explained between individuals within the population suggesting that the population structure was only weak. About 1.9% of SSR locus pairs were in LD, which appeared to be low. High phenotypic variation, mild population structure and low level of LD among unlinked loci suggested that the core subset can be explored for association mapping of seed yield components in safflower.

Traditional processing of Circular Polarimetric (Compact Polarimetric)—Synthetic Aperture Radar (CP-SAR) images from the Satellites has been done after receiving the raw data in the Ground Station. The availability of million gate FPGAs has given scope for doing many processing steps on-board itself which has given scope for Smart Small Satellites. The feasibility exists especially for small scenes of interest which have limited data in smaller volumes for ease of processing. National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (NRSC, ISRO) have carried out ground processing with software tools hosted in high performance computers, using the m-delta (δ) decomposition method on the L1-SLC data of CP-SAR payload of RISAT-1 satellite for classification. In our research work, the same data set, and m-delta(ẟ) decomposition method have been chosen for implementation and processing in FPGA fabric, for comparison with earlier Ground based processed results. As part of prototyping, an Intel FPGA evaluation board kit was used. Preliminary results are encouraging and can lead to potential future Smart Small Satellite missions with CP-SAR and on-board processing for direct classification of the scene under imaging for its possible direct delivery to the end user. Major advantage of this approach is the reduction in bandwidth, as the volume of data to be downlinked is reduced, due to lower latency, computational and round-trip times, potential scope for delivery to user with near real-time processing.

Need for identification and value assessment of agro-biodiversity heritage sites in the context of recent Acts has been highlighted to facilitate conservation and evolution of sustainable agriculture. Six indices reflecting agriculture providing livelihood support; custodianship of irreplaceable natural resources; continued co-evolution and development of new agro-biodiversity responding to changing scenario; intangible religious, artistic and cultural association; locals' ingenuity responding to changing scenario and ability to adapt external inputs are proposed for identification of National Agro-biodiversity Heritage/Hotspot Sites (NAHS). Value assessment for conservation and use is being suggested, based on biophysical and landscape, social and cultural, and economic values. An action plan need to be developed for use of products, practices and knowledge from NAHS, ensuring empowerment and benefit sharing to locals within the frame work of national legislations, such as the Biological Diversity Act and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act.

Safflower is a traditional oilseed crop in the world. Its seed oil is a healthy edible oil containing high amount of unsaturated fatty acids. Genetically diverse exotic cultivars are valuable germplasm for introducing new diversity in safflower improvement programmes. In this study, we characterized safflower cultivars of India (30) and Mexico (23) comprising varieties, hybrids and advanced lines developed over 50 years for genetic distinctiveness using 38 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. Genetic diversity estimates across cultivar groups (total, India and Mexico) were as follows: mean number of alleles (3.2, 3.1, 2.6), expected heterozygosity (0.42, 0.37, 0.37) and polymorphism information content (0.36, 0.33, 0.32) respectively, which suggested narrow SSR allelic diversity within and between cultivar groups. However, distance-based cluster analysis (neighbour-joining tree) and model-based STRUCTURE analysis revealed that safflower cultivars of India and Mexico, with the exception of a few, form two genetically distinct groups. High level of genetic variation explained between the populations (40%) and Fst estimate (0.4) suggested that the cultivar groups were highly differentiated with limited gene flow supporting a strong genetic structuring. High oil (~38%) and high oleic (73–79%) contents of a subset of Mexican safflower varieties and advanced lines were confirmed in field trials in India. These exotic sources from Mexico are valuable for safflower breeding programmes in India to develop new cultivars with high oil yielding potential and high oleic acid content, which is the current market demand.

Black gram (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) is one of the major grain legumes in the rainfed agro-ecosystems of India. It is native to India and has been cultivated since ancient times. It has also been introduced to other tropical regions of the world by Indian immigrants. It is grown in cropping systems as a mixed crop, catch crop, sequential crop besides being grown as sole crop under residual moisture conditions after the harvest of rice and also before and after the harvest of other summer crops under semi-irrigated and dry land conditions super(1). It has high nutritive value and is rich in proteins, essential vitamins and minerals. It is very popular in south Indian and Punjabi cuisine. The split dal is extensively used in culinary preparation like dosa, idli, vada and papad.

The root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica Race 3 is an important nematode parasite of groundnut. Greenhouse evaluation of 184 accessions of 33 wild Arachis spp. five interspecific derivatives, 18 groundnut cultivars for root damage (galls formed by nematode) and nematode reproduction demonstrated that resistance to the nematode is available in the genepool of wild Arachis spp. Seven accessions, ICG 8952 (Arachis helodes), ICC 13211 (A. sylvestris), ICG 13224 (A. kretscmeri), ICG 13231 (Arachis sp.), ICG 14862 (A. kuhlmannii), ICG 14868 (A. stenosperma), and ICG 14915 (A. sylvestris) were highly resistant to nematode reproduction and root damage. There was no gall and eggmass formation on any plant of these accessions. Thirty-three accessions were resistant and 14 were moderately resistant. All the tested accessions of A. monticola, A. benensis, A. ipaensis, A. hoehnei, A. kempff-mercadoi, A. valida, A. chiquitana, A. rigonii, A. vallsii, A. dardani, A. paraguariensis, A. triseminata, interspecific derivatives, and groundnut cultivars were susceptible. The possible use of resistance sources in the breeding program is discussed.