SESSION—II - GENETIC IMPROVEMENT

Dr. S. K. Mukherjee presented the Keynote Address on ‘Genetic Resources and Mango Improvement in the World’ during this session and gave a general picture of the world situation with regard to the availability of wild species and cultivated varieties in different parts of the world. There are now 39 valid species of Mangifera. Maximum are found in Malaysia numbering 16, followed by Sumatra, Java, Sabah, Sarawak and Indo-China. Out of 18-endemic species, 4 occur in India. While some species are akin to indica, others are close to Caesiaodorate complex.

There is need for in-situ and ex-situ conservation of the germplasm in mango. While the wild species are to be preserved in-situ in their natural habitat, the cultivars are to be preserved ex-situ in various selected centres. For in-situ preservation, there is need to declare some areas as biosphere reserves, national parks, etc, so that natural evolution is permitted without human interference.

It is very gratifying that the International Bureau for Plant Genetic Resources has taken enormous interest in the preservation of mango germplasm and it is likely that 5 centres, namely, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are to be recognized for the ex-situ preservation of the cultivars and wild species available in different parts of the world.

Though efforts are to be intensified for the preservation of mango wealth, it is equally important to utilize them in the crop improvement programme. While most of the hybrids evolved in India have Neelum as one of the common parents (Mallika, Amrapalli, Ratna and the promising hybrid at IIHR, Bangalore), it is necessary to make parental selections from a wider spectrum of genotypes so that ultimately they do not end up with problems of disease susceptibility, normally seen in monocultures. There is also need for utilizing the wild species as rootstocks for growing under different agro-ecological conditions and for resistance to diseases and pests.

There is need for catalogueing the available germplasm as has been done at IIHR to obtain maximum information on the variability already existing so as to utilize them in breeding programmes with definite objectives.

Hybridization programmes are to be well thought of with clear cut objectives since the experience at IARI has shown that out of 41000 crosses, two

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