Landrace Crops

Recently, Rahibai Popere, popularly known as Seedmother, from Akole taluka of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra was accorded with Padma award for her work that has helped save hundreds of landraces (wild varieties of commonly grown crops) at the village level.

About Landraces

• Landraces refer to naturally occurring variants of commonly cultivated crops.
• These are as opposed to commercially grown crops, which are developed by selective breeding (hybrids) or through genetic engineering to express a certain trait over others.
• With hybrid rice and wheat, for example, selective breeding over a period of time has allowed scientists to develop varieties that have higher yield or ....