Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources of Underutilized Fruits

Underutilized fruits (UUFs) are directly relevant to the people living in rural, forests, or tribal regions. Many of the indigenous tropical and subtropical fruits have remained underexploited due to the lack of awareness of their potential, lower availability, and location specificity. The diversity of these fruits is facing the threat of severe genetic erosion, if not of extinction, due to climate change, large-scale urbanization, and deforestation due to land use change. To protect the existing diversity and to achieve sustainable development based on the use of available genetic wealth and protect the ecosystems in which they tend to occur, there is an urgent need for promoting and conserving these species in situ as well as ex situ. Commercial production and processing for value addition of these crops would enhance the income of small and marginal farmers and tribals which will then encourage them help in situ/on-farm conservation of valuable germplasm of UUF by continued cultivation or by taking care of what occurs in forests and other areas. There are more than 500 species of UUF tree crops in different regions of the world, and many of them occur in India. The botany, origin and distribution, genetic resource conservation, research needs, etc. of bael (Aegle marmelos (L.) Corrêa), kair (Capparis decidua (Forssk.) Edgew), lasoda (Cordia myxa Roxb.), phalsa (Grewia subinaequalis DC), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.), kaith (Feronia limonia L.), karonda (Carissa carandas L.), and tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) have been summarized.