Flood Tolerance in Crops: Research Accomplishment of Indian Scientists

摘要

Flooding or waterlogging is detrimental to most of the agricultural crops. Pulses are most sensitive and rice, sugarcane and jute crops are moderately tolerant to flooding or water logging. In India, most of the basic research pertaining to flooding is limited to rice with little work on sugarcane and jute. A large number of genotypes in these crops were identified and developed through breeding but possessed low to moderate tolerance with low yield. Mechanism of flood tolerance in rice has been widely studied in India and abroad and information generated is being utilized to develop genotypes having high to moderate flood tolerance with high yield. Molecular markers have been identified and are being used for further improvement in tolerance and yield. It has been shown that flooding tolerance or submergence tolerance is controlled by a small number of genes that are partially or completely dominant. DNA markers for major QTL for tolerance and marker-assisted selection are potential tools for further improvement of flood tolerance in crops. Research on flood tolerance or water logging in maize, wheat, lentil and other crops is at nascent stage. This article is confined to update information on mechanism of flood tolerance in cr ops with special reference to contribution of Indian scientist's and classical work.