Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the important source of protein and nutrition for billions of people, particularly living in Southeast Asian, Middle East, and Mediterranean countries. Being capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen, chickpea crop is also an important component of sustainable agriculture system. Canada is one of the major chickpea producing countries, with most of the crop being exported to Asia and the Middle East. Developing ascochyta blight resistant, early flowering, high nutritional value and good seed quality cultivars, that suits Western Canadian growing conditions and growing chickpea market has been the primary objectives of the Canadian chickpea breeding program.
The availability of whole-genome sequence of chickpea
One of my favorite places on campus is Cool Beans, and not just because they have good drinks, smoothies, and food. In fact, my favorite thing about Cool Beans is the ambiance. There are plenty of cafes and stores around campus that are comparable, food-wise, to Cool Beans, but none of them give off the same vibe as Cool Beans. They do not have the same colorful walls, the variety of art and paintings, the borderline messy layout, the quirky design, and the music-- all the reasons why Cool Beans is my favorite. And whenever I go to Cool Beans, I actively pay attention to at least some of the songs they play, as their playlist is very eclectic, indie, and fun-- just like the rest of the store. When I went there most recently, I noticed that not too many people seemed to be paying close attention to the music, but I often found myself humming and singing along. When a tune I recognized started playing, I would stop what I was doing and ask myself, what song is that? When I remembered the name or the
With the rapid growth of our global population pouring into the next millennium, we will witness an ever-growing hunger rate around the world. That is unless we call for a revolution on the global scale. The Green Revolution which already sprouted in the early part of the century only need to add a bit more momentum and we will see a bright future for the human race, a future without hunger and starvation ¡V hopefully.It is becoming increasingly difficult for the planet to support its overwhelming population. And since the amount of arable land available is becoming scarce, we must seek ways to dramatically improve crop yields of existing cropland.
The term GM foods or GMO (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques (Whitman, 2000). These plants have been modified in the laboratory to offer desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. Also, genetic engineering techniques have been applied to create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and accurately. For example, this is done by the geneticist isolating the gene responsible for drought tolerance and inserts it into another plant. The new genetically-modified plant will now have gained drought tolerance as well.
The main four pigments of spinach consist of chlorophyll, carotene, xanthophyll, and also pheophytin. Carotene consists of colors ranging from yellow-orange to orange. These are known as α-and β-, The difference between these two is the position of the double bonds they contain their outside cyclohexene rings. The rest of the carotene are consistent of methyl groups along with conjugated polyenes which are single and double bonds which alternate through the rings. This is the least polar of the pigments spinach contains because there are not polar functional groups present..Chlorophyll is the blue-green pigment that is found in all plant life chloroplasts. These are recognized in two structures- chlorophyll a and b. These both have a porphyrin ring which is an aromatic structure that holds 26 electrons in a conjugated system.
Beans are hearty little things! According to (Dr.Axe) “a one-cup serving of cooked black beans provides daily recommended values has 15 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber.” That’s lots of protein and fiber in 1 cup of black beans! This is great news since high protein helps build muscle mass and in turn, helps with weight loss. Fiber helps with riding our bodies of harmful substance and waste from our digestive tract. Eating black beans promotes nutritional value, good benefits such as reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease, improved blood sugars, beneficial to your bones, and has historically been around for centuries.
The production of chickpea or ‘chana’ is also affected in excessive cold conditions. Chickpea is sown in the months of September to November in India and is considered as a rabi crop (Figure 1.3). The desi type chickpea reaches physiological maturity by 95-105 days and Kabuli type by 100-110 days. The plant is harvested when its leaves start drying and shedding and can be done manually or with the help of a harvester. In India, it is harvested in between March to April. This crop is often cultivated as a sole crop but sometimes it is also grown rotationally with other crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, wheat and coriander. Pale yellow, dark brown or reddish chickpea are some of the varieties that are grown
Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) is an important grain legume crop of the family Fabaceae. It is the most important kharif pulse crop with much higher productivity. Pigeon pea represents about 5% of world legume production (Hillocks et al., 2000) and more than 70% is being produced in India. India is the centre of origin and largest producer of pigeonpea in the world sharing approximately 70% of the production and covering 74% of
Kale is a vegetable from the brassica family. It is hardy, cooler seasoned plant that grows best in the spring, autumn and winter months (March, April, May, June, July) as it can tolerate frosty weather conditions. Kale produces erect stems with large leaves that are rich in minerals as well as the vitamins A and C. Kale is popular in salads and other healthy food mixes because of its rich content. Although kale is a healthy product, it is not a popular plant to grow unlike other brassicas such as broccoli and cauliflower. Therefore it has a lower production value. This can be seen below in figure 1.
The area under maize is spreading rapidly because of its productivity and adaptability to a wide range of environments. Globally, maize is known as queen of cereals because it has the highest genetic yield potential among the cereals. The adaptability of maize to diverse environments is unmatched
Maize or corn (Zea mays L.) is a plant belonging to the family of grasses (Poaceae). It is one of three major cereal crops worldwide. It now used as diversified value added consumptions as specialty corn. Popcorn is one of them and popularized as high fibre, healthy and nutritious snack throughout the world. All the commercially grown varieties of popcorn in India are composite varieties viz., Amber popcorn, Jawahar popcorn and VL popcorn with low yield with less popping quality (1). Estimative from TPMGTA (The Popcorn Maize Growers’ and Traders’ Association) pointed out that around 25,000 tonnes of popcorn were imported in 2012-13 mostly from Argentina and the U.S. which is much less than the demand around 50,000 tonnes of popcorn per annum (Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Government of India, New Delhi). The present scenario of single cross hybrids in maize has increased the productivity of maize at 134 kg/ha/annum (Biology of Zea mays, Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India). Looking to this, there is a need to improve popcorn populations and develop single cross hybrid for high grain yield with better quality.
Maize, is the world's 3rd leading cereal crop, following wheat and rice. USA produces nearly 40% of the total world’s production and it is also the staple food of Americans. After the America, largest corn producing country, are the People's Republic of China & Brazil. Corn is the leading cereal in USA, with ordinary production 3 times that of triticum aestivum. Maize is the principal food particle in Mexico, America, South America, and is important as a food grain southern Africa & China. In the USA, maize is used basically as a feed for livestock and for manufacturing products. Corn is a naturally cross pollinated. The major contributions to maize development during the 20th century have been a technique for breeding hybrid corn and improvement of the frame for large scale, industrial production of hybrid seed, and genetic makeup improvements in the maize plant that add to its increased production, it is suitable that a system for breeding hybrid corn is the leading involvement of USA scientists in plant breeding.
Pulses are high protein foods that are used for human and animal nutrition around the world. The human consumption of pulses is lower in Europe than in other regions of the world (Schneider, 2002). In Europe, however, field pea is an important pulse crop used for both livestock feed and human nutrition.
For future agriculture to thrive there are necessary changes which must be made in accordance to arising global issues. These issues are arable land, harsh cropping conditions and food security which involves, being able to provide the world population with food containing sufficient nutrients. “These crops need to be able to mature in several environments allowing for worldwide access, this is involves issues such as drought tolerance” (wikipedia.org). These global issues are achievable through the process of plant breeding, as it offers the ability to select specific genes allowing the crop to perform at a level which yields the desired
Beside, cassava is used for many different purposes in industrial starch, such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, especially biofuels (Sriroth, Piyachomkwan et al. 2000). Along with economic development, the amount of starch needed for industry is increasing remarkably in developing countries. To meet the starch used, the scientists have applied technical scientific advances mainly transgenic techniques in plant breeding. The synthesis of starch in plants needed 3 enzymes are ADP glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase; EC 2.7.7.23), starch synthase (SS; EC 2.4.1.21) and starch branching enzyme (SBE; EC 2.4.1.28) (Fernie, Willmitzer et al. 2002). To improve starch content, we can enhance the activity of three enzymes. The rate of starch synthesis is determined mainly by the activity of AGPase, the first enzyme in the pathway (Zeeman, Kossmann et al. 2010). AGPase catalyzes the first step in the biosynthesis of starch in the plastids by converting Glc1P and ATP into ADPGlc and PPI (Tiessen, Hendriks et al. 2002). The enzyme AGPase has been successfully transfered into a number of crops such as cassava (Ihemere, Arias‐Garzon et al. 2006), potatoes (Ball, Marianne et al. 1991, Stark, Timmerman et al. 1992, Thro 1996), wheat (Smidansky, Clancy et al. 2002), rice (Smidansky, Clancy et al. 2002, Sakulsingharoj, Choi
...ased adaptability among food crop species. While economic issues limit the ability of developing countries to increase agricultural inputs, these regions can find an advantage in the fact their agricultural practices tend to be more flexible. Meanwhile, technologies available to more developed countries are increasing the speed with which new cultivars can be developed, and the ability to understand and improve agricultural management practices. Ultimately, best results to developing agricultural systems which will provide a source of sustainable food for the entire world as climate change progresses; will be a result of a collaboration between scientists and farmers. When practices allowing for greater agrobiodiversity are employed the level of sustainability of our agricultural systems will advance and agriculture can become truly adapted to the new global climate.