ICAR-NBPGR Regional Station, Shimla
Officer Incharge: Dr. Mohar Singh
Contact Numbers: +91-0177-2835459
Address: ICAR-NBPGR Regional Station – Shimla Phagli, Shimla – 171004, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA
E-mail: nbpgr.shimla@icar.gov.in
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Mandate
Acquisition and management of indigenous and exotic plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and to carry out related research and human resource development activities for sustainable growth of agriculture in North-Western Indian Himalayan Region
Salient Achievements
- Undertaken 184 explorations and assembled 16,558 accessions of different crops and their wild relatives while introduced 4565 accessions of different temperate agri-horticultural crops from over 26 countries. Important germplasm collected includes Cicer microphyllum (drought and cold tolerant); Malus baccata (resistance to collar rot, root rot and woolly aphid); Phaselous coccineus (resistant to anthracnose, yellow and common bean mosaic virus); Carthamus lanatus (hardy and vigorous growing); Linum perenne (tolerant to cold and drought); Cucumis hardwickii (resistant to powdery mildew and fruit fly); Momordica dioica (prolific bearer, drought hardy); Fagopyrum cymosum (tolerant to lodging, resistant to phoma blight); Vigna vexillata (cold tolerant, resistance to Ascochyta blight); Solanum insanum(resistant to fruit and shoot borer); Diospyros lotus(prolific bearer, some are seedless, very good rootstock and breeding material); Actinidia callosa (prolific bearer, promising breeding material for cultivated kiwi) and many other unique landraces including other rare germplasm of different crops.
- The station has done pioneering work in the introduction and popularization of new crops species such as quinoa, hops, kiwi fruit, non-astringent persimmon, pecan nut, pineapple guava, Chinese ber, adzuki bean, comfrey, tree tomato and pepino.
- Characterized and evaluated 22,919 accessions of different temperate agri-horticultural crops, and have identified over 1500 elite germplasm accessions for single trait and more than 250 for multiple traits. Germplasm has also been screened for biotic (pea against powdery mildew; kidney bean against anthracnose and rice against rice blast in sick plots), abiotic and quality attributes. Core collections are being developed in common bean and grain amaranth.
- The station has developed and released seven varieties viz., ‘Annapurna’ and ‘Durga’ of grain amaranth; Himpriya, Himgiri & Him Phaphra of buckwheat; Him Shakti of Chenopodium quoinoa; and Him Bathua of Chenopodium album, while fifteen genetic stocks have been registered for various unique traits. Facilitated in the registration of six farmer’s varieties with PPV&FRA, New Delhi.
- Germplasm comprising 12,425 accessions of different seed crops being preserved in the Medium Term Storage (MTS) and 1065 accessions of temperate horticultural crops maintained in Field Gene Bank (FGB).
- Germplasm comprising around 58000 samples of promising germplasm accessions in the form of seed/live plants/cutting have been supplied to the researchers/indentors including farmers in India and abroad.
- Production technologies has been standardized and published for the cultivation of grain amaranth, buckwheat, chenopod, kidney bean, ginger lily, valeriana, pineapple guava and kiwi fruit.
- The database containing information of the passport, characterization and evaluation data, status of germplasm being maintained in the MTS and FGB.
- Over 344 research papers, popular articles, monographs and books have been published.
- Under capacity building, >150 trainings, brainstorming sessions and awareness programmes for scientists, extension workers and farmers including women’s have been organized at various levels. Field days have also been organized on different crops for the benefit of plant breeders and other researchers.
- The station is one of the NAGS for pseudo cereals, kidney bean and temperate fruits and has the credit of maintaining highest number of germplasm accessions of grain amaranth, buckwheat, chenopod, kidney bean, adzuki bean, walnut, hazelnut, pecan nut, Rosa species, and Pyrus species in India.
- Several new initiatives includes (i) in situ on-farm conservation of minor crops and landraces of rice, maize, barley and kidney bean; ii) pre-breeding and genetic enhancement of important crops (iii) climate change impact assessment studies on PGR diversity, floral diversity, species compositions and cropping patterns in the temperate region; and (iv) biodiversity conservation and sustainable community development for the livelihood security in fragile ecosystems of Western Himalaya.
Major Activities
- Assessment and documentation of agriculturally important Plant Genetic Resources of Western Himalaya with special focus on Himachal Pradesh
- Exploration and collection of germplasm of important mandate agri-horticultural crops including traits specific germplasm and crops wild relatives.
- Introduction and exchange of germplasm of important temperate mandate crops
- Characterization and evaluation of germplasm to identify trait specific subsets of germplasm for various economic traits including development of core and mini collections
- Registration of unique germplasm at ICAR-NBPGR and farmer’s varieties at PPV & FRA, New Delhi.
- Conservation of germplasm using various conservation facilities viz. LTS, MTS, Cryo and in vitroat ICAR- NBPGR HQ New Delhi.
- Supply of germplasm to researchers and farmers for enhanced utilization
- Capacity building in PGR Management
- On-farm conservation vis-à-vis livelihood and nutritional security in the fragile ecosystems of mountains.
- Understanding the response and impacts of climate change on agriculturally important plant biodiversity.
- All India Coordinated Research Network Project on Potential crops
Publications/Research Papers
2022
- Pallabika Gogoi, Anwesha Mahajan, Giridhar Goudhar, Anil Chandragiri, Sreedhar Mudavath, Mohar Singh and Paras Sharma (2022). Exploring the nutritional potential, anti-nutritional components and carbohydrate fractions of Indian pigmented maize. Food Chemistry Advances, food chem.2022134835.
- Aleena Francis, Nagendra Singh, Mohar Singh, Paras Sharma, Gayacharan, Dinesh Joshi, Dinesh Semwal, Nidhi Varshney, Vandana Tyagi, Dhammaprakash Wankhede, Rakesh Bharadwaj, Amit Singh, Swarup Kumar Parida and Debasis Chattopadhyay (2022). A near-complete genome assembly and pan genome of rice bean (Vigna umbellata) provide insights into the Vigna genome evolution and accelerated agronomic trait improvement. Plant Biotech Journal, doi, 1111/pbi.1407
- Paras Sharma, Giridhar Goudar, Anil Kumar Chandragiri, Ananthan, K. Subhash, Anitha Chauhan, T. Longwah, Mohar Singh, Rakesh Bhardwaj, Swarup Kumar Parida, Amit Kumar Singh, Gayacharan and Debasis Chatopadhyay (2022). Assessment of diversity in anti-nutrient profile, resistant starch, minerals and carbohydrate components in different rice bean accessions. Food Chemistry, doi.org/10.1016/.
- Mohar Singh, Reena Mehra, Sanjeev Kumar, Nikhil Malhotra and Salej Sood (2022). Evaluation and identification of advanced lentil interspecific derivatives resulted in development of early maturing and high yielding cultivars under Indian agro-ecological conditions. Plant Sci. 13:936572
- Shyam Kumar Sharma, Nikhil Malhotra and Mohar Singh (2022). Plant genetic resources for crop improvement: The North-Western Himalayan perspective. Plant Genet. Resour. 35(3): 151-153
- Padamavati Gore, Subarna Johng, Mohar Singh, Neeta Singh and Veena Gupta (2022). Evaluation and validation of bold seeded accession in rice bean. Plant Genet. Resour. 35(1): 1-3
- Mohar Singh, Tapan Kumar, Salej Sood, Nikhil Malhotra, Upasana Rani, Sarvjeet Singh, Inderjit Singh, Sandeep Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar (2022). Identification of chickpea interspecific derivatives against agro-morphological and major biotic traits. Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.941372
- Nikhil Malhotra, Paras Sharma, Hemant Sood, Mamta Arya, Rahul Chandora, Jai Chand Rana and Mohar Singh* (2022). Agro-morphological characterization and nutritional profiling of traditional Himalayan crop landraces for their promotion towards mainstream agriculture. Plant Sci. doi 14:6744211.
- Sachin Kumar Verma, Shikha Mittal, Gayacharan, Dhammaprakash Pandhari Wankhede, Swarup Kumar Parida, Debasis Chattopadhyay, Geeta Prasad, Dwijesh Chandra Mishra, Mohar Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Amit Kumar Singh (2022). Transcriptome analysis reveals key pathway and candidate genes controlling seed development and size in rice bean (Vigna umbellata). Genet. 12:791355, doi: 10.3389/fgene.
- Talavar Basavaraja, Manjulatha, Rahul Chandora, Mohar Singh, Santosha Rathod, Vikas Dubey, Farindra Singh and Narendra Pratap Singh (2022). Assessment of phenotypic diversity and multi-locational screening against bean common mosaic virus disease resistance in dry bean germplasm. Plant Genetic Resources: Cambridge, doi.org/10.1017/S14796374850012
2021
- Mohar Singh, Nikhil Malhotra and Kuldeep Singh (2021). Broadening the genetic base of cultivated chickpea following introgression of wild Cicer species- progress, constraints and progress. Genet Resour Crop Evol. 68:2181-2205
- Manjunatha, T. Basavaraja, M. Manjunatha, N. Srinivasa, Vijay Kumar, Rahul Chandora, Mohar Singh and N.P. Singh (2021). Identification of stable resistant donors against necrosis inducing strains of bean common mosaic virus in common bean. Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection, doi.org/10.1080/03235408.2021.1877432
- Sanjeev Kumar, Mohar Singh†, Nikhil Malhotra, M.W. Blair, J.P. Sharma and Rucku Gupta (2020). Introgression of common bean species into the background of named landraces of North-Western Indian Himalayas towards diversification of cultivated gene pool. Euphytica, doi.org/10.1007/s10681-021-02784-1
- Tapan Kumar, Neha Tiwari, Chellapilla Bhardwaj, Ashutosh Sarker, Sneha Priya, Sarvjeet Singh and Mohar Singh (2020). Identification and allelic variation of drought responsive dehydrin gene based on sequence similarity in chickpea. Front. Genet. doi: 10.1279/fgene.2080.307432
- Soma Marla, Pallavi Mishra, Ranjeet Maurya, Mohar Singh, D.P.Wankhade, Anil Kumar, Mahesh C. Yadav, N.S. Rao, S.K. Singh and Rajesh Kumar (2020). Refinement of draft genome assemblies of pigeon pea. Front. Genet. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.607432
2020
- Mohar Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Ashwani Kumar Basandrai, Daisy Basandrai, Nikhil Malhotra, Deep Rattan Saxena, Dorin Gupta, Ashutosh Sarker and Kuldeep Singh (2020). Evaluation and identification of wild lentil accessions for enhancing genetic gains of cultivated varieties. PLOS ONE, 15 (3) e0229554:
- Sonali Chauhan, Shabnam Katoch, S.K. Sharma, P.N. Sharma, J.C. Rana Kuldeep Singh, Mohar Singh* (2020). Screening and identification of resistant sources against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum causing white mold disease in common bean. Crop Science, 10.1002/csc2.20160:
- Mohar Singh (2020). Chickpea: Crop wild relatives for enhancing genetic gains.. Academic press of Elsevier Inc., 9780128182994, p-274.:
- Mohar Singh, Salej Sood (2020). Millets and Pseudo cereals: Genetic Resources and Breeding Advancements. Wood head publishing of Elsevier,, 9780128200896, p-268.:
- Mohar Singh, Nikhil Malhotra, Kriti Sharma (2020). Buckwheat genetic resources: What can they contribute towards nutritional security of changing world?. Genet Resour Crop Evol, DOI : 10.1007/s10722-020-00961-0: 1-20
2019
- kuldeep Singh, Sandeep Kumar, S. Raj Kumar, Mohar Singh, Kavita Gupta (2019). Plant genetic resource management and pre-breeding in genomic era. Indian J. Genet., 79 (1): 117-130:
Projects
Inhouse Projects
| Programme | Project Title | Leader and Associates | Project Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | Augmentation, Characterization, Evaluation, Maintenance, Regeneration, Conservation, Documentation and Distribution of Genetic Resources in North-Western Indian Himalayan Region | Mohar Singh | PGR/GEV-BUR-SHM-01.00 |
| 10.1.1 | Augmentation, Characterization, Evaluation, Maintenance, Regeneration, Conservation, Documentation and Distribution of Genetic Resources of Pseudocereals and Pulses and other Lesser Known Hill Crops. | Mohar Singh, Rahul Chandora, Narender Negi | PGR/GEV-BUR-SHM-01.01 |
| 10.1.2 | Augmentation, Characterization, Evaluation, Maintenance, Regeneration, Conservation, Documentation and Distribution of Genetic Resources of Temperate Fruits, Vegetables, and Medicinal & Aromatic Plants. | Mohar Singh, Narender Negi, Rahul Chandora | PGR/GEV-BUR-SHM-01.02 |
Externally funded ad-hoc research projects
| Projects | Funding agency |
| DUS testing of grain amaranth | PPV&FRA |
| DUS testing of buckwheat | PPV&FRA |
| Development of DUS testing guidelines in Chenopod sp. (C. album & C. quinoa) | PPV&FRA |
| Characterization of chickpea germplasm resource to accelerate genomics-assisted crop improvement | DBT |
| Survey, mapping, development of cultivation techniques, evaluation of selected germplasm and economics of Fritillaria roylei Hook. F., (Kakoli) an important plant of Ashtavarga Group of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. | NMPB |
| Developing nutrient-enrichment technologies &products of commercial value in a nutraceutical food crop, buckwheat (Fagopyrum sp.) | DBT |
| Pre-breeding and genetic enhancement of Chilli and Common bean germplasm | ABI-CIAT |
| Augmentation of plant genetic resources and capacity building of researchers in India and Uzbekistan | DST |
Staff
Officer-In-Charge
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone: 0177-2835459
Email: mohar.singh2(AT)icar.gov.in, singhmohar_2003(AT)yahoo.com
Scientist
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone: 0177-2835459
Email: narender.negi(AT)icar.gov.in, narender.negi(AT)gmail.com
Technical Officer
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone: 0177-2835459
Email: Dayal.Singh(AT)icar.gov.in, montu1980(AT)gmail.com
Senior Technical Assistant
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email: Ram.Chander2(AT)icar.gov.in, ramchandernbpgr(AT)gmail.com
Skilled Supporting Staff
Mr. Paras Ram
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email:Paras.Ram(AT)icar.gov.in, parasramnbpgr(AT)gmail.com
Skilled Supporting Staff
Mr. Rohit
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email: Rohit(AT)icar.gov.in, Rohitdiamond18(AT)gmail.com
Skilled Supporting Staff
Mr. Daleep Singh
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email:Dalip.Singh1(AT)icar.gov.in, daleepneginbpgr(AT)gmail.com
Skilled Supporting Staff
Mr. Shankar Dass
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email:Shankar.Das(AT)icar.gov.in
Skilled Supporting Staff
Mr. Mangat Ram
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email: Mangat.Ram(AT)icar.gov.in
Skilled Supporting Staff
Mr. Desh Raj
ICAR-NBPGR RS, Shimla
Phone:
Email:Desh.Raj2(AT)icar.gov.in, deshrajnbpgr(AT)gmail.com
