An Overview: Distribution, Production, and Diversity of Local Landraces of Buckwheat in Nepal

Hindawi Advances in Agriculture Volume 2017, Article ID 2738045, 6 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2738045 Review Article An Overview: Distribution, Production, and Diversity of Local Landraces of Buckwheat in Nepal Dol Raj Luitel,1,2 Mohan Siwakoti,1 Pramod Kumar Jha,1 Ajay Kumar Jha,3 and Nir Krakauer4 1 Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal Department of Plant Resources, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal 3 Institute for Global Agriculture and Technology Transfer (IGATT), Fort Collins, CO, USA 4 City College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA 2 Correspondence should be addressed to Dol Raj Luitel; Received 20 July 2017; Accepted 5 September 2017; Published 15 October 2017 Academic Editor: Tibor Janda Copyright © 2017 Dol Raj Luitel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Buckwheat is a sixth staple food crop after rice, wheat, maize, finger millet, and barley in Nepal. It is considered as an alternate cereal and poor man’s crop, representing an important food supply in remote places of Himalayas. It is the best crop in higher altitude in terms of adaptation to different climatic variables and easily fitted to different cropping patterns due to short duration. It is cultivated on marginal land in 61 out of 75 districts of Nepal from some 60 m to 4500 m asl, especially hilly and mountain districts like Rukum, Rolpa, Jajarkot, Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, Kavre, Dolakha, and Okhaldhunga. Sweet buckwheat varieties are generally grown in midhill and Terai but Tartary buckwheat varieties are grown in higher altitude. There are altogether 19 local landraces of sweat buckwheat and 37 for Tartary buckwheat listed from Nepal. The largest producers are China, USA, and Russia and Japan is principal user of global buckwheat grown in the world. In Nepal, it is cultivated in 10510 ha area with production of 10355 t/yr and yield of 0.983 t/ha. It has also medicinal value used in different forms including all its parts so the demand of buckwheat is increasing. 1. Introduction Nepal (26∘ –31∘ N latitudes to 80∘ –89∘ E longitudes) is a landlocked country dominated by huge mountains with varied climate and topography, orography within about 240 Km north-south. The climate ranges from tropical to temperate and alpine due to its topography and elevation, Figure 1. Agricultural sectors contribute about 36% to National Gross Domestic product (GDP) and sixty-five percentage of total population still depends on agriculture in Nepal [1]. The agricultural lands are diverse in different physiographic regions. Mountain and high Himalaya has difficult sloping land and topography where people depend only on agriculture for their livelihood [2]. There are 125 ethnic communities residing in various regions in Nepal having their own system of culture and agricultural practices [1]. The major components of agriculture are cereals, legumes, cash crops, fruits, vegetables, and livestock. Cereal crops include paddy, wheat, maize, finger millet, buckwheat, barley, naked barley, Chino (Proso millet), and Kaguno (Foxtail millet). Farmers commonly prefer those crop varieties that produce high yield in low input, can tolerate stresses, need less care, can be grown in diverse agroclimatic condition, possess balance nutrients, and have good market prices. Buckwheat is one of the best crops in higher altitude in terms of adaptation to climatic variables, water stress regimes, unfertile soil, and freezing temperature and is easily fitted to different cropping pattern due to short life cycle [3, 4]. Taxonomy. Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (sweet buckwheat) and Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn. (bitter buckwheat) belong to family Polygonaceae. Globally 18 species are known to be the members of genus Fagopyrum including two cultivated species Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tataricum [5]. Synonym. F. esculentum subsp. ancestralis Ohnishi is a synonym for sweet buckwheat; Polygonum tataricum L., F. suffruticosum F. Schmidt., F. dentatum Moench, Fagopyrum 2 Advances in Agriculture N India proceedings, annual reports of Ministry of Agriculture Development, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), and Department of Agriculture in Nepal. China 2. Biology of Buckwheat Plants India India Figure 1: Distribution of cultivated buckwheat in districts of Nepal. rotundatum Bab., and F. subdentatum Gilib. are synonyms for bitter buckwheat [6]. Common Names. The following is a list of the common names: sweet buckwheat or common buckwheat, Tartary buckwheat or bitter buckwheat (English), Mithe Phaper for common buckwheat, Tite Phaper for Tartary buckwheat (Nepali), er chi for common buckwheat, er ka for Tartary buckwheat (Chinese), Ogal for common buckwheat, Phaper for Tartary buckwheat (India), Jare for common and bjo for Tartary buckwheat (Bhutan), and Soba in Japan [6]. In Nepal, buckwheat cultivation ranges from 60 m in Terai to 4500 m above sea level (asl.) [4, 5, 7, 8]. F. esculentum is generally grown in lower altitude (Terai and mid-hills) but in higher altitude F. esculentum is replaced with F. tataricum in different cropping pattern [4, 9, 10]. It is cultivated in 61 out of 75 districts of Nepal Figure 1 [4]. Buckwheat varieties are summer crop in hill (high altitude > 1700 m asl), autumn and spring crop in mid-hills (600–1700 m asl), and winter crop in Terai [10, 11]. However, all seasons (summer, autumn, winter, and spring) are suitable to cultivate buckwheat in different agroecological zones of Nepal. It has been occupying an important place in the Nepalese agriculture system and contributing greatly in food supply especially remote places in Himalayas, though it is popularly considered as pseudocereals, poor man’s crop, and underexploited and neglected crops in Nepal [12]. It has been cultivated in almost all parts of Nepal mostly at high altitude of western and mid-western regions. It prefers to grow best in cool, moist climatic condition though it is sensitive to frost, high temperature, high speed wind, and drought. These stresses to buckwheat crop critically reduced yield when they occur during flowering periods. It matures within 10–12 weeks of plantation that is essential in high Himalayan region of Nepal where it is favorable for cropping duration to be short. Buckwheat is the sixth staple food crop after rice, wheat, maize, finger millet, and barley in terms of cultivation area (10510 ha.), production (10355 t/yr), yield (983 kg/ha.), and uses in Nepal [13]. The aim of present paper is to attempt to augment and update the available information on buckwheat crop from Nepal based upon literature, web-based information, 2.1. Fagopyrum esculentum Moench. It is an annual herbaceous plant with free branches, reddish stem produces (...truncated)