Role of induced mutagenesis and improved crop varieties in food security: impact in the Indian context

Improvement of crop plants relies on the availability of plant genetic variation. There are several approaches for enhancing genetic variability and for breeding better genotypes to achieve high productivity to meet the demands of food security. India is an agrarian country, whose economic development is vastly dependent on sustained growth and achievements in the agriculture sector amid the raising population, shrinking arable land and adverse effects of climate change. Current and future challenges in agriculture will require a synergistic blend of conventional and advanced methodologies in crop improvement, crop production and crop protection which would holistically contribute to agricultural research for achieving national food and nutritional security. Crop improvement through mutation breeding, among various breeding methodologies, has played an important role in inducing novel genetic variability, improving existing popular varieties and developing promising superior varieties in different crop plants. Induced mutants and their utilization in recombination breeding have contributed to the development and release of more than 458 mutant and mutant-derived varieties in India covering cereals, food legumes, oilseeds, ornamentals, medicinal and aromatic plants and other crops for varied agro-ecologies. These varieties were improved for various agronomic traits, seed yield, nutritional traits, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Mutant varieties are now widely accepted and extensively cultivated by the farming community, which enabled in enhancing productivity in turn farm income across the country.