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• Studied variability for fruit quality traits among 91 Indian accessions of bottle gourd. • High heritability with high genetic advance recorded for phenol content and antioxidant activity. • Positive association noted between phenol, antioxidant activity, Mg, Fe and Zn content. • 91 accessions grouped into 12 clusters. First two PCs accounted for 62.43% variation. • Promising accessions for use as donors in quality breeding were identified. Bottle gourd is amongst the widely grown yet under-researched cucurbit vegetable in India and sub-Saharan Africa. The fresh immature leaves, fruit and seed are used for food and medicinal purposes, as rootstock for watermelon. Despite the economic and culinary importance, availability of wide variation in Africa and India, the bottle gourd genetic resources remains under-utilized, particularly with respect to harnessing the nutritional quality. In the present study, we evaluated 91 bottle gourd accessions from India and identified promising bottle gourd accessions for quality traits such as total phenol content, total antioxidant capacity, magnesium, iron, zinc and copper contents. High genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation (>20%) were recorded for all the biochemical traits and mineral nutrients. High heritability (h2) with high genetic advance was recorded for phenol content (99.00/62.76%) and antioxidant activity (99.71/62.58%) whereas high heritability (h2) with low genetic advance was recorded for all the mineral nutrients except magnesium (98.79/49.84%). Simple correlation coefficients among the different traits revealed a highly significant positive association of total phenol content with antioxidant activity, magnesium, iron and zinc content. Euclidian cluster analysis grouped 91 accessions into 12 clusters based on Ward's distance. Eigen value from principal component analysis depicted the first two components accounted for 62.43 cumulative percent of total variation which signifies a high degree of correlation between the analyzed traits. The promising accessions IC-0336825, IC-0385814, IC-0418246 and IC-0284925 and check cultivar Pusa Santusthi for phenol content, antioxidant activity and mineral nutrients (Mg, Fe, Zn and Cu) may be used as donors in the quality breeding program in bottle gourd. The implication of identified promising bottle gourd accessions for development of new cultivars in bottle gourd is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor farmers are particularly vulnerable to environmental stressors and often rely on traditional knowledge and grassroots creativity to help them to adapt. Such adaptation can be enhanced using other knowledge sources, but this requires greater understanding of the processes of knowledge co-production among scientists, local communities and state actors. In this study we undertook knowledge co-production on an experimental basis with two contrasting communities: smallholder farmers in Jind (Haryana) and Adi women in East Siang district (Arunachal Pradesh). We found that the Jind farmers displayed grassroots creativity in coping with salinity induced stresses to rice-wheat cropping systems, while Adi women applied their traditional knowledge of food based on namdung (Perilla ocymoides, a local plant species) to cope with climate variability that affected fermentation. Jind farmers perceived the process of knowledge co-production as moderately credible and salient , but the legitimacy of the exercise was compromised by the relatively low level of participation by state actors. The farmers rated the practical outcomes of the co-produced zero-till wheat as low to moderate for combating salinity-induce risks but as high for a community rice nursery. The knowledge co-production process was considered more credible and salient among younger Adi women than older women, and the utility of the Adi women's co-produced adaptive practices were rated as moderate to high for reducing the impacts of climate variability on namdung based foods. In both cases, an emergent property of the knowledge co-production exercise was creation of a knowledge network that has the potential to lead to ongoing enhanced adaptation to environmental change. Insights from the study could help improve knowledge co-production in similar social-ecological systems, and can be integrated with environmental change policies. [Display omitted] • Resource-poor farmers are particularly vulnerable to environmental change. • Local knowledge with science was used in knowledge co-production for environmental adaptation. • Most farmers viewed the process of knowledge co-production positively. • Knowledge co-production was salient and credible but sometimes lacked legitimacy. • Creation of knowledge networks among participants emerged as an unexpected benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marginalized communities across the world are increasingly faced with a suit of social-ecological stressors, taking a huge toll on their biocultural resources and livelihoods. Collaborative learning is considered to be a feasible strategy for livelihood resilience among vulnerable communities experiencing such stressors. Taking insights from social-ecological resilience theory, this study discusses how Adi community, living in the ecologically fragile ecosystems of Arunachal Pradesh, India, has developed a location-specific biocultural resource-based adaptive strategy to enhance their livelihood resilience. A novel participatory approach—'recipe contest'—was used to mobilize Adi women from 11 villages of the state's East Siang district with overall aim of developing nutritious and culturally relevant food products based entirely on local resources and knowledge. A total of 43 women (winners of the recipe contests) and 33 other knowledgeable community members (total 76 participants), by participating in focus group discussions and personal interviews, shared their knowledge and experiences relating to local foods and sustainability. We found that a range of climatic, ecological, socioeconomic and political stressors were adversely impacting Adi women's subsistence livelihoods. Through community mobilization, these women formed Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and together they developed a marketable product, 'Adi Siang Nutri', with ingredients provided by 12 local species. This value-added product, integrated with local livelihood trajectories, helped diversify and increase the Adi women's income, allowing them to better safeguard themselves from aforementioned risks. The local species used as the ingredients are being conserved, and have several perceived socio-cultural, ecological and ethnomedicinal benefits. This participatory action research promises to make a significant change in the social-ecological resilience and associated biocultural resources of Adi women. Our findings provide valuable insights for several food, nutritional security and environmental policies to improve social-ecological resilience using biocultural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present here the first comprehensive genetic characterization of snapmelon landraces from the humid tropics of eastern India. The genetic diversity among 42 snapmelon landraces collected from four agro-ecological regions of eastern India (eight agro-ecological subregions) was assessed by measuring variation at 16 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci, at various traits including plant habit and fruit type, yield (two associated traits), disease resistance and biochemical composition (total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, carotenoids and titrable acidity). Differences between accessions were observed in a number of plant and fruit traits. Snapmelon germplasm with high acidity, elevated carotenoid content and resistance to cucumber mosaic virus were identified in the collection. The SSR analysis indicated that there is a high level of genetic variability within snapmelon germplasm. Comparison of the genetic variability between snapmelons of eastern India and melons from north, south and central regions of India and reference accessions of melon from Spain, France, Japan, Korea, Maldives, Iraq, Zambia, Israel using SSRs showed that Indian snapmelon germplasm is not closely related to melon accessions from other parts of the world and that there are regional differences between Indian melon accessions. Eastern India snapmelon has unique traits, so it is important that more germplasm from this region is sampled and preserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]