Probable agricultural biodiversity heritage sites in India: The Eastern and Himalayan region
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01/10/2009
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Asian Agri-History
The Eastern Himalayan region has been proposed as another National Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Site, based on six indices. The region is the richest in species diversity among the northeastern states of India. It is the center of diversity for several widely distributed plant taxa and a crucible for speciation encompassing several primitive familities. It has the largest number of wild relatives of economically important plant species in India, particularly of crop species. Because of variation in elevation and landscape, the region practices diverse farming/production systems with specialization in some of the agroforestry systems, such as the cardamon-based production system in Sikkim, and the valley cultivation of rice in Arunachal Pradesh, integrated with pisciculture.