Discuss the significance of in-situ conservation of wild crop relatives for India's food and climate security, with reference to recent initiatives in Assam.

Wild crop relatives (WCRs) are the uncultivated ancestors of domesticated crops that retain the genetic diversity bred out of modern high-yielding varieties. In-situ conservation — protecting them within their natural habitat — is therefore not merely an ecological exercise but a strategic investment in India's food and climate security, as the recent notification of Assam's Borjuli site illustrates.

Genetic insurance for food security

• Oryza rufipogon, the wild progenitor of cultivated Oryza sativa, carries genes for resistance to pests and diseases and tolerance of flooding and saline conditions [1][3].
• Such genepools are the raw material for future rice breeding; narrowing varietal diversity leaves the crop vulnerable to a single pathogen outbreak.
• In-situ sites let species keep co-evolving with pests and pathogens — an advantage gene banks (ex-situ) cannot replicate.

Climate resilience

• Flood- and drought-tolerant traits from wild rice directly feed climate-resilient cultivar development, critical as erratic monsoons hit rainfed farming [1].
• This explains why the project is funded by the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) — constituted in 2006 under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, with a mandate spanning holistic development of rainfed and dryland areas [2].

The Assam initiative — a working model

• The project "In-situ Conservation and Management of Wild Rice in Sonitpur District of Assam" has run since 2022, implemented by ICAR-NBPGR with the Assam State Biodiversity Board [1].
• In 2026 the Borjuli wetland was notified as a Biodiversity Heritage Site, a designation made by State Governments under Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 for areas holding wild ancestors of cultivated species [1][4].
• It demonstrates convergence: central funder, central research institute and state biodiversity body acting together.

In-situ conservation thus converts biodiversity into an operational tool of agricultural policy. Replicating the Borjuli model across India's crop-diversity hotspots, with community stewardship and benefit-sharing under the Biological Diversity Act, would strengthen both farmer livelihoods and national food security — advancing SDG-2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG-13 (Climate Action) together.