Introduction

Khedha (Amaranrhus dubius Mart.) are leafy vegetable locally known as khedha bhaji (jari) belong to the family Amranthaceae. The green Amaranthus consist of approximately 60 species out of which about 18 species are occurring in India. There are three major producing Amaranthus species, A. caudatus, A. cruentus and A. hypochondriacus, all believed to originate from Central and South America; and three major leafy vegetable species, A. tricolor, A. dubius and A. blitum (A. lividus), of which A. tricolor is thought to originate from India or Southern  (Yadav et al., 2014). The plant height varies from 5 m to 10 m among various species. Leaves are oblong to elliptical with color ranged from light to dark green with some expressing red pigment throughout the genus. The inflorescence is very prominent, colorful, terminal and contain one male flower per glomerule. India about 800 species are consumed as wild edible plant saver the country (Singh and Arora, 1978). India is the largest producer of vegetable crops next to China. Leafy vegetables are cultivated in an area of 9205 thousand hectare with an annual production of 162187 thousand MT (Anon., 2013). In Chhattisgarh, vegetables occupied an area of 377.21 thousand hectare with an average production of 4965.33 thousand MT out of these, leafy vegetables are cultivated in an area of 7688 hectare with an average production of 72902 MT (Anon., 2014). Despite such a huge production in the country, less than the appropriate requirement of balanced diet is provided to every individual.

In Chhattisgarh, the life and economy of the tribal and local people are intimately connected with the natural vegetation. Leafy vegetables play a major role in the nutritional requirement of the tribal and local population in remote parts of the Chhattisgarh. The use of leafy vegetables as food has been formed an integral part of the culture and tradition of many indigenous communities of the world. It constitutes an essential component in the diet and food security of many tribal and local communities particularly people living around the forest fringe. Looking to the various types of leafy vegetables grown in Chhattisgarh i.e. Amari Bhaji, Tinpania Bhaji, Bathua Bhaji, Chaulai Bhaji, Chech Bhaji, Chunchunia Bhaji, Karmota Bhaji, Lal Bhaji, Methi Bhaji, Palak, Patawa Bhaji, Patharri Bhaji, Poi Bhaji, Sarson Bhaji, Jadi Bhaji, Bohar Bhaji and rapid urbanization of developing country like India, food security is a major concern (Chauhan et al., 2014). In Chhattisgarh state, leafy vegetables are found naturally in both cultivated and non-cultivated lands and there are major dietary component of tribal as well as rural people of the state. It’s provides rural households with supplemental income opportunities through their sale in the markets. Vegetable amaranth serves as an alternative source of nutrition for people in developing countries since it is a rich and inexpensive source of carotenoid, protein, vitamins and dietary fibre (Shukla et al., 2003).

Materials and Methods

The field study was carried out in the villages and forest villages of the different region of Chhattisgarh. Methodology covers two types of survey namely: Field Survey and Literature Collection. The main aim of the survey was to collect information about the leafy vegetables plant species which are used by the tribal and local peoples and also the species are identified and documented by collecting samples of plant species. The total respondents were 30-35 in numbers per villages to collect information on Amaranthus dubius Mart. (Khedha Bhaji), along with utilization of wild edible plants of the study area. Raipur district is situated in the central part of Chhattisgarh, agro-climatologically known as Chhattisgarh plains and lies between 21^o16’ N latitude and 81^o36’ E longitude with an altitude of 289.56 meters above the mean sea level. Raipur, the place of investigation, comes under dry, sub-humid region. It comes under seventh agro-climatic zone of the country, i.e. eastern plateau and hills. The annual average rainfall is 1200-1400 mm, out of which about 85% is received from third week of June to mid-September and very little during October to February. May is the hottest (46 °C) and December is the coolest (6°C) month of the year. The experimental site was located at Research and Instructional Farm, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.) having with adequate facilities for irrigation and drainage are available.

Results and Discussion

The present investigation was undertaken to study the mean performance of Amaranthus dubius Mart. (khedha) genotypes and to assess the genetic diversity in Amaranthus dubius Mart. (khedha) genotypes for yield and its component characters (Table 1 and Figure 1).

Table 1: Morphologival Effect of yield and its component in Amaranthus dubius Mart. (Khedha)

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Table 1: Continue...

Figure 1: Collection and morphological variability in Amaranthus dubius Mart. (khedha)

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Conclusion

This experiment was undertaken to assess the variability that exist on the selected amaranth germplasm collection at NPGRL in terms of its morphological features. A total of 25 accessions and check variety CO-1 were used in the study. Amaranthus could play an important role in rural areas because its cultivation allows good yields of high quality grain and leaves to be integrated in daily poor diet. They have short crop duration (30-40 days), making them adapted to fit into peri-urban, homestead or cereal-based production systems.

Reference

Anonymous, 2013–14. Area, Production and Productivity. Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur (C.G.). (Chhattisgarh State Horticulture Department).

Anonymous, 2015-16a. Area, Production and Productivity. Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur (C.G.). (Chhattisgarh State Horticulture Department).

Anonymous, 2014-15. Indian Horticulture Database, National Horticulture Board, Gurgaon.

Chauhan, D., Shrivastava, A.K., Patra, S., 2014. Diversity of leafy vegetablesused by tribal peoples of Chhattisgarh India. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Science 3(4), 611–622.

Singh, H.B., Arora, R.K., 1978. Wild edible plants of India 1^st ed. ICAR Publication, New Delhi, 88.

Shukla, S., Singh, S.P., 2003. Correlation and path analysis in grain amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding 63(2), 163–164.

Yadav, R., Rana, J.C., Ranjan, J.K., 2014. Analysis of variability parameters formorphological and agronomic traits in grain amaranth (Amaranthus sp.) genotypes, The Bioscan, 9(4), 1661–1665.