Vavilov centre of origin of crops.
Vavilovian centers
At first Vavilov (1926) suggested six main geographic centres for cultivated plants, but subsequently (1935) increased their number to eleven. The vavilov centre of origin of crops are :-
(1) China: A total of 136 endemic plants are listed. e.g. Foxtail millet, soybean, bamboo, crucifers, onion, lettuce, tea etc.
(2) India: 117 plants are considered to be endemic, which mainly includes rice, sugarcane, mango,orange, oriental cotton, eggplant, Sesame etc.
(2 a) South East Asia: 55 plants are listed, including rice, banana, coconut, clove, hemp etc.
(3) Central Asia: 43 plants are listed, prominent among which are common wheat, pea, common millet, buckwheat, Alfalfa, Hemp, cotton etc.
(4) Near East: 83 species are included in this region. At least nine species of wheat as well as rye are indigenous to this centre. Many of our subtropical and temperate fruits are native to this region.
(5) Mediterranean: 84 plants are known to have originated here including olives and many cultivated vegetables; forage plants; oil yielding plants (rape, black mustard) and wheats (durum and emmer).
(6) Ethiopia: Previously known as Abyssinian centre. 38 species are native to this region, includes wheat and barley, Sesame, castor bean, coffee etc.
(7) Mesoamerica (South Mexican & Central American Centre): Plants native to this region are
extremely varied, and include maize, bean, squash, sweet potato, red peeper, papaya, guava, tobacco, etc.
(8) South America: This region is believed to be the native of potato, tomato, egg plant, pine-apple, rubber tree, cashew nut etc.
(8 a)The Chiloe Centre: It is an island near the coast of Southern chile. It is thought to be region of origin of common potato.
(8 b)The Brazilian – Paraguayan Centre: It is known to be the region of origin of groundnut, cassava, cashew nut, pineapple, peppers, potato, rubber etc.
In 1926, Nikolai Vavilov published his theories in a book called Origin of Cultivated Plants (Vavilov, 1926), which demonstrated eight different primary areas of origin and diversity – finally reduced to seven which soon became known as Vavilov’s Centres of Diversity or simply the Centers of Vavilov.
Vavilov’s Centres and their cultivated plants
| East Asiatic | buckwheat, soy, peach, cherry, onion |
| Tropical | rice, chick peas, cucumber, mango, orange |
| Southwest Asiatic | wheat, peas, lentils, vigna beans, rye, alfalfa, hay greek |
| Mediterranean | durum wheat, cabbage, lettuce, celery |
| Abyssinia | barley, millet, fax, coffee, sesame |
| Central American | corn, lima beans, cotton, sweet potato, pepper |
| Andean | strawberry, potato, tomato, pumpkin, peppers |
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