Keeping in view the immense role of legumes in human welfare, and to take stock of what has been achieved on this important group a National Symposium on ‘Advances in Legume Research in India’ was held in National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow during December 15-17, 1998. This national Symposium not only achieved its objectives but also brought together a host of diverse information on this group from a wide array of biological scientists. The present volume is the outcome of the deliberations of the Symposium.Legumes comprising the family Leguminosae (nom. alt. Fabaceae) form the third largest group of the flowering plants in the world and only second after Poaceae as far as the food requirement of the human kind is concerned. The Indian region is also evidently a centre of diversity of a number of cultivated legume crops such as Cajanus, Cicer, Phaseolus, etc., apart from hosting a large number of endemic species. Therefore, tremendous opportunity awaits the researchers on this group. Apart from the value of the legumes for a variety of uses by the human society the concerns arising out of the severe erosion of biodiversity including legume diversity directly impringes upon the quality and even the food habits of human society at large. The present volume contributed by several distinguished Scientists is expected to throw new light on some such issues.
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