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Carrot

Why carrot?

Carrot [Daucus carota L. subsp. sativus (Hoffm.) Arcang.] is a widely grown vegetable crop that is valuable not only as a cash crop but also as an excellent source of vitamin A, an important contributor to nutrition, and vitamins K and B6. The wild carrot, Daucus carota, is native to Europe and southwestern Asia.

What we achieved

Collecting

  • 86 seed samples of one carrot wild relative (Daucus carota) were collected from eight countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Italy, Nepal, Pakistan and Portugal.

Pre-breeding and evaluation

  • Carrot seed from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) carrot breeding program was tested in field trials in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand, and Taiwan.
  • Five pre-bred lines were identified as suitable for expanded production and are candidates for release based on general performance.
  • Seven pre-bred lines with stress tolerance and high yield were identified as suitable for expanded production, and four are candidates for release.
  • Several lines were found to have high levels of nematode resistance, Alternaria resistance and abiotic stress tolerance and will be included in breeding programs in Asia.
  • Female and male farmers were trained in carrot seed production and those in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Thailand indicated an interest and capability to produce carrot seed after the training.

Project partners

Collecting

  • Armenian Botanical Society, Yerevan, Armenia
  • Genetic Resources Institute, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan
  • Agricultural Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • Botany Institute, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
  • University of Pavia, Italy
  • National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center, Khumaltar, Nepal
  • Plant Genetic Resources Program, Bio-Resources Conservation Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciéncia, Lisbon, Portugal

Pre-breeding and evaluation 

Lead Institute: United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS)

Partners: 

  • Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
  • Department of Biological Sciences, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
  • World Vegetable Center, Shanhua, Tainan, Taiwan

Carrot key collections, materials and data

Carrot collections

  • The largest carrot collection is conserved at the USDA NPGS, Ames, Iowa, USA.
  • The Genesys PGR database also includes information about carrot accessions in genebanks worldwide

Pre-breeding materials 

  • All pre-breeding materials and promising ILs have been conserved in the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) genebank in Ames, Iowa, USA, and are freely available to institutions and individuals for testing and use. Access to unreleased germplasm can be made available under a Material Transfer Agreement with USDA.
  • 93 carrot genotypes comprising 53 open pollinated (OP) landraces, five commercial OP lines, 26 USDA breeding lines and nine commercial F1 hybrids have been conserved at the WorldVeg genebank, Tainan City, Taiwan.

Data

Carrot stories

Crop Trust stories
Relevant publications
  • Ali, A., Naveed, N.H., Shah, A.I., Hussain, R., Jamil, M., Nijibat, A., Manzoor, S., Faiz, S., Yasin, N.A., Simon, P.W. Phylogenetic relationship and screening of diverse germplam of carrot (Daucus carota) for drought resistance. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 28(11A): 8474–8479.
  • Bolton, A., Simon, P. 2019. Variation for salinity tolerance during seed germination in diverse carrot [Daucus carota (L.)] germplasm. HortScience 54(1): 38–44.
  • Bolton, A., Nijabat, A., Mahmood-ur-Rehman, M., Naveed, N.H., Majharul Mannan, A.T.M., Ali, A., Rahim, M.A., Simon, P. 2019. Variation for heat tolerance during seed germination in diverse carrot [Daucus carota (L.)] germplasm. HortScience 54(9): 1470–1476.
  • Shah, A.I., Hussain, R., Nijabat, A., Afreen, N., Shehzad, T., Naveed, N.H., Ali, A., Gun, S., Abbas, N., Bashir, N., Faiz, S., Manzoor, S., Yasin, N.A., Bano, A., Simon, P.W. 2019. Evaluation of carrots (Daucus carota L.) germplams under drought stress. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 28(12): 9011–9016.
  • Simon, P.W., Rolling, W.R., Senalik, D., Bolton,A.L., Rahim,M.A., Majharul Mannan, A.T.M., Islam, F., Ali, A., Nijabat, A., Naveed, N.H., Hussain, R., Shah, A.I. 2021. Wild carrot diversity for new sources of abiotic stress tolerance to strengthen vegetable breeding in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Crop Science 61: 163–176.
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