Crop genetic resources are foundations of human civilizations and are indispensable for continued existence of human race. They not only help satiate hunger but also provide essential nutrients. Himalayan region in general, and Kashmir and Ladakh Himalayas in particular, have been bestowed with rich crop genetic resources. They shape the cultural identities of the region as well as support the subsistence and livelihood. However, with the advent of modern crop varieties bred for higher yield as well as other anthropogenic pressures on bioresources, the natural crop genetic wealth is increasingly getting dwindled. Farming system in the proposed target areas is largely marginal with rice, pulses and underutilized crops forming the bulk of farming. Even though yields are comparable to national averages in rice, they are disappointingly low in other crops. Kashmir and Ladakh are typical Himalayan regions that suffer from inherent bottlenecks such as marginality, fragility, inaccessibility as well as niche characteristics of farming systems. Farming system in the proposed target areas is largely marginal with rice, pulses and underutilized crops forming the bulk of farming. Even though yields are comparable to national averages in rice, they are disappointingly low in other crops. Genetic resources are of paramount importance in our ability to be responsive to changing facets of farming on account of increasing market orientation, declining biophysical resource base as well as looming threats of climate change. However, the genetic resources especially the local land races and traditional varieties have vanished at an alarming pace on account of adoption of modern varieties and import of private sector seeds. The important crops of Kashmir include pulses mainly common bean and the pseudo-cereal crop buckwheat is important in Ladakh. Both of these need to be harnessed for enhancing our adaptive capacity to address livelihood and nutritional imperatives of mountainous region of Kashmir and Ladakh, which include a large population of the defense personnel of our country. Despite previous efforts for collection of important agro-biodiversity, there are still some unexplored areas that harbour valuable gene resources or those where the genetic resources have undergone evolutionary changes. The information available on the value of available biodiversity at molecular level about the genes that offer opportunities for future in breeding trait specific crop varieties is limited. The future breeding will not only be yield centric but will have to lay equal emphasis on nutritional quality to enhance sustainability and competitiveness. There has been long term concerns about the loss of biodiversity in Himalayan region in general and Kashmir and Ladakh in particular, and need to utilization of nutritious foods for indigenous communities. The obsession of breeders and farmers with higher yields has resulted in the loss of biodiversity of nutritionally important genotypes. This coupled with the food security imperatives, has led to large scale replacement of landraces and traditional varieties which harbour important genes for quality, adaptability and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. Modern varieties have undoubtedly transformed farming by enhancing yield but at the same time they have expedited the loss of valuable biodiversity. In view of this the proposed project seeks to harness the niche in diverse system through characterization, conservation and utilization of genetic resources of important crops by enhancing productivity and value addition in terms of having nutritionally rich foods. The collected germplasm will be characterised through nutrients mainly micronutrient profiling and further molecular fingerprinting of selected nutritionally rich genotypes of common bean and buckwheat. Further, conservation strategies will be designed and proposed for important/ novel genotypes of these crop species. The identified nutritionally rich genotypes will be proposed for breeding in these localities and training will be given for conservation of such nutritionally rich genotypes along with intervention of beneficial plant promoting agents. This will also form a stock for identification of novel alleles for quality, resilience and other novel traits that can be mined in future.