Mehrun Nisha

Introduction Farmers in the hilly regions face a major constraint due to undulating topography, leading to soil erosion gradually causing loss of its fertility. Thus most of the farming is affected and is performed on fragile land set-ups, then lack of infrastructure, lack of transport, irrigational problems, lack of capital are another huge challenges faced by farmers of hilly regions. This affects the growth and production of quality crops inspite of hard efforts and funds of the farmer.

1. Introduction Contamination of soil and water by heavy metals poses a significant concern and is primarily a result of human activities such as mining, sewage sludge disposal and increased emissions from vehicles and industries (Zorpas et al., 2021). Heavy metals, which generally fall under the category of transition metals, consist of various chemical elements. While some lighter heavy metals like Zn, Co, Cu, Ni, Mn, Mo, and Fe are essential, the majority of them are non-essential.

Introduction The recent progress in genetic technologies has provided unparalleled prospects to enhance the genetic variability of eggplant. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) techniques have been developed to facilitate the identification, selection, and crossing of plants with desirable traits by breeders. These techniques have been found to be highly efficient in achieving this goal.