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Agricultural innovations and diffusion of new technologies are the important factors in the country’s quest for food, nutrition, environmental security and enhancement of income and employment. Agricultural research in India has generated outstanding productivity increases in the past and shall continue to play an important role in supporting rural livelihoods and accelerating rural growth. However, rising population and per capita income are pushing up the food-demand, which needs to be met through enhanced productivity per unit area, input, time and energy. Further, to utilize the technological breakthroughs that are already available for commercial use, the agricultural research priorities and strategies will have to be revisited and new system wide approaches need to be developed and adopted. The National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) aims to address these issues through a coordinated effort on changing the content and process. The objective of the NAIP under Component 4 is to build capacity to undertake basic and strategic research in frontier areas of agricultural sciences and also generate basic information on some of the fundamental processes relevant to agriculture. The present sub-project on ‘Biosystematics of the genera Vigna, Cucumis and Abelmoschus’ aims to solve several of the outstanding problems related to species identities and relationships in the above three genera. The Indian Centre of Diversity is the home for several major pulses and vegetables belonging to the genera Vigna, Cucumis and Abelmoschus. The major crops from these genera are greengram, blackgram, ricebean, adzuki bean and mothbean from the genus Vigna; cucumber, kakri, melons from the genus Cucumis and okra from genus Abelmoschus. Indian region has rich diversity for these cultivated species and their wild relatives. However, analyses of this diversity has not been exhaustive and there is a need to establish their identity and develop a system for their classification and management. An efficient and effective germplasm classification which correctly describes the germplasm accessions and the traits contained therein would greatly enhance the utilization of the genetic resources in crop improvement programmes. The earlier attempts have not been successful in complete classification of Vigna, Cucumis and Abelmoschus species of Asiatic origin. The species described under these genera are not very distinct for the the taxonomic traits. Various degrees of overlaps between the species exist which can be resolved using a comprehensive approach involving the study of morphology, crossability barriers and molecular taxonomy. This sub-project also proposes to investigate the reasons for the lack of substantial gene flow among some of the wild species of Vigna, Cucumis and Abelmoschus, although under experimental conditions wide crosses have been successful.