Although the grain legumes have shown remarkably similar patterns of evolutionary response to the selection pressures which have operated under domestication (Smartt, 1976a, b, 1978a, 1980a), the genetic resources which are available for future conscious, man-directed evolution of pulse and legume oilseed crops are very different in both their nature and extent for the different species. The present time is crucial for collection and conservation of crop genetic resources; in the case of grain legumes no comprehensively consistent or coherent strategy has as yet evolved, but might well do so following the guidelines of Ford-Lloyd and Jackson (1986). There could be a considerable gain in the effectiveness of this effort if there were to be more overt rationalisation, co-ordination of conservation activity and the adoption of consistent procedures.

The work of Harlan and de Wet (1971) gives a very sound foundation on which to base genetic resource conservation strategies. Some modification of their approach may be necessary for grain legumes owing to the distinctly different pattern of biosystematic relationships found in the Leguminosae as compared with the Gramineae on which their work was largely based. On the whole, inter-specific and even inter-generic hybridisation is more common in the grass family than in the legumes, and development of polyploidy is much greater in the grasses, even though both major oilseed legumes (groundnut and soyabean) are in fact polyploid (tetraploid).