Breeding of Fruit and Plantation Crops

Introduction

• India is bestowed with a wide range of agro climatic and soil conditions. Therefore, almost all types of fruits can be grown in one or the other parts of the country. India is the second largest producer of fruits next to China. In India, horticultural crops occupy about 6.7% of gross area, contribute about 18% of gross value of agricultural output and 52% of export earnings in agriculture.


• The inherent nature of a long gestation period, high heterozygosity, scanty information on inheritance pattern, often cross pollination, excessive fruit drop, parthenocarpy and low seed number restricting the availability of hybrid seedlings for evaluation are the real challenges in crop improvement. Even though, planned hybridization and clonal selections have been attempted in a number of fruit crops and these efforts have resulted in the development of promising varieties in mango, grape, guava, papaya, sapota, banana, etc. Systematic much more and dedicated efforts are required for the development of ideal varieties through modern tools.


• More focus on search for desired genes, critical study of inheritance pattern and use of biotechnological tools is needed in combining ideal characteristics in varietal improvement programme of fruit crops.