Breeding of Fruit and Plantation Crops 2 + 1

Breeding achievements in cashew

Breeding achievements in cashew
• In the past cashew was primarily propagated for soil conservation and forestation. At present due to the effort of research more than 40 varieties/hybrids have been released. Of these 25 varieties are selection from germplasm and 15 are developed through hybridization and selection.

Varieties and Hybrids

• Since cashew is primarily a cross-pollinated crop, it is highly heterozygous and segregation has resulted in considerable variations in its seedling population. An ideal cashew plant should have dwarf and compact canopy with intensive branching habit, short flowering and fruiting phase, > 20% perfect flowers, 8-10 nuts/panicle, medium to bold nuts (8-10 g) with higher shelling percentage of > 28, high yield potential (> 20 kg/tree/year) and tolerance to major pests and diseases.Evaluation of seedling progenies at different cashew research stations resulted in the identification of superior genotypes for several economic characters.


• In order to combine prolific bearing with other desira¬ble traits like bold nut, cluster-bearing habit and compact canopy, hybridization with parents selected for these char¬acters were attempted. Hybrids performed better than the selections. Hybrid vigour could easily be commercially utilized in cashew through softwood grafting. Among the 15 hybrids released in India 11 have kernel grade of W 180 to W 210.
  


• These 11 hybrids have at least one of the parents with bold nut character (Brazil-18, K-30-1 and Vetore-56) and thus prove the usefulness of selecting par¬ents with bold nut character for transmitting this trait to hybrid. Short duration of flowering (Anakkayam1), high sex ratio and longer mixed phase, intense branching, high shelling (%) and high nutritive value of kernels are also looked in the parents.