Fruit breeding in India: Achievements and way forward

Breeding of perennial fruit trees is quite different than breeding of annual crops. Besides, there are several constraints impeding fast testing and release of varieties. In addition, there are several inherent problems in some fruits crops such as structural differences in floral biology, apomixes, parthenocarpy, cross incompatibility, number of seeds per fruit and large acreage required for meaningful assessment. After independence of India fruit crop improvement got a fillip with the setting up of a network of Institutes/Project Directorates/National Research Centres and Regional Station of Institutes in different regions of the country. The concerted efforts in research and development by different institutions led to the development of many superior varieties along with associated production technology which has resulted in the significant jump in production and productivity of many fruit crops.