Perspective of future challenges and options in fruit production and utilization

After the independence fruit crop improvement has gained momentum 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. There are crops specific institutes devoted to Tropical Fruits (IIHR, Bengaluru), Sub-tropical Fruits (CISH, Lucknow), Temperate Fruits (CITH, Srinagar), Arid Fruits (CIAH, Bikaner) and Citrus (CCRI, Nagpur). Besides, there are Project Directorates/NRCs for Banana (NRCB, Trichi), Grape (NRCG, Pune), Litchi (NRCL, Muzaffarpur), Pomegranate (NRCP, Solapur) which are conserving the genetic resources (>7000 accessions) as National Active Germplasm Sites (NAGS). Several Department of Horticulture/Fruit crops in state Agri/Horti Universities also took up crop improvement work on a number of crops. A total of 210 varieties/hybrids have been released over the last 100 years of fruit breeding of which 89 varieties have been released in last 25 years. Among the released, 70 percent of the varieties are from clonal selection and 30 percent are hybrids. The recent advancement of about molecular markers and whole genome sequence of 12 fruit crops has accelerated the fruit breeding and these resources can be useful for comparative genomics to identify the different source of resistance for biotic and abiotic stress. Similarly, on the production aspects, the technologies such as high density planting, water management including micro-irrigation, integrated plant nutrient management and IPM strategies for plant protection are some of the areas which need greater R&D focus.