Collection, evaluation and conservation of horticultural crops in Uttar Pradesh Hills

The Himalayas represents a rich repository of diverse flora with different ecosystem. Central Himalayas of Uttar Pradesh hills is the seat of a large number of minor fruit crops both tropical and temperate species. Since inception of NBPGR Regional Station in 1986, systematic approach was made to collect germplasm of different agri-horticultural crops from UP hills. A total number of 1018 accessions of horticultural germplasm viz., strawberry (81), Citrus (50), Malus (26), other fruits (81), vegetables (623) and ornamentals (157), were collected/assembled and evaluated for various qualitative and quantitative characters. The fruit germplasm has been conserved in field gene bank and vegetables and annual ornamentals under medium ted at this Station and promising accessions identified. IC 219062 (Diospyros kakt), IC-219058 in Jogiya Hisalu (Rubus sp.), EC-362602 in strawberry, Haward and Allison in kiwi fruit were found to be quite promising, details of which are highlighted in this paper.