Temperate Vegetables: Germplasm Resources, their Utilization and Achievements in India

Temperate vegetable crops need chilling temperature (4–7°C) for about two months for changing their vegetative phase into reproductive phase. The different pockets in the Hindukush Himalayas namely Humid Western and Eastern Himalayan Region comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and North-East states have congenial climate for seed production of temperate vegetable crops. The history of germplasm introduction in respect of temperate vegetables and their breeding dates back prior to second world war when seeds of all the temperate vegetable crops were imported from abroad mainly from England by seed companies such as Mis Suttons & Sons. Later Imperial Government of India established a research station at Quetta (Baluchistan) in 1942–43 which went to Pakistan after independence. Subsequently, Government of Indiaset up a Central Vegetable Breeding Sub-station at Katrain in Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh in 1949 that was transferred to IARI in 1955 in order to strengthen the improvement work on temperate vegetable crops. From historical facts, it is evident that most of the temperate/European vegetable crops were introduced into India by the Portuguese during 18th century followed by English in 19th century. Jenson from Kew introduced cauliflower varieties as early as in 1822 and grew it in botanical garden at Saharanpur. After independence several organizations like NHRDF, DARL, VPKAS, GBPUA&T etc. were established and different programmes namely AICRP were implemented at different times to give further fillip to breeding of temperate vegetable crops. In recent times, under open general license (OGL) the private seed companies have introduced lot of seed material and started their own R&D programmes. India has also collaborated with AVRDC, Taiwan, China, USSR and SAVERNET (South Asian Vegetable Research Network) countries for testing of vegetable entries. Some of the research projects on temperate vegetable crops were funded by NATP (National Agriculture Technology Project). A detailed account on utilization of vegetable crops has been highlighted with special reference to cole crops and root crops. Cauliflower being the most important cole crop received maximum attention and lot of varieties of late cauliflower (Group IV), namely, Pusa Snowball 1, 2, Pusa Snowball K-1 were developed using exotic lines. In cabbage majority of ruling varieties are through introductions e.g. Golden Acre, Pride of India etc. Pusa Mukta, a black rot resistant variety was developed by crossing two exotic lines (EC 24855 x EC 10109). Hybrid KGMR-I, the first from the public sector was identified for release during 2005 under the AICRP (VC). Many tropical cabbage hybrids such as KK cross, Golden cross were introduced and tropical cabbage lines DTC 50-7-4, 513, 528 etc. were developed. CMS system has also been transferred successfully to various cabbage lines from EC 173419 at Katrain. In root crops also the improved cultivars are developed either through introductions followed by selection or by hybridization with exotic lines as one of the parents. The sources of pests and diseases resistance in cole crops are mainly exotic lines through introduction. The vast genetic resources of temperate vegetable crops have opened up the prospects ofbreeding using introductions made from different countries.