Canopy management – an essential and integral element for healthy orchard establishment and sustainable production

India is endowed with varying climatic conditions, providing ample opportunities for the development of fruit industry. In the era of open economy, it has become increasingly necessary that our produce is competitive, both in the domestic as well as in international markets. This demands infusion of technology for an efficient utilization of resources for deriving higher output per unit of input with excellent quality of the produce. This would be possible only through deployment of high-tech application and precision farming methods. Sustainable development of horticulture is the biggest challenge before developing countries like India. There is need to formulate appropriate strategies for their management to develop State of art technologies for harnessing the resources to meet the growing demands of the society. To fulfill the nutritional demand of burgeoning population in the country and to meet the global challenge in the international market, it is need of the hour to accommodate almost 10 times more plants per unit area. This is only possible with the management of canopy to intercept maximum light in the innermost parts of trees. A majority of the trees attain tall, upright and curve growth structure and the canopy is marked with criss-cross branches leading to a highly dense vegetative mass with very poor infiltration rate of active radiation. This causes pest abundance and poor photosynthetic efficiency over the years in want of due care of tree canopy architecture, the trees turn senile which leads to negative impact on the socio-economic as well livelihood status of the farmers, the traders and consumers. Mass scale uprooting of trees for replacement of the orchard will also have very adverse impact on production scenario at the regional and national level. It could be said that fruiting potential of the tree is largely governed by its architecture, canopy density and photosynthetic efficiency. Tree canopy management, especially size control, has become a priority for reducing production cost and increasing fruit yield and quality. Canopy design and shape influence light interception with assured higher monetary returns to fruit growers. Therefore, early height control and tree canopy management are important techniques which should be practised in fruit crops for higher returns to growers. Canopy management is the manipulation of tree canopy to optimize its production potential with excellent quality fruits. In many fruit crops, increase in production with enhanced fruit quality is obtained by managing canopies of short statured trees. Canopy management has attracted the attention of developed countries for increasing the productivity and quality of fruits. The canopy development in perennial fruit crops has a seasonal and lifetime development pattern. The sum of development over individual season results in the final canopy dimension and form. In general, most of the fruit orchards are not managed by initial training and pruning, that is why with ageing, the trees attain taller size and huge structure, thereby leading to higher cost towards orchard management. The basic problems with overcrowded orchards are non availability of sufficient light, more incidence of pests, etc. There are several systems to manage tree size and improve light interception and penetration within canopies. Pruning, an integral part of management of canopy architecture begins at an early stage of plant growth and is continued till plant starts providing optimum fruiting. The first decision involves cultivar selection. By carefully choosing a cultivar, future management can be simplified and the potential for success greatly improved. It's important to start shaping the tree immediately after planting by determine the desired height of the first branching, taking into account aesthetics, proper clearance for equipment, etc.