Seed Production Technology in Papaya

Papaya has gained importance owing to its round the year fruiting ability, higher productivity per unitarea and multipurpose uses like food, medicine and as an industrial input. The demand for the qualityseeds of the released varieties and hybrids from public and private sector has greatly increased. Seed production is important to sustain the papaya fruit production in the country. Therefore, it is imperative to know various technical aspects of the papaya seed production programme. Papaya is a polygamous plant and has many sex forms. The three basic types are male or staminate, hermaphrodite (bisexual), and female or pistillate. Out of these, only female is stable, whereas flowers of hermaphrodite and male vary in sex expression under different environmental conditions. Controlled pollination is better option for quality seed production compare to isolation distance based production particularly for gynodioecious varieties/hybrids. The quality of papaya seeds becomes more important considering its germination percentage (65%) which is much lower as compare to other crops.