Enhancing productivity and profitability of Papaya in India: An update

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is one of the most important fruit cultivated in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Papaya has gained more importance owing to its early flowering, year round fruiting ability in tropics, highest productivity and higher palatability of fruits. The production of papaya, however, is beset with many problems in recent times forcing the growers to abandon its cultivation. Shortage of genetically pure seeds, lack of high yielding varieties suitable for export and resistant to viral diseases, lack of awareness on improved production technologies, inadequate transport, marketing and storage facilities and poor post harvest handling are the major problems. Research efforts in India, taken up in early sixties has resulted several dioecious and gynodioecious varieties. High density planting of papaya can be done with use of cv. Pusa Nanha. Integration of biofertilizers with recommended dose of fertilizers has proved to enhance growth and yield. Application of micro nutrients like zinc sulphate (0.5%) and boron (0.1 %) at 4^th and 8^th month after planting increased the yield and quality of fruit. Among insect pests, aphids are serious threat to papaya industry being a vector in transmitting the deadly papaya ring spot virus (PRSV) disease. It can be managed by regular spray of 0.03% imidacloprid. Besides, PRSV disease papaya leaf curl virus, collar and foot rot are also the limiting factors for commercial papaya production. Papaya fruits are sensitive to high post-harvest losses if harvesting and handling techniques are inadequate or inappropriate. Harvesting of fruit should be done at proper maturity. Grading should be carried out as soon as possible after harvest and fruit left under ambient conditions to continue ripening or placed at 10° to 12° C for cooling and storage. Fruit should be packed in single layer fibre board cartoon with shredded paper as an internal packaging material. In market, deep orange/yellow flesh, uniformly round and fresh with no shriveling or discoloration is preferred. Fruit should be store at 10-12° C with 90-95 % R.H. to increase the life span of fruit.