Arid Fruits

After independence, the focus of Indian agriculture was more toward food grain production to feed our citizens, and with the sincere efforts of policy planners, scientists, and farmers, country realized the “Green Revolution” and reached from the stage of starvation to stage of surpluses. Moreover, benefits of green revolution were not realized well in arid region. Also, attention on horticulture came little late, but it started spreading silently in all eco-regions of the country. In India, 39.54 million hectares of land (12.02% of total geographical area) is categorized as arid regions. Out of this, 31.71 million hectares is under hot arid region and 7.84 million hectares is under cold arid region. In fact, farmers of arid region are resource poor and undertake subsistence farming for their livelihood. The major farming constraints of arid region are poor and erratic rainfall, extremes of temperature, sandy soil with poor fertility, high wind velocity, very deep water table and brackish underground water resource, problem of wild animals, etc. The major challenges in arid region are complex diverse and risk-prone farming situations owing to poor productivity and profitability, vulnerable to climate change, genetic erosion of important biological diversity, poor input use efficiency, poor infrastructural facilities, limited and traditional post-harvest management, constraints of par excellence human resource, etc. Realizing importance of arid region, the seed of arid horticulture research and development was sown by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, in 1976 to initiate research on fruits in semiarid areas on ad hoc basis under AP Cess Fund Scheme. During Fifth Five year Plan, the ad hoc scheme became a component of the All India Coordinated Fruit Improvement Project and in Seventh Plan, the scheme was restructured as AICRP on Arid Zone Fruits. Subsequently establishment of National Research Centre for Arid Zone Fruits, Bikaner, in 1993 which was upgraded to ICAR-Central Institute for Arid Horticulture with effect from 27 September 2000 gave impetus to address the issues related to arid horticulture. On account of various strengths such as vast land resource, intense solar radiation, increasing canal command area, low incidence of pest and diseases, surplus family laborers, good animal population, and suitability to establish agro-based and allied industries, the arid region is gaining importance to promote horticulture bowl of the country. Therefore, systematic work on conservation, characterization, and sustainable utilization of genetic resources on traits of interest was initiated on priority. As a result, institute was able to establish the National Field Repository of arid fruits and released number of varieties of fruits and vegetables for commercial cultivation. In order to minimize the risk of mono-cropping, compatible fruit-based cropping system models were also developed, as well as vegetative propagation techniques, plant canopy architecture management, integrated nutrient and water management, integrated plant protection schedule, postharvest management, and value addition for various arid horticultural crops. Under the scenario of climate change and increasing demand of organic and/or safe food, there is great future of arid horticulture in years to come.