19-05-2025
Tamil Nadu has a lot of scope for cultivation of avacado, litchi fruits, says expert
As avocado and litchi cultivation has a lot of scope in the sub-tropical ecosystem, farmers in Tamil Nadu can go in for these fruit crops Prakash Patel, Project Coordinator, ICAR - All India Coordinator Research Project on Fruits (AICRP-F), IIHR, Bengaluru, has said.
He was speaking at a 'Research and vision strategic plan meet 2025' held recently at the Horticultural College and Research Institute in Periyakulam.
At the meet, Mr Patel said India occupied the second position in area and production of fruit crops in the world. Nearly, 7.06 million hectares of area was commercially covered by fruits with an annual production of 113.22 million MT. In order to sustain this, the need of the hour was a smart agricultural research network to develop new technologies.
Mr. Patel pointed out that under AICRP-F, the Horticultural College and Research Institute in Periyakulam was focusing on varietal evaluation, management of genetic resources, growth and development, nutrient and water management and disease control in fruit crops under the project.
Dean of the institute, J. Rajangam said the institute had released 27 horticultural crop varieties out of which 11 varieties were exclusively fruit crops for the benefit of farmers. Besides, 52 agro technologies were developed and disseminated to the farming community to enhance production. He further said that 750 genotypes have been conserved for future fruit breeding.
A large number of scientists, students, farmers and entrepreneurs participated in the meet.
Later, Mr. Patel interacted with the farmers and launched two innovative programmes to motivate entrepreneurship - a hi-tech fruit nursery for quality planting materials production and value addition.
