Horticulture Division

Set up

Horticulture Division of ICAR spearheads the horticulture research in India, which is carried out through 10 National Institutions, 12 National Research Centres and 13 All India Co-ordinated Research Projects. It also co-ordinates seven network research projects including Revolving Fund Schemes and other externally funded projects. The headquarters of the Division is functioning at Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan-II (KAB-II), Pusa Campus, New Delhi. The Division has two commodity/subject specific technical sections (Horticulture I & II) and an administration wing, Institution Administration-V. Two ADGs and a Deputy Secretary (Hort.) are assisting the Division headed by Deputy Director General (Hort.) in technical and administrative management.

Priority Areas

The Horticulture (fruits including nuts, vegetables including potato, tuber and mushroom, ornamental plants including cut flowers, spices, plantation crops) has become a key drivers for economic development in many of the states in the country, and it contributes 29.5 per cent to GDP of agriculture, which calls for technology-led development, where Division of Horticulture of ICAR is playing a pivotal role. The research priorities are for genetic resource enhancement and its utilization, enhancing the efficiency of production and reducing the losses in environment friendly manner. Research priorities are :

Effective management, enhancement, evaluation and valuation of genetic resources and development of improved cultivars, with high quality characteristics, productivity, resistance to pest and disease and tolerant to abiotic stresses.
Development of technologies to improve the efficiency of breeding to develop cultivars, which meet market needs including taste, freshness, health benefit and convenience beside resistance to biotic and abiotic stress.
Increasing the value of production by reducing variability in yield, quality, reducing crop loss and increasing marketability through development and site specific technologies for different horticultural crops.
Developing system for productive use of nutrients, water and reducing impact of pest and disease through the use of innovative diagnostic techniques.
Improve the understanding of interaction between native ecosystem and production system and develop best practices to conserve biodiversity and sustainable use of resources.
Develop the production system that minimizes the production of wastes and maximizes the re-use of waste.
Enhancing the shelf life of perishable fruits, vegetables, flowers, product diversification and value addition for better profitability.
Understand social needs of communities and build the capabilities for practice the change, for effective utilization of resources and adoption of technologies and respond to needs including bio-security needs.

Shweta seedless - export quality variety	Poppy capsules ready for latex extraction
Early maturing raddish variety- IIVR 1	Walnut BP4 variety - better than Sunland

Research Achievements

As a result of the concerted research efforts since its inception, India has emerged as the second largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables globally and is largest exporter of spices and cashew.
Genetic resource holding include germplasm collection of 2194 accessions of fruits, 11,229 accessions of vegetables, 10,184 accessions in tuber crops, 6336 accessions of spices, 1304 accessions in plantation crops, 1327 accessions in medicinal and aromatic plants.
A total of 672 high yielding varieties and hybrids of horticultural crops (fruits – 17, vegetables-488, tuber crops-47, plantation crops-49, medicinal and aromatic plants-36, ornamentals – 39 and mushrooms –5) were developed. As a result the productivity of horticultural crops viz. banana, potato, cassava, cardamom, ginger, turmeric etc. has increased.
Improved techniques for production of disease free quality planting material have been developed for citrus, banana, potato, cassava and sweet potato. Micro propagation techniques have been standardized for various fruits, spices and other vegetatively propagated plants.
Rootstocks (Dogridge and 110R) were identified in grapes for drought and salinity tolerance. The rootstocks for citrus, apple and mango have also been identified.
Developed technologies for meadow orcharding in guava, high density planting, canopy management and rejuvenation of old and senile orchards of mango and guava.
Technology for enhancing the water and nutrient efficiency through micro irrigation and fertigation developed for horticultural crops.
Inter cropping and multistoried cropping system models were developed for coconut and arecanut to enhance farm profitability.
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) were developed for medicinal plants like safed musli, lemongrass, palmarosa, senna, etc.
High yielding oyster and blue oyster mushroom species and production technology standardized.
To minimize the dependence on toxic pesticides, eco-friendly bio-agents like, Trichogramma , NPV, Paecilomyces etc. were developed to combat insect pests. Efficient strains of Trichoderma, P. thiorescens , Aspergillus etc. were isolated and scaled up to manage soil-borne pathogens like Fusarium, Rhizoctoria , Pythium, Phytophthora and plant parasitic nematodes in horticultural crops.
Serological and PCR based diagnostics were developed for detection of viruses, bacteria, fungi and nematodes.
A sex pheromone septa efficient in suppressing sweet potato weevil was developed.
Farm mechanization to increase harvesting and processing efficiency and to reduce crop loss has been implemented by developing fruit harvesters, grading and cutting machines, driers, sorters etc.
Low cost environment friendly cool chamber was developed for on farm storage of fruits and vegetables.
Database, information and expert systems were developed on germplasm resources, pests and diseases in potato, grapes and spices.
A number of value added products have been developed in coconut, mango, guava, aonla, litchi, different vegetables, potato, tuber crops, mushroom etc.
Patents were obtained for production of alcohol from cassava, cassava starch based biodegradable plastics, fermented cassava flour and hand operated cassava chipping machine.

Institutional Links

	Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Karnataka
	Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Uttar Pradesh
	Central Institute for Sub-Tropical Horticulture, Uttar Pradesh
	Central Institute Of Temperate Horticulture, J&K
	Central Institute of Arid Horticulture, Rajasthan
	Central Potato Research Institute, Himachal Pradesh
	Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Kerala
	Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kerala
	Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kerala
	Central Agricultural Research Institute, A&N Gr of Islands
	NRC for Cashew, Puttur, Karnataka
	NRC for Citrus, Nagpur, Maharashtra
	NRC for Mushroom, Solan, Himanshal Pradesh
	NRC for Oilpalm, Pedavegi, Andhra Pradesh
	NRC for Orchids, Pakyang, Sikkim
	NRC for Grapes, Pune, Maharashtra
	NRC for Medicinal & Aromatic Plants, Boriavi, Anand, Gujarat
	NRC for Onion & Garlic, Rajgurunagar, Pune, Maharashtra
	NRC for Banana, Trichi, Tamilnadu
	NRC on Seed Spices, Tabiji, Ajmer, Rajasthan

All India Coordinated Research Projects

	All India Coordinated Research Project on Betelvine, NRC for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Boriavi, Gujarat
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Cashew, NRC Cashew, Puttur, Karnataka
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Floriculture, Division of Floriculture & Landscaping, IARI, New Delhi
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Mushrooms, National Centre for Mushroom Research & Training, Chambaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Palms, CPCRI, Kasaragod, Kerala
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Post Harvest Technology, Division of Fruits & Horticulture Technology, IARI, New Delhi
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Potato, Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Subtropical Pruits, Central Institute for SubTropical Horticultr, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Marikunnu, Calicut, Kerala
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Fruits, CISTH, Lucknow
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Tropical Fruits, IIHR, Hessarghatta Lake Post, Bangalore, Karnataka
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Tuber Crops, Reg. Stn. of CTCRI, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
	All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable, IIVR, Gandhinagar, Sunderpur, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh