Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Horticulture Division of ICAR spearheads the horticulture research in India, which is carried out through 10 National Institutions, 7 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.

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.