Vegetable Seed Industry - India and World Vol 9 No. 3 & 4, July-December 2016

Seed Times July - December 2016

Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

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the seed enhancem ent c om pan y Part o f Croda International Plc

Priming Upgrading Disinfection Seed Coating Polymers INCOTEC India Pvt. Ltd. 47, Mahagujarat Industrial Estate, Opp. Pharmatech, Sarkhej-Bavla Highway, At- Moraiya, Ta- Sanand, Ahmedabad - 382 213 info@incotecasia.com www.incotec.com

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Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

Encrusting & Pelleting Application of Actives and Additives Analytical Services

Seed Times July - December 2016

Seed Times July - December 2016

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

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Vegetable Market in India Prashant Belgamwar, Elangovan Mani

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2.

Future of Vegetable Market in India and Advanta Growth Bhupen, Global CEO Advanta Seeds

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3.

Boosting seed trade needs policy support and interventions S. P. Singh and Saurabh Kumar

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4.

Quality seed Production of Vegetables under Protected Conditions Balraj Singh and B. S Tomar

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Role of Vegetable Seed Industry and impact of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) on Seed Industry in India Dinesh K. Singh, Ankit Panchbhaiya and Shashank S. Singh

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The Contribution of International Vegetable Breeding to Private Seed Companies In India Pepijn Schreinemachers, Kilaru Purna Chandra Rao, Warwick Easdown, Peter Hanson, Sanjeet Kumar

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7.

Project Veggie (Vegetable Production System) in Space – A New Research Rajani and Shourabh Joshi

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8.

Scope of potato as the fourth staple crop for South Asia Susan Mathew

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9.

Seed production of Cherry Tomato under Protected Structures B S Tomar, V R Yalamalle and B Vidyadhar

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10. Okra: Challenges, Opportunities and Possibilities

J C Rajput, & M B Patil

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11. Legume Vegetables Seed: Scope of Improvement In India

Meenu Kumari and H.S. Singh

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12. Seed Production Technology In Hybrids Through Transgenic Approach

Shourabh Joshi and Rajani

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Informative Statistics Related to Vegetable Seed (India & World)

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Seed Times July - December 2016

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Message from Desk of

President Vegetables are important constituents of Indian agriculture and nutritional security of our nation. The nutritional richness of vegetable ensures low cost remedy for nutritional deficiency of India. It also aids extensive economic viability and generates the much needed on-farm and off-farm employment. Over the years, it has been observed that farmers are increasingly shifting from the traditional cereal crops to vegetable farming due to high yield, short duration, intensive cropping system, high income and employment generation. This is a welcome sign as this would ensure higher returns to the farmers engaged in farming.

The change can also be attributed to higher demand in market due to perceptible change in the consumption pattern characterized by declining share of food grains and increasing share of non-food grain items in the consumption baskets particularly fruits and vegetables.

Consequently, horticulture is set to assume a greater role and importance within the agriculture sector and eventually in the national economy.

The availability of quality seed is of utmost importance for increasing the vegetable production.

Vegetable growers recognize quality seed of improved varieties as the most strategic resource for higher and better vegetable yields. Although India ranks second in vegetable production, the quality vegetable seed production in the country has been insufficient. Also, that the Vegetable seeds are highly expensive especially hybrid seeds due to involvement of more labour and other inputs. Small and marginal farmers cannot afford the high cost of vegetable seeds. There is need for improvement in the above areas.

The unique strength of our Vegetable Seed industry is the diverse agro-climates with distinct seasons available to it in India, making it possible to grow wide array of vegetables. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. At the global level, India’s export of vegetable seeds has increased by more than seven times since 2003. In 2014, it was USD 44.6 Mn and India was the 13th largest exporter of vegetable seeds in the world.

This edition of Seed Times is titled “Vegetable Seed Industry- India & World�. The content lays stress on enumerating to the reader recent advancements in Vegetable Seed Sector. These articles would enable the readers to understand the Indian Vegetable Seed Industry along with encouraging Seed Industry members to undertake new research and inventions.

- Shri M. Prabhakar Rao

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Message from Desk of

Executive Director Vegetables occupy an important place in diversification of agriculture and have played a pivotal role in nutritional security. With the changing paradigms of food and nutritional securities, the consumption of vegetables has attained tremendous importance. To meet the ever-increasing demand of burgeoning Indian population, production and productivity of vegetables has to be increased manifolds.

Today with relentless efforts of Indian farmers and scientists Indian Vegetable Seed Industry has come a long way. One of the key factors for ensuring strong growth in Vegetable seed sector is the availability of quality seed. Among key factors are genetic factor, environmental condition, in which production is undertaken. Emphasis should always be laid on those factors which contribute to and affect seed quality like selection of crop and variety, seed source, roguing, harvesting and post-harvest operations etc.

The need of the hour is to look at export potential of vegetable Seed Industry of India as a whole. It is interesting to note that the demand for vegetable seeds has been rising in Africa.

Since 2003, the import of vegetable seeds into Africa has increased by more than six times.

The way forward has to be built upon current initiatives, and by identifying new ones, building synergies and, in general, incentivizing cooperation by bringing more actors from public sector, private sector and academic and research institutions. Better networking with relevant stakeholders such as farmers, breeders, retailers, seed associations, government bodies and public and private local companies will play a significant role in strengthening the seed sector trade and cooperation.

I hope this edition of Seed Times helps our readers to develop better understanding of Indian Seed sector.

- Kalyan B Goswami

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Vegetable Market in India About the company: Advanta Seeds (A UPL Company) Advanta Seeds is an international seed company and one of the market leaders with presence in over 60 countries. Advanta Seeds is part of UPL Group which is a global agriculture company providing total crop solutions from seed to postharvest, one of the most successful one-stop agricultural solutions companies in the world.

Special contribution from: Prashant Belgamwar Business Lead South Asia Dr. Elangovan Mani India Vegetable Crop Research Lead-Advanta Seeds

Introduction Vegetables are part of power-packed foods and provide valuable nutrients with multiple health benefits. A healthy intake of vegetables helps to protect against lifestyle diseases and meets daily recommended vitamins and minerals. Vegetables are low in calories and are filling, which help us maintain a healthy weight. Consumption of a range of fruits and vegetables provides antioxidants, which work together to protect our bodies. Vegetable hybrids are developed to suit the needs of consumers and farmers.

Every hybrid is bred to improve a range of qualities – adaptability, nutrition, taste, yield, colour, size, shape, cooking quality, flavour, shelf-life – with keeping the entire value chain in mind. Diverse hybrids, helps consumers to select produce of their choice. The quality of hybrid vegetables is an outcome from years of plant breeding and application of precise genetic tools. Growth in the economy led to availability of all vegetables in all seasons due to year round cultivation in diverse locations of India. Post-harvest handling of vegetables also played a key role in transportation of vegetables across the country. A multicultural ecosystem requires diverse vegetables in the market, coupled with demand from growers for vegetable hybrids that are adaptable to all seasons which is a big opportunity and a major challenge for the seed industry.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and ranked second in fresh fruits and vegetables production after China. As per the National Horticulture Board, India produced 170 million metric tonnes of vegetables from approx. 9.5 million hectares.

Regional levels of development varies from traditional to developed ones based on hybridization percentage, average land holding, and crop rotation.

India tops in okra production and also ranks second in cauliflower, brinjal, and cabbage and also exported Rs. 4,860 crore worth of fresh vegetables between 2015-16 with a large contribution from okra, bitter gourd, and green chillies. Diverse agro- climatic zones of India helps in cultivation of vegetables like tomato, okra, pepper, brinjal, cauliflower, green peas, sweet pepper, gourds and melons.

Consumer demand for vegetables helps farmers rely on hybrids and varieties for short term income. Vegetables is a profitable crop for small and medium sized farmers when they have access to labour which help support continuous harvests. Successful vegetable produce assures income to farmers and reliable vegetable sourcing for traders who cater to retail shops. Adoption of hybrid (and Research) vegetable crop varieties by farmers led to the growth of vibrant seed companies in the last two decades and this also binds the companies to supply quality seeds to win their trust.

In order to meet the nutritional security aspect of the population most of the vegetable companies contribute 5-12 % of their revenue to their R&D programs to help meet the future challenge: grow more with less land. The Indian seed market has shown robust CAGR of 19% over the last four years growing from USD 1 billion in 2010 to USD 2.2 billion in 2014. In value terms, the major growth has come from the increased adoption of Bt Cotton hybrids, single cross corn hybrids and hybrid vegetables.

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The overall Indian seed market is expected to grow at 11% annually while the Indian vegetable seed market is expected grow at 14.6%. This has come from intensive research and development efforts conducted by seed companies who have developed strains of seeds that display improved resistance to diseases and pests, which are able to deliver enhanced yields and superior produce.

The Indian vegetable seed industry offers a very attractive market as there is improvement in agronomic practices driving the intensification (drip and mulch), rapid OP to F1 conversion, technology adoption in terms of value added traits like resistance to ToLCV, CLCV, YVMV, ELCV, etc. along with quality traits like long shelf life, and long distance transportability. Nutrition aspect will be one of the key driver for future value growth.

Climate Change and Challenges Faced by Vegetable Industry One of the major challenges faced by the vegetable seed industry is adaptability of hybrids to changing environments. Many hybrids undergo rigorous adaptation trials to test their yielding potential coupled with other quality related trials. Very few hybrids, which meets benchmark yield and quality traits tests are launched in market. The potential of the hybrids depends on a given set of weather conditions and its performance is affected due to unfavourable conditions. The product life cycle of hybrids may become short in terms of increasing disease and insect infestation levels. Therefore seed companies have to continue building tolerance level in hybrids so that it sustains. The market life of the hybrids become short if it succumbs to pests and diseases. Vegetable crops were recently hit hard by the consequences of climate change such as global warming, changes in seasonal and monsoon patterns, and biotic and abiotic factors.

Unreliable climatic situations lead to crop failures, shortage of yields, reduction in quality and increasing pest and disease problems resulting in decreased profit for vegetable farmers. Many physiological processes and enzymatic activities are temperature dependent and gets affected by high temperatures. Climate change also influences the pest and disease occurrences, host-pathogen interactions, distribution and ecology of insects, time of appearance, migration to new places and their over-wintering capacity, thereby becoming major bottlenecks to vegetable cultivation (Koundinya et al. 2014).

To overcome some of the major problems highlighted above, seed companies market the processed seeds after coating with fungicides and insecticides and fungicides. This seed treatment ensures proper germination and healthy seedlings or crop protection at early stages. During crop growth, considerable control against pests is attained by integrated pest management and prophylactic spray of recommended insecticides and fungicides. These diseases are a major setback to vegetable production, especially insect transmitted viral infections. Availability of alternate hosts and warm temperatures enhanced by global warming helps development of various virulent virus strains, which thrives and spreads across crops.

Advanta Seeds experience in developing disease tolerant vegetables Advanta Seeds believes in providing a one stop solution to the growers. It starts with providing high vigour seeds, seed treatment and crop protection chemicals to aid crop growth. Effective disease tolerance can be attained by strong genetics, as it is reliable and inbuilt in seeds. Successful hybrids are often a complete package with disease, insect and nematode tolerance. Breeding for pest and disease is an integral part of Advanta Seeds’ hybrid development program, with constant focus on yield and quality. Various quality and high yielding traits are pyramided with disease resistance using both conventional and molecular marker assisted breeding. UPL, Advanta Seeds’ parent company, has developed and deployed disease resistant hybrids in tomato, pepper, okra and cauliflower.

Okra Hybrids: Successful genetics behind thick and dark curtain India is the highest producer of okra and ranks first in the world. Okra is an integral part of the Indian diet and provides a good source of fibre. Okra is threatened by serious viral diseases like yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) and Enation leaf curl virus (ELCV). Viral disease is often very difficult to control through the use of insecticides on whitefly vectors. Okra was considered as a regional crop and kept away from molecular genetic tools by the global scientific community. An okra breeding programme was carefully crafted at UPL in 2010 after surveying YVMV and ELCV strains prevalent in major Indian growing regions. The programme also emphasised to understand the inheritance of both YVMV and ELCV. Virus tolerance helped in survival of the hybrids for a long duration in field and set a new benchmark in yield by doubling the “fruit picking number”.

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Advanta Seeds’ okra hybrid development helped the farmer community by bringing them solutions to an unaddressed problem of broad spectrum virus tolerance with high yield.

Changing Weather – Influence on Cauliflower hybrids Cauliflower is good source of Sulforaphane, a cancer fighting bioactive compound. In cauliflower the edible part is the inflorescence and termed as curd. It is the most weather-sensitive crop and its physiological process of curd development depends on soil temperature, and photo-period during crop development. The hybrids are classified into tropical and temperate segments based on their curd producing ability in a given temperature and photoperiod. Indian cauliflower germplasm is largely tropical and has the ability to produce curd at temperatures above 20°C, while temperate cauliflower needs a temperature below 20°C for curd formation. Sudden changes in weather conditions influence inherent cauliflower growth mechanisms and switches between the reproductive / vegetative stage. This may lead to undesirable traits like bracting, fuzziness and ricyness in curd, leading to low marketable curd. Development of successful hybrids by crossing temperate and tropical germplasm led to development of hybrids, which can be grown in plains across India. In general open pollinated varieties shows more susceptibility towards these disorders. Advanta Seeds spearheaded the hybridization in tropical segment of cauliflower so that the growers get good quality curd.

Tomato hybrids - continuous war against Gemini Virus Tomatoes are popular vegetables with outstanding anti-oxidant content and rich concentration of lycopene. Tomato is the most successful product due to technological interventions in vegetable breeding. The price fluctuation of tomatoes in India is due to unsuccessful summer tomato crops infected by virus. Introduction of tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) resistant genes and their selection using molecular markers by the plant breeding team led to the development of tomato hybrids with Ty1, Ty2, Ty3 loci. Tomato hybrid development is a classical blend of marker assisted breeding (MAS) with conventional methods. Tomato lines resistant to fungal disease like fusarium and verticillium wilt were combined with bacterial wilt, nematode, and virus tolerant lines to develop improved tomato hybrids. The shelf life and nutrition (high lycopene) of these hybrids were also improved using certain mutant alleles. The size, shape and taste of tomato is geography driven as South India prefers flat and sour tomato, while the North prefers square and sweet taste. The main objective of tomato breeding is firmness, as the product should be compatible for long distance transport. Diverse methods are followed by breeders to improve the shelf life and firmness, balanced with optimum fruit colour and taste. Gemini virus is the major threat to tomato crop and it is prevalent throughout the year and in all parts of India. Gemini virus uses other solanaceous crops as alternate host and thrives well through mutation. These improved viral strains tend to break resistance of tomato hybrids and cripple yield. Lot of efforts were put to pyramid different resistant alleles to combat ToLCV in hybrids. Developing natural resistance through native genes and maintaining a balance on fruit quality is a big challenge in tomato.

Drought: Common problems, uncommon solution though special molecules for vegetable growers Drought is the biggest problem faced by many small scale farmers. It has major influence on vegetable supply and determines the price in market. The precipitation of rainfall is not uniform and most of the time it is concentrated in a few places. The water holding capacity of the soil plays a key role in storing the excess ground water and supply to vegetables during the growth period. The major contributor of water holding capacity is organic matter, as it increases the number of microspores and macrospores in the soil either by “gluing” soil particles together or by creating favourable living conditions for soil organisms.

Sweetcorn: New entrant in your kitchen and diet Sweetcorn is loaded with lutein and zeaxanthin, two phytochemicals that promote healthy vision. A single corn has a 3-gram dose of dietary fibre. Sweetcorn is becoming a large part of Indian dishes and demand for this hybrid is growing at a fast rate.

Advanta Seeds’ sweet corn hybrids has topped the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) trial conducted in 2015 in various parameters. Both hybrids are high yielders, they have good tolerance to Northern corn leaf blight and provide uniform big ear from vigorous plants.

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Role of technology in shaping Vegetable Research Technology plays a key role in vegetable research and covers areas like breeding, biotechnology, trialling, seed production and seed treatment. Plant Breeders use software to store pedigree information of the lines and hybrids and use it to analyse the performance of individual lines. It is also used to predict best possible parental combinations for hybrid development. Biotechnology helps in uncovering the genetics underlying the key traits desired by the breeders and helps them to track using molecular markers in every generation. This technology helps in precise selection and paves the way for breeding by design. Molecular mapping is another area where traits of interest are tagged with DNA markers and helps in selection at early seedling stage. All tomato breeding programs use this marker assisted selection (MAS) approach to select desirable combination of fungal, nematode, bacterial and viral disease resistance genes. Genomic selection is a new approach in which the performance of a few lines are evaluated in various environments and a genetic model is constructed, by which the performance of its closely related individuals are evaluated.

Doubled haploid technology is another biotechnology tool which supports breeding of pepper, cauliflower, sweetcorn and tomato crops to accelerate the inbred development and wide crosses with wild parents. Various approaches like mutation gene tilling are used to develop novel traits like improved shelf life and fruit colour in various vegetable crops.

One Stop Solution Unimart and Adarsh kisan Center are UPL’s initiatives. Advanta Seeds launched the unique concept of Unimart, a chain of farm advisory and solution centres in India and Africa. It is a one-stop solution centre for all farm requirements that provides expert advice, quality products and necessary guidance to enhance farming practices. The result of this far-reaching initiative has been an attractive increase in income per acre of crop produce translating into an improved standard of living across regions.

Adarsh Kisan Centre (AKC) is a farm advisory service of UPL ADVANTA that aims to educate, assist and address the issues of the farmer. It provides its services to reach out to grower communities and help them in various issues such as aerial spraying and labour issues.

Author: Advanta Vegetable Team India

Reference: Kondinya et al. 2014, Impact of Climate Change on Vegetable Cultivation - A Review, International Journal of Agriculture, Environment & Biotechnology, 7(1): 145-155 Data Source: International Seed Federation, National Horticulture Board and APEDA

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Special Column - Future of Vegetable Market in India and Advanta Growth With the educational level and economic growth the population awareness about healthy food is increasing.

That means that besides proteins, carbohydrates, and dairy products people are realizing the importance of fruits and vegetables and therefore we have observed that in every state of India, no matter if the population is predominantly vegetarian or non-vegetarian, the demand for fruit and vegetable is rising drastically.

Bhupen Global CEO Advanta Seeds

The demand for vegetable seeds is increasing and this trend will grow and presents a great opportunity for innovative seeds companies like Advanta Seeds to conduct deeper market research and explore the market needs. Depending on the needs, the company will set up the breeding targets for various vegetables and start offering to the market various products in terms of size, shape, color, nutritional value, logistics etc. This is where the R&D based companies can add tremendous value to the vegetable market in India.

Advanta Seeds is at the forefront of this segment. Starting from scratch 10 years ago, today Advanta Seeds is one of the top 5 seed companies in India and planning to expand the footprint to Asia, South East Asia, Africa and Middle East where the portfolio is predominately tropical and sub-tropical and offers the opportunity.

For vegetable seed industry and Advanta Seeds the growth prospects are very exciting for now and the near future.

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Boosting Seed Trade Needs Policy Support and Interventions Dr. Suresh Singh Parashar* & Dr. Saurabh Kumar** *Seed Expert, Email : sureshsinghparashar@gmail.com **Policy Analyst, CUTS International, Jaipur, Email: sbk@cuts.org

Fruits and vegetable seeds production and trade play a major role not only in nurturing a balanced and nutritious diet, helping to reduce micronutrient malnutrition. It also provides nutrition to rapidly growing population which UN predicted to reach around eight billion by the year 2030. Seed will play the most important role in feeding this ever increasing population. Fruits and vegetable seeds production and trade being a high value crops require careful maintenance and skills and use of technologies.

Being agriculture based country, India is probably best placed to cater to not only domestic but also global seed requirements. Its importance is also reflected by its overall position in global seed trade.

In case of fruits and vegetables, India ranks at number 16 in global fruits and vegetable seeds export with only 1.68 percent share of global trade in 2014-15. India has been able to penetrate both developing and developed markets. The top 5 export destinations of fruits and vegetable seeds from India are Bangladesh (15.8 percent in total fruits and vegetable seeds export of India), Pakistan (15.2 percent), United States (14.3 percent), Netherlands (11.2 percent) and Japan (4.6 percent).

In value terms, India’s export of fruits and vegetable seeds in 2015-16 increased to 75.43 million USD from the previous year 2014-15 when it was 69.94 million USD and over 2013-14 when it were at 67.81 million USD. Figure 1- India’s Fruits and Vegetable Seeds Export (in percent) Other countries, 22.57

Bangladesh, 15.89

France, 2.66

Pakistan, 15.15

Singapore, 3.26 Thailand, 3.35 Republic of Korea, 3.5 Kenya, 3.52 Japan, 4.69

United States, Netherlands, 14.3 11.11

Source: APEDA 2017 18

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But this increase does not show the real picture of India’s fruits and vegetable seeds export. There is a declining trend in quantity terms as the exports were 17816.75 MT in 2013-14, declined to 12499.32 MT in 2014-15 and further dipped to 10925.64 MT in 201516.

Although, India’s export to Pakistan, United States and Japan have gone up in value terms, but these have declined over the years in quantity terms. Pakistan imported 6421.43 MT in 2013-14 but only 1690.11 MT in 2015-16, United States imported 173.65 MT in 201314 but only 115.58 MT in 2015-16 and Japan imported 187.99 MT in 2013-14 but only 169.02 MT in 2015-16.

The journey has not been smooth for India. India has lost some of the traditional but major fruits and vegetable seeds export destinations in recent years such as Italy, China, Sudan and Taiwan. Italy imported 1623.18 MT vegetable and fruits seeds in 2013-14 from India, which declined to 164.57 MT in 2014-15 and further dipped to only 70.19 MT in 2015-16; China imported 440.40 MT in 2013-14, declined to 203.17 MT in 2014-15 and further dipped to 10.55 MT in 2015-16; Sudan imported 796.95 MT in 2013-14, only 90.53 MT in 2014-15 and just 48.97 MT in 2015-16 and Taiwan imported 574.68 MT in 2013-14, declined to 75.50 MT in 2014-15 but further improved slightly to 124.92 MT in 2015-16.

This decline is reflected not only in quantity but also in value terms. Italy imported vegetable and fruits seeds worth 4.65 million USD in 2013-14 from India, which declined to 1.10 million USD in 2014-15 and only 0.58 million USD in 2015-16; China imported vegetable and fruits seeds worth 1.64 million USD in 2013-14, 3.12 million USD in 2014-15 and 0.50 million USD in 2015-16, Sudan imported vegetable and fruits seeds worth 0.59 million USD in 2013-14, 0.27 million USD in 2014-15 and 0.24 million USD in 2015-16 and Taiwan imported vegetable and fruits seeds worth 0.43 million USD in 2013-14, 0.16 million USD in 2014-15 and again 0.16 million USD in 2015-16.

Figure 2- Fluctutaions in India’s Fruits and Vegetable Seeds Export (in MT) 17174

17816

15206 11619 10158 8533

12499 10925

8882

2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Source: APEDA 2017

Although, there is a substantial increase in India’s export of fruits and vegetable seeds in value but this does not detracts from the fact that India has already started to lose a large share of such export over the past few years. There is no reason to think that other major fruits and vegetable seeds exporting countries such as Netherland, Denmark and Egypt who have penetrated their export in India’s traditional export destinations will not further expand.

Why, it is happening is to be reviewed and examined critically. Lack of appropriate policy reform in Indian seeds sector can be one missing element, which are discouraging exporters and producers to engage more in export of fruits and vegetable seeds export. It is also needed to see whether the bargaining positions of other countries have improved or they have taken any competitive advantage or market imperfections of India has increased in recent years. Going by the normal trade definitions, if something is produced at a comparative cheap rate then it can also be sold more easily and to a wider people, groups and countries. There is also need to understand “is it also the case with the Indian fruits and vegetable seeds which are also heavily subsidized are increasing their share in value terms but declining in quantity terms?”

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The fluctuations in India’s export might have also occurred due to inadequate infrastructure such as lack of godowns and cold storage, centres for perishable cargoes, fragile post-harvest handling facilities and weak quality assurance measures. India lack modern testing laboratories with adequate number of qualified staff. Apart from lack of proper investment by government, private sector has also not taken initiatives to boost the country’s infrastructure for perishable goods such as fruits and vegetable seeds. Another important feature is lack of capacity building and training of farmers, processors and exporters so that they can produce and export quality seeds on right time and right prices in international market.

Some of the major issues related to fruits and vegetable seeds market in India are as follows: (1) Seeds are highly expensive and unlike cereal seeds, excess production of such seeds cannot be used by farmers for their own consumption, thus any surplus production leads to economic loss instead of gain as pre-contract system or contract farming is still very low. Further, there is no stable system to buy excess seeds. Especially in case of hybrid, the cost is too high and farmer has to buy them every year; (2) Tax and pricing policy of fruits and vegetable seeds which is generally not based on market demand predictions is another major issue. Several Indian states impose their own arbitrary taxes and pricing policies which are generally politically motivated and comparatively less based on economic rationale; (3) Another issue is related to quality of seeds, as most of the farmers in India are small and marginal. They hardly get formal training for seeds production and have very little knowledge about how to maintain quality of international standards. Apart from it seasonal variations of India and sudden change in temperature also contributes in the degradation of quality.

The Case of African Trade With regards to African continent, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda and Sudan have been a major fruits and vegetable seeds export destination for Indian companies. However, seeds export from India is very low in comparison to actual potential. This is despite the fact that Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa have witnessed immense growth in recent years but the decline in export to Sudan for Indian fruits and vegetables seeds is a cause of concern. Other countries such as United States and Brazil have shown growth in Sudan’s fruits and vegetable seeds market over the past few years.

Table 1- India’s major export destinations in Africa (in MT) 2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Kenya

57.12

48.47

117.52

Tanzania Republic

2.87

5.96

22.5

South Africa

46.13

78.2

64.81

Uganda

20.61

10.13

18.64

Sudan

796.85

90.53

48.97

Senegal

0.62

2.21

3.51

Liberia

0

0

25.01

0.7

0

10.1

Mozambique Source: APEDA 2017

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Figure 3- African Export Destinations with High Growth Rate (In MT)

Source: APEDA 2017

Not only Sudan, but also Zambia and Ethiopia have shown declining trend in importing Indian fruits and vegetable seeds over the past few years and this decline is not only in quantity terms but also in value terms.

Figure 4- Decline in African Export Destinations (In USD Thousand)

Source: APEDA 2017

This also needs to be taken into account that with the growth in population and subsequent growth in vegetable seeds demand (mainly for tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, chilli, okra etc.), the intense competition between numerous small and large companies (MNCs like Monsanto, Vilmorin & Cie, Syngenta, Bayer, Rijk Zwaan and Indian companies like Nuziveedu Seeds, Namdhari Seeds etc.) involved in the fruits and vegetable seeds market the product performance, introduction of new traits and better negotiation strategies have started to play a major role in capturing the export market.

A major hindrance for Indian companies is lack of trained and skilled labour for fruits and vegetable seeds production in India. Average number of man-days per acre required for hybrid vegetable seeds production in India varies from Chilli (1800) to brinjal (600) which is comparatively very high from some of the western countries where farms are large and production is supported by technologies.

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Following interventions are required to improve performance of Indian seed producers and exporters: •

Fruits and vegetable seeds export require interventions in the post-harvest operations and export.

•

Farmers and exporters in India still use traditional jute sacks instead of plastic crates and fibre boards for packing seeds which are easily prone to damage during transportation. Many farmers and exporters still do now follow internationally accepted hazard and pest risk analysis during storage and transportation at critical control points to avoid any problem before any damage occur.

•

Use of modern information and communication technology for latest pricing, different tax structures of other countries and international regulations should be encouraged for exporters so that they can devise their export strategies accordingly.

•

Plant quarantine, sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards in the country should be upgraded to international standards and quarantine and testing laboratories should be established and/or upgraded so that seeds sent by any exporter to other country do not fail in any quality test.

But, all of these cannot be done if there are supply-side constraints in internationally tradable quality seeds and varieties especially without proper support from the seeds producers, traders and local level government officials. Thus a focus to make them aware about internationally tradable seeds and varieties is necessary.

Despite all these shortcomings, Indian seeds producing companies can have a strong focus on hybrid seed production, with efforts to develop new germplasms having particular characteristics, such as resistance to salinity, moisture stress and disease. Increasing demand for stress tolerant seeds also provides an opportunity for Indian seeds producing companies to engage more with the African countries particularly Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This can be done not only by export of new varieties but also by acquiring small seeds producing and/or marketing companies in these countries. For example, Mahyco bought Quton Seed Company in Zimbabwe in 2014 and expanded its activities. With the help of a good local partner they can explore opportunities linked with the enabling environment for seeds trade in these countries.

Indian seed companies can also strengthen their presence in African countries as infrastructure for fruits and vegetables seeds production, marketing and supply chain in these countries are not very well developed. Indian fruits seeds producing companies can partner with the small local level traders and train them and try to see that this network of marketing chains gets established.

Apart from that, farmers in African countries are currently using seeds imported from USA and Europe but these do not perform well because of tropical climate of East and West Africa.

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Seed Times July - December 2016

Quality seed Production of Vegetables under Protected conditions Balraj Singh* and B. S Tomar** *Vice- Chancellor, Agriculture University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan 342304, Email- drbsingh2000@yahoo.com **Head ,Division of vegetable Science IARI, New Delhi-110012, Email- head_veg@iari.res.in

India is the second largest producer of vegetables next to China. Despite all efforts in field of vegetable research and development, vegetable production in India has reached only162.18 million tons from an area of 9.20 million hectare with an average productivity of 17.6 t/ha during the year 2012-13. The average vegetable productivity in India is much lower than several developed and even developing countries of the world. Presently there is a definite gap in actual seed requirement and seed production of different vegetable crops in India. In vegetables seed replacement rate (SRR) is increasing every year by hybrid varieties in the country. The main reason of low productivity in vegetables grown in India is certainly non-availability of quality seed of improved open pollinated varieties or hybrids and the second reason could be very high cost of hybrid seed in different vegetables and more specifically in case of high value vegetables like tomato, sweet pepper, chilli and major cucurbits. High cost of seed in India is mainly due to poor seed yields in different vegetables under their open field seed production programs. Suitable areas for quality seed production in important vegetables are also limited and in these areas too, continuous climate change and several biotic and abiotic stresses have become a major problem in the way of quality seed production under open field conditions.

On the other hand, the threat of climate change and its impact on agriculture in going to be high and under such situation quality seed production in vegetables is going to be the actual challenge before us. Therefore, it is of utmost important to develop advanced technologies or methods for quality seed production for increasing the seed replacement rate (SRR) in major vegetables in the event of continuous climate change situations in lieu to the increasing threat of new viruses, insects/pests and diseases in the country. It is also very important for a seed grower to know about different viruses & their vectors and other major insects and pests causing severe losses to the crops for effective management.

Damage caused by different insects and pests in vegetable Crops: Insect pests are the major biotic constraints in quality seed production of large number of vegetable crops. The crop losses in the country due to various insects range on an average from 10-30 per cent (table 1). Apart from causing direct damage, many of them also act as vectors for several viral diseases which have aggravated the problem still further. The yield loss varies from crop to crop and from insect to insect, in tomato fruit borer causes the maximum loss of about 65 %, and fruit flies causing huge loss of about 80 % in bitter gourd and also in other cucurbit crops (Table 1). The yield loss depends upon host-plant interaction, climatic conditions, management practices etc. An understanding of the subject is very much essential for timely and effective management of these biotic agents in any crop. Insects are managed mostly by chemical application, in the coming times the need is of integrated technologies which can offer production of environmental, human safe produce with low chemical residues and quality seed in vegetable crops.

Protected cultivation is an alternative for creating an artificial barrier between host and pest.

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Table 1: Insect pests and their extent of damage in vegetable crops Crop

Pest

Yield loss (%)

Tomato

Fruit borer (Helicoverpaarmigera)

24-65

Brinjal

Fruit and shoot borer (Leucinodesorbonalis)

11-93

Okra

Fruit borer (H. armigera)

22

Whitefly (Bemisiatabaci)

54

Shoot and fruit borer (Eariasvittella)

23-54

Cabbage

DBM (Plutellaxylostella)

17-99

Chilli

Thrips (Scirothrips dorsalis)

12-90

Mites (Polyphagotarsonemuslatus)

34

Bitter gourd

Fruitfly (Bactroceracucurbitae)

60-80

Cucumber

Fruitfly (Bactroceracucurbitae)

20-39

Snake gourd

Fruitfly (Bactroceracucurbitae)

63

Sponge gourd

Fruitfly (Bactroceracucurbitae)

50

Musk melon

Fruitfly (Bactroceracucurbitae)

76

Major viruses as hurdle for quality seed production of different vegetable Crop under open fields Viruses are parasites that survive on the host and are being carried upon by insect to the relative host. Hence for its management practices needs to be developed which can reduce the transmission by the insect vector and or by developing varieties resistant against virus infection. Most of the vegetable seed crops are infected by one or more virus, these viruses are transmitted by insect vector (Table 2). Raising of virus free healthy seedling is the immediate need. The time has come, when a large scale awareness and adoption of suitable technology is very much needed to feed the nation with healthy and safe farm produce. A fight against virus started long back in vegetable crops, still there are no direct control measures against virus and the only answer is resistant variety and control of vector population for virus management. The common virus vectors are aphids, thrips, white fly and even mechanical injury, henceforth the understanding of the problem suggest that effective management strategies are required for harvesting virus free quality seed in various vegetable crops.

Table 2: Viruses and Their Vectors in Important Vegetable Crops Sr. No 1.

Name of Crop Tomato

2.

Okra

3.

Chilli

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Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

Name of Virus

Mode of transmission/ Major Insect Vectors

Tomato Leaf Curl Virus (TLCV)

White fly (Bemisia tabaci)

Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV)

Seeds and Mechanically

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV)

Thrips

Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus (YVMV)

White fly

Okra Mosaic Virus (OMV)

Coleopteran insects

Leaf Curl Virus (LCV)

White fly

Chilli Veinal Mottle Virus (ChiVMV)

Aphids and mechanically

Seed Times July - December 2016

Sr. No 4.

5.

6.

Name of Crop Capsicum

Cucumber Water Melon

7.

Squash

8.

Summer Squash

9.

Potato

10.

Beans

Name of Virus

Mode of transmission/ Major Insect Vectors

Pepper Veinal Mottle Virus (PVMV)

Aphids

Pepper Mottle (PepMoV)

Aphid and mechanically

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV)

Thrips

Cucumber green mottle virus (CGMV)

Aphids and Mechanically

Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV)

Aphid

Water Melon Bud Necrosis Virus (WBNV)

Thrips

Water Melon Mosaic Virus 1 & 2 (WMV)

Aphids

Squash Mosaic Virus (SqMV)

Seed and Aphids

Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus (ZYMV)

Aphids

Potato Virus (PVY)

Aphids

Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV)

Aphids

Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV)

Seed and Aphids

Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus (BYMV)

Aphids

11.

Lettuce

Lettuce Mosaic Virus (LMV)

Seed and Aphids

12.

Onion

Onion Yellow Dwarf Virus (OYDV)

Aphid

Looking to these problems recently there has been a technical shift towards the production of high quality hybrid seed of important and high value vegetables under protected conditions. Selection criteria of protected structures to be used for vegetable seed production certainty depends upon few important factors viz., climatic conditions of the area selected for seed production, vegetable crop, type of seed crop, season of seed production and targeted quantity of seed production. Although, very limited work has been done throughout the world for comparing the seed yield and quality of the seed of various vegetable seed crops grown under open field v/s under protected conditions. But whatever work has been done on this aspect it clearly reflects that there is a definite and significant gap in the seed yield and seed quality of the seed crops grown under protected conditions in comparison to open fields.

Generally semi-climate controlled greenhouses are suitable for hybrid seed production of indeterminate type varieties/hybrids of standard tomato, cherry tomato, sweet pepper and parthenocarpic cucumber varieties with long duration and higher seed yields, moreover these varieties are only suitable for protected cultivation. Seed yield of such crops can be 3-4 times more compared to their open field cultivation along with high quality of seed. Similarly, zero energy naturally ventilated greenhouses are more suitable for hybrid seed production of these high value vegetable crops, where the seed yield is usually 2-3 times more over open fields, but the cost of seed production is only one third (1/3) of the seed produced under semi-climate controlled greenhouse conditions due to less basic cost of fabrication and running cost in terms of power supply etc. for cooling or heating of the structures.

Insect proof net houses are the most suitable for large number of areas in India and low cost protected structures suitable for quality hybrid or seed production of either OP varieties or hybrids in large number of vegetables viz., tomato, sweet pepper, chilli, okra, brinjal and important cucurbits. The major objectives of seed production under insect proof net houses are to grow virus free seed crops, and also to protect the seed crops against other major insects/pests like shoot and fruit borer in brinjal, fruit borer in okra and tomato, fruit fly in cucurbits, leaf minor in cucurbits and solanaceous vegetables and red pumpkin beetle in cucurbits. Not only this, insect proof net house also provides protection to the seed crops against frost conditions mostly prevailing in northern plain of India. The design of insect proof net houses can be in shape of walk-in-tunnels with double door entry as temporary structures or a permanent structure in shape and design of a greenhouse where maximum vertical space can be used and the seed crops can be grown for longer duration with proper training, pruning and with optimum pollination management. The cost of fabrication on such insect proof net houses may be Rs 180 to 450/ m2 depending upon the shape and designs. Whereas, some other low cost protected structure like walk in tunnels,

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plastic low tunnels and temporary plastic walls can also be used for off season seed production or advancing the season of seed production, but these structures are technically suitable only for northern plains of India during winter season with a basic objective to protect the crops against frost or extreme low temperature.

Although, very little work has been done for comparison of open field conditions vs. protected conditions for hybrid seed production of various vegetable crops throughout the world. But, during the last one decade enough work has been done to compare the open field conditions vs. different protected conditions for hybrid seed production of various vegetables by different workers at IARI, New Delhi.

Research work conducted on hybrid seed production of vegetables viz., pumpkin, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, summer squash, cucumber, tomato, cherry tomato, brinjal and capsicum has clearly showed that there is a significant and wide gap not only in the hybrid seed yield but also in seed quality in the seed crops produced under various protected structures viz., insect proof net houses, poly-houses, naturally ventilated greenhouses and semi-climate controlled green houses as compared to their seed production under open field conditions. Not only this during various studies carried out on the above mentioned crops during different seasons it was also clearly emerged out that under open field conditions the hybrid seed crops are severely damaged by several viruses, insects and pests, birds, rodents and abiotic stresses like severe frost, hail storms and unseasonal rains but no or very minor problems were recorded to be encountered under various protected conditions. On the basis of the above research work done on various vegetables there are lot of advantages of hybrid seed production of vegetable crops under protected conditions in comparison to open field conditions.

There are several advantages of vegetables seed production under protected conditions which are summarized as under:

•

High seed yield generally 2-4 times more compared to open fields in major vegetables.

•

Quality of seed is always high compared to seed production under open fields.

•

The problem of high isolation distance in cross pollinated vegetables can be minimized by using protected structures.

•

Problem of synchronization of flowering in parental lines can be minimized.

•

Maximum plant population can be maintained along with appropriate ratio of male and female parents for higher hybrid seed yield.

•

Seed production under adverse climatic conditions is also possible which it is not possible under open field conditions.

•

Duration of seed crops is always more (2-3 times), which is not possible under open field conditions.

•

F ield standards can be well enforced under protected conditions and virus free and disease free vegetable seed crops can be grown successfully, which is very difficult under open field conditions.

•

Training, pruning and hand pollination practices are very easily manageable under protected conditions as compared with open field seed crops.

•

More number of seed crops and their varieties can be grown together under protected conditions looking to the condition of the seed crop.

•

By using soil less media seed crops can also be grown even under saline and acidic soil conditions.

•

Protected conditions provides the best opportunity for organic seed production in large number of vegetables.

•

Judicious use of natural resources like soil and water is quite possible for seed production under protected conditions.

•

Virus free and healthy seedling production of the parental lines for hybrids is possible under protected conditions.

•

Grafting technology in seedling can easily be applied to overcome the soil borne fungal and nematodes problem in solanaceous and cucurbitaceous vegetables.

•

Quality seed production of vegetables can certainly be adopted as an agri- entrepreneur in various regions of the country and it can generate lot of self-employment for youngsters in several rural areas.

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•

Seed production cost in large number of vegetables can be reduced by growing seed crop under protected conditions.

•

In hybrid seed production the emasculation practices on the female parents are not required as there are no insect pollinators inside various protected structures.

•

Complete protection of the seed crops from rodents and birds is possible as compared to open field seed crops.

•

Seed crops cannot be damaged by un-seasonal rains or hailstorms at the time of their maturity alike open field seed crops in which usually damage is caused by unusual rains and hailstorms.

•

Off type plants, objectionable weeds or plants affected by designated diseases can not pose any problem in the seed crops raised under protected conditions.

•

Seed viability and seed vigour can be extended through integrated nutrient management in seed crops under protected conditions.

Potential use of insect proof net houses and other protected structures for seed production of vegetables.

In vegetable crops like late cauliflower, sometimes it becomes very difficult to maintain and enforce the required isolation distance of approximately 1.0 to 1.5 kms for foundation and certified seed production programs in the Solan valley of Himachal Pradesh as sometimes it creates genetic contamination in the respective category of seed production programs. But large size of insect proof net houses in the flat valley are the best substitutes for elimination of the required isolation distance and to avoid genetic contamination in these crops. Under such big size of insect proof net houses (1-2 acres in size) honey bee colonies of Apis mellifera can be introduced at the right time of flowering and similarly this technology can be applied to other crops like cabbage, broccoli, knol khol, European type of carrots, radish, turnip etc by using small sized protected structures.

Potential role of Raised bed technology equipped with Drip fertigation and plastic mulching in quality vegetable seed production Mostly the seed production programs of bulbous and root vegetable crops are taken up under flatbeds with surface irrigation system.

Under this system high incidence of fungal diseases like stemphylium blight, purple blotch, powdery mildew, etc. have been recorded through field experimentations and also under several seed production programs in states of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, U.P etc. It was observed that this is happening mainly due to high status of humidity on the soil surface which invites the high incidence of such fungal diseases but with simple intervention with raised bed technology equipped with drip fertigation alone or coupled with plastic mulching can really solve these problems very easily. The basic reason of no or low incidence of such fungal diseases in such vegetable seed crops is mainly due to very low status of humidity on the soil surface. And this has been further established and proved through comparison of the above vegetable seed crops under both the systems at IARI, New Delhi. Therefore, in these vegetables high quality seed production programs can be taken up under raised bed technology equipped with alone drip fertigation or coupled with plastic mulching.

Conclusion In India, similar strategy can be adopted like China to have huge area under protected cultivation for boosting horticulture production.

India, can not only provide fresh quality food/ vegetables from protected cultivation but can also be an industrial hub for production of quality hybrid seed and healthy planting material by undertaking production programs in large number of vegetables and other horticultural crops under protected conditions. These protected cultivation can be undertaken in various structures like insect proof net houses, zero energy naturally ventilated green houses, walk-in-tunnels, high tunnels, etc. as per region and crop specific requirements.

China has placed more than 3.5 million hectare area under various categories of protected cultivation of horticultural crops out of which 96% of the area is only being used for protected cultivation of vegetables and further out of the 96% area under protected

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vegetables a major portion of which is being used only for hybrid seed production in case of vegetable crops. On the same pattern and pace like China, India is also required to replicate in all efforts to shift its vegetable seed production programs from conventional open fields to protected conditions looking to large number of problems in terms of several viruses, insects & pests and also due to several abiotic stresses encountered under open field conditions.

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

Seed Times July - December 2016

Role of Vegetable Seed Industry and impact of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) on seed industry in India Dinesh K. Singh*, Ankit Panchbhaiya** and Shashank S. Singh*** *Professor Vegetable Breeding, Department of Vegetable Science, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, U.S. Nagar, 263145, E- mail id- dks1233@gmail.com **PhD. Scholar, Department of Vegetable Science, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, U.S. Nagar, 263145 ***M.Sc. student, NDUA&T Kumarganj, Faizabad

Abstract: Seed is the prime important commodity for successful vegetable cultivation. After independence the policies of Govt. of India regarding the seed trade had been encouraged in India. Several private seed firms with multinational base are actively involved in vegetable seed production in India making the public sector much lagging behind. Expansions in areas, varied agro-climatic conditions, availability of huge and cheap human resource are creating ample scope for development of vegetable seed industry in India.

Vegetable seed industry has positive influence on Indian economy in terms of income, employment generation and earning foreign exchange in International market. The role of the private sector in vegetable breeding has been increased with increase in hybrid share in the market. In recent years, however, the private seed industry has grown to be a sizeable presence in many crops. It is expected that the strengthening of intellectual property rights and the new technologies of genetic selection offered by biotechnology would make this sector even more attractive for private investment. These developments have affected the structure of the seed industry worldwide.

Keywords: CAGR, Global Index, Intellectual property rights, National Seed Corporation, Plant variety protection, Seeds industry, Vegetable

Introduction: Seed is the most important input component for productive agriculture. Every factor in agricultural production is of secondary importance, but it is quality of seeds which has a direct bearing on productivity in agriculture (Kapoor, 2006). About 20 to 30 per cent increase in productivity in various crops can be achieved with the use of quality seeds. Described as the embodiment of life’s continuity and renewability, the seed has not only been stated to be the source of culture and history but also importantly, the ultimate symbol of food security (Shiva, 2001). Albeit there have been few private seed industries dealing with production of vegetable seeds, the growing of crops especially for seeds in an organized fashion to maintain quality in terms of genetic and physical purity is realized for first time during green revolution period with the establishment of National Seeds Corporation (NSC) in 1963. A major restructuring of the seed industry by Government of India through the National Seed Project Phase I (1977-78), Phase II (1978-79) and Phase III (1990-1991), was carried out, which strengthened the seed infrastructure that was most needed and relevant around those times. This could be termed as a first turning point in shaping of an organized seed industry. Introduction of New Seed Development Policy (19881989) was yet another significant mile stone in the Indian Seed Industry. The policy gave access to Indian farmers of the best of seed Seed Times July - December 2016

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and planting material available anywhere on the world. The policy stimulated appreciable investments by private individuals, Indian Corporate and MNCs in the Indian seed sector with strong R&D base for product development in each of the seed companies with more emphasis on high value hybrids of cereals and vegetables and hi-tech products such as Bt Cotton. As a result, farmer has a wide product choice and seed industry today is set to work with a farmer centric approach and is market driven.

Intellectual property rights protection for new plant varieties, introduced in 2001, further boosted private crop breeding research.

Currently there are about 850 seed companies (mostly seed producers) operating in India in 2014, of which about 50 have capacity in crop breeding research.

Indian Seed Industry Current Status and future growth: Indian seed Industry is currently occupying the 6th position. During the past 5 years the Indian Seed Industry has been growing at a CAGR of 12% compared to global growth of 6-7%. The volume growth has mainly come through increased Seed Replacement Rate in crops. Indian seed industry is undergoing wide ranging transformation including increased role of private seed companies, entry of MNCs, joint ventures of Indian companies with multinational seed companies and consolidations.

Figure 1 Increasing value (in crores) during past years in seed industries

Global Index of Vegetable Seed Companies: East-West Seed clearly outperforms its peers in the Global Index of Vegetable Seed Companies. Syngenta and Bayer rank second and third, respectively. Bayer is a steady top three performer but does not lead in specific areas. Syngenta scores highly in Governance & Strategy, due to the commitments articulated in its Good Growth Plan, and Capacity Building.

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Figure 2: Global Index of Vegetable Seed Companies (Access to Seeds Index 2016)

Figure 3: Fast growing countries in seed market (USD Bn), basis CAGR (2000 to 2010) – (Source ISF data 2013)

Keen Research on “India Seed Market Outlook to FY’2020 – Rapid Hybridization and Increased Government Support to Foster Future Growth” provides a comprehensive analysis of the seeds market in India. According to the research report, the India seeds market will grow at a considerable CAGR rate reaching INR 283.1 billion by FY 2020 due to improvement of seed replacement rate, production and distribution of quality seeds appropriate to agro climatic zone at affordable prices along with a determined effort to address region specific constraints.

Table 1: Future growth opportunities in major seed crops of India (Ken Research. 2016) Crops

Hybrid Penetration FY-2020

Future growth opportunities

Key players

Cotton

95%

Increase in high density planting Acceptance of weed resistance GM gene-RR flex technology Increase in seed prices by the government

Nuziveedu, Kaveri, DCM Shriram, Mahyco, Ajeet, Ankur Seeds

Corn/maize

50%

Increase in area under acreages Increase in area under hybrid Improved product offerings under single cross

Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, Kaveri Seeds

Paddy

5%

Increase in area under hybrid

Bayer Crop, Kaveri, Nuziveedu, Metahelix (Rallis)

vegetable

60-90%

New product launches

Syngenta, Pioneer, Nunhems (Bayer)

Framework of Indian Public and Private industry: Indian seed industry has been growing awfully in quantity and value over the past fifty years. The public sector component comprises National Seeds Corporation (NSC), State Farm Corporation of India (SFCI) and 15 State Seeds Corporations (SSCs), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutions and State Agricultural Universities. ICAR launched an All India Coordinated Research Improvement project (AICRP) on seed production called National Seed Project in 1979 with 14 centres in different Agricultural Universities. AICRP on production of breeder seed in vegetable crops is started under National Seed Project in 1994. Twenty two State Seed Certification Agencies and 104 State Seed Testing Laboratories are involving in quality control and certification. The main task of the public sector today lies in meeting the national seed requirement for high volume, low value crops. These seeds are supplied at fixed rates (determined by the government), and the NSC and SSC have incurred major deficits, because fixed prices do not always reflect the actual costs of production, processing, and distribution.

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Private seed firms slowly emerged throughout the 60’s and the 70’s, with a number of them benefitting from NSC’s technical assistance. Many of these firms have developed their own breeding programmes and released inbred improved cultivars. Firms set their own prices for their own hybrid varieties of crops. These private hybrids represent an important share of the market for these crops. For public-bred varieties, private companies have to respect fixed government prices. The private sector comprises around 150 seed companies of national and foreign origin but only few companies like M/S Bejo Sheetal, Indo- American Hybrid Seeds and Namdhari Seeds are working exclusively on vegetable hybrids. The Indian public sector seed industry used to dominate the private sector in the very beginning. The order of type of seeds dominating the market in terms of quantity and value has been open-pollinated varieties followed by public hybrids and private hybrids. The situation is quite reversed currently. Seeds of the private hybrids are forming a significant portion of the total vegetable seed market.

In vegetables most of the public sector varieties and hybrids are replaced by private sector varieties and hybrids, seed production of which is solely done by the particular manufacturers. Corporate seed firms are mainly concentrating on vegetables like tomato, cabbage, brinjal, chilli, okra and cucurbits where the seed production of OPVs and hybrids is comparatively easy and more profitable.

The doable explanation for moribund of public sector can be incapability to generate huge funds on research and development (R&D) when compared to private seed companies and lack of proper advertisement and market for public sector bred varieties and hybrids.

Private seed corporations are spending 10-12% of their turnover in R&D. Medium sized seed companies annual investment in R&D is growing 20% annually.

Table 2: Growth of private seed industry in India, 1970-71 to 2010-11 Year of establishment

Private seed companies* (no.)

Multinational seed companies (no.)

1970-71

3

-

1975-76

15

5

1980-81

31

10

1985-86

59

15

1990-91

107

23

1995-96

142

44

2000-01

203

68

2005-06

253

90

2006-07

337

121

2007-08

421

153

2008-09

521

200

2009-10

534

245

2010-11

631

292

2011-12

662

309

Source: www.tradeindia.com * Indigenous seed companies

The private sector has started to play a significant role in the seed industry over the last few years. At present, the number of companies engaged in seed production or seed trade is of the order of 400 or 500. However, the main focus of private seed companies has been on the high value low volume seeds and market for low value high volume seeds. In the case of vegetable seeds and planting materials of horticultural crops, the private sector is the dominant player. Besides, significant quantities of seeds are also produced by the State Departments of Agriculture, where the State Seeds corporations are not in existence.

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The value of seed business in India was around ` 65 billion in 2010. Across different crops, the highest share in this business was of cotton (` 14.95 billion), followed by paddy (` 11.7 billion) (Figure 4). Cotton and paddy together dominated the seed market with 41 per cent share in the total seed business in the country. Vegetables and maize jointly occupied third position with a share of ` 7.15 billion each and wheat occupied fourth position with a share of ` 5.85 billion in the seed business. Sunflower was the only oilseed crop which figured in seed business and its share was of about ` 2.6 billion. Seed business in pulse crops was negligible.

In terms of volume, paddy accounted for a share of 50 per cent and along with wheat, it covered around 90 per cent of the seed business (Figure 5). Cotton and vegetables were the major crops in terms of value, whereas in terms of volume, they contributed merely about one per cent to the total seed business. It was mainly because of the low seed rate requirement of these crops compared to those of cereals and pulses. Further, hybrids and high-yielding varieties of cotton and vegetables were sold at a very high price in the market and therefore, private seed companies have shown keen interest in high-value and low-volume seeds.

Figure 4: Crop-wise percentage share in the value of seed business: 2010-11

Figure 5: Crop-wise percentage share in the volume of seed business: 2010-11

Factors enhancing vegetable seed industry in India 1) Ever rising demand: In the past two decades, the vegetable production in India has been increased from 58.5 mt in 1991-92 to 162.9 mt in 2015-16.

Total cultivated area under vegetables has been increased from 5.59 mha in 1991-92 to 9.4 mha in 2015-16. Moreover, the yield of crops are higher when produced from and replaced seeds than own saved seeds. Seed replacement rates are high for vegetables like cabbage (100%), tomato (99.3%) compared to other cereals and oil seeds. Total quantity of vegetable seeds produced in the country is not sufficient to meet the country’s ever increasing demand. Currently quality seeds are met to the extent of 20% only.

Framers themselves meet the 75% through own saved seeds. (Koundinya and Kumar, P. 2014) 2) Diverse Agro Climatic Conditions: India is blessed with 2nd largest arable land, 15 major agro-climatic zones in the world and 46 soil types out of total 60 types of soil in the world. This diversity gives opportunity to conduct breeding and evaluation research. Seed production of warm season vegetables is possible in Indian plains and Deccan Plateau and seed production of winter vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, European carrot and radish is possible in hill stations of Himalayan range. Some winter vegetables like Onion, Asiatic Carrot, Asiatic Radish and tropical cauliflower produce seeds during winter season in North Indian Plains and Solanaceous vegetables, Cucurbits and Legumes set seeds throughout the year under South Indian conditions.

3) Cheap availability of labour: Vegetable seed production particularly hybrid seed production demands much labour. Mechanization reduces the human effort up to some extent. But, emasculation and pollination steps during hybrid seed production of vegetables solely depend on human labour.

Smaller flower structure of some vegetables need more devotion of time and reduces human efficiency. These operations require Seed Times July - December 2016

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specially trained and skilled labour. India is ranked second in hand pollinated vegetable seed production in Asia next to China. India is having huge human resources availing at reasonably cheaper rates. This is attracting various corporate sectors of national and International origin to invest in seed business in India.

4) Huge Domestic and International market Due to high profits in vegetable cultivation, area under vegetable cultivation is expanding enormously year by year. This creates huge demand for vegetable seed in the market. Requirement of vegetable seed is increasing annually. Now a day hybrids are replacing the open pollinated verities (OPV) largely due to higher yield, uniformity and their improved quality for instance. India is second largest user of hybrid tomato seed after USA.

Importance of vegetable seed industry on economy 1) Income generating Seed production of vegetables is a highly remunerative business. Even from small land holdings very huge income can be generated.

When compared to OPVs hybrids fetch more price as the cost of hybrid seed production is more due to the involvement of more labour in crucial emasculation and pollination and also due to their higher yield than OPVs. Hybrid seed production of sweet pepper is highly remunerative generating an income of 136000 INR per 0.75 acre followed by hot pepper generating an income of 41500 INR per 0.25 acre. The hybrid seed production of tomato is having a benefit cost ratio of 2.77 whereas it is 2.02 for okra under Karnataka conditions (Koundinya and Kumar, P. 2014).

2) Employment generating On an average one million people are employed in vegetable seed production activity. Hybrid seed production of tropical vegetables is leading to an employment generation of 2.71 million man-days annually generating a net income of 373 million INR with the involvement of 10394 farm families. Hybrid seed production of Solanaceous vegetables contribute 56.46% towards employment generation, followed by cucurbits 28.08% and okra 15.46%. Approximately 0.17 million farmers are engaged in such contract seed production (Koundinya and Kumar, P. 2014).

3) Foreign Exchange Earning India is the ninth major exporter of fruit and vegetable seeds in the world there by earning good foreign exchange reserves. The major seed importing countries from India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Netherland and Korean Republic.

Impact of plant variety protection on the Indian seed industry India’s Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act of 2001, the establishment of the PPV&FR Authority in 2005, and the commencement of varietal protection application processing in 2007 have helped to some extent in providing the IPR environment needed to incentivize private investment in the seed sectors. There are also challenges in developing new transgenic traits for crops. The Indian government has not approved any genetically modified (GM) crops since the country’s first forays into Bt cotton in 2002. And the 2010 moratorium on the commercial release of Bt eggplant effectively dampened private sector interest in furthering transgenic research.

The objective of this legislation was to provide an effective system for the protection of farmer’s rights which would also stimulate investment for research and development both in public and private sector for the development of new plant varieties by ensuring appropriate returns on such investments.

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Participation of Private Seed Companies in PVP The concentration of private seed companies on different crop groups in 2010 is depicted in Table 3.

Table 3: Crop-wise focus of private companies in 2010 Crop-group

No. of private seed companies

Cereals

363

Oilseeds

184

Vegetables

136

Pulses

23

Flowers

10

Source: National Seed Directory, (2011)

The private seed companies concentrated more on the cross-pollinated crops than self-pollinated crops. It could be correlated with the value of seed business, wherein self-pollinated crops have a lower share than of cross-pollinated crops, because hybrids require seed replacement every year. The crop-wise analysis showed that the number of seed companies working on cereals was highest, followed by oilseeds, and vegetables.

PVP Pattern in private and public seed industries The seeds of cereals, cotton, oilseeds and vegetables were being produced by all the companies across different size groups and pulses were the least preferred crops (Table 4). The most preferred crops across these companies were vegetables, followed by cereals, whereas oilseed crops received less attention. In general, the number of crops handled by a company increased with the size of company, but the large companies specialized in a lesser number of crops than the medium companies. The analysis has also highlighted that hybrids were the preferred products vis-a-vis open-pollinated varieties, as about 80 per cent of the products were hybrids. The number of products developed, especially hybrids, increased with the size of company.

Table 4: PVP pattern in private seed companies in India Company Size

Average no. of crops handled Cereals Cotton

Pulses Oilseeds Vegetables Total

Openpollinated Hybrids varieties

Total

Varieties filed for PVP

Large

4

1

0

2

11

18

893 (9)

83 (9)

976

644 (66)

Medium

5

1

2

2

13

23

440 (79)

114 (21)

554

381 (68)

Small

2

1

0

1

10

14

511 (75)

184 (25)

695

105 (15)

1844 (83)

381 (17)

2225

1160 (52)

Total

Note: Figures within the parentheses indicate percentage to total

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PVP in Public Sector In total, about 1700 varieties developed by the ICAR were eligible for registration under PPVFRA, but only about 50 per cent of these varieties were protected. It is almost equal to the private sectors protection rate. In the public sector also, cotton was the crop which received the highest attention. Pulses, the most neglected crops by the private seed companies, occupied the second position in the public sector in terms of notified and protected varieties. The results confirmed the general notion that the public sector concentrates more on the low-value, high volume crops. Sugarcane was the least protected crop and the number of its notified varieties was also small in the public sector.

Table 5: PVP application pattern in the public sector Crops

Notified varieties

Protected varieties

% of varieties protected

Cereals

881

561

64

Pulses

301

202

67

Oilseeds

262

25

10

Vegetables

106

23

22

Cotton

119

101

85

Sugarcane

54

7

13

1723

919

53

Total

Conclusion: It can be concluded that vegetable seed business will have wide scope for success and will play an important role in strengthening economy of countries like India where the occupation of majority people is agriculture. There is a greater need to make available quality seeds to the farmers in time and in sufficient quantity at reasonable prices. Seed laws are to be implemented strictly to ensure supply of quality seeds and to protect the farmers from spurious seeds. Government has to reduce precincts on import and export of quality seed and planting material. Policy making and implementations shall be free from political motivations. Strengthening of public sector in R&D is needed to compete with private seed companies so as to provide good quality seeds to the farmers at cheaper rates.

The collaboration of both public and private sector may obviously help in quality vegetable seed production in India. There should be exchange of germplasm and other inputs between public and private sectors as per some pre made agreements.

In case of public sector, about 50 per cent of the eligible varieties have been protected under PPVFRA. The level of concentration of PVP applications by the private seed companies has gradually declined, and crop diversification in PVP has increased over time. It has also been observed that growth in the number of notified varieties in the recent decade (2001-2010) has increased for most of the crops. An increase has also been found in breeder seed production and distribution of quality seed in the country. The SRR has increased almost three-times for the major crops in most of the states. A discernible increase in public-private partnerships has been recorded after 2006. Therefore, the evidence suggests that initial response of the industry to PVP is optimistic. However, there is a need to monitor these trends in the seed industry, and as more data accumulate over the years, a better understanding of the impact of PVP on the seed industry can be established.

Reference Access to Seeds Foundation 2016. Access to Seeds Index 2016. Access to Seeds Foundation, Amsterdam.

AGRITEX 2016 India – Conference and expo September 7th -9th, 2016. Hitex Exhibition Center, Hyderabad, India.

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AICRP- NSP (All India Coordinated Research Project - National Seed Project) (Crops) Annual Report (various years), Directorate of Seed Research, Mau, Uttar Pradesh.

Kapoor, A. 2006. Seed industry- Redefining Indian agriculture. Agriculture Today 9: 30-31.

Ken Research. 2016. India seed market is expected to reach INR 283.1 billion by FY’2020 Led by Seed Replacement Rate, Production and Distribution of Quality Seeds: Ken Research. Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Koundinya, A.V.V. and Kumar, P. 2014. Indian vegetable seeds industry: status and challenges. Research & Reviews.

Ramaswami, B. 2002. Understanding the Seed Industry: Contemporary Trends and Analytical Issues. Indian Statistical Institute 7, S.J.S. Sansanwal Marg, New Delhi 110 016.

Shiva, V. 2001. Patents: myths and realities, Penguin books, India: 69.

Shiva, V. and Crompton, T. 1998. “Monopoly and Monoculture: Trends in Indian Seed Industry, Economic and Political Weekly, September 26, A137-A151.

Venkatesh, P. and Pal, S. 2014. Impact of Plant Variety Protection on Indian Seed Industry. Agricultural Economics Research Review, 27.1: 91-102.

INTERNET WEBSITES http://www.tradeindia/Private Seed Industries.htm-33k

The article has been published with permission of authors

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37

The contribution of international vegetable breeding to private seed companies in India Pepijn Schreinemachers1, Kilaru Purna Chandra Rao2, Warwick Easdown3, Peter Hanson1, Sanjeet Kumar1 World Vegetable Center, P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Tainan 74199, Taiwan E-mail: pepijn.schreinemachers@worldveg.org; peter.hanson@worldveg.org; sanjeet.kumar@worldveg.org 1

Independent Consultant, Hyderabad, Telangana, India E-mail: kpcr48@gmail.com 2

World Vegetable Center, South Asia, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, Telangana 502324, India E-mail: warwick.easdown@worldveg.org 3

Abstract Crop breeding research by international agricultural research centers usually serves public sector crop breeding, but does it still have a role when research and development have shifted to the private sector? This paper explores this question for vegetables in India using data from 27 private companies and 9 public organizations. We focus on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.)—two of India’s most important vegetables, and the role of international germplasm received from the World Vegetable Center. Results show that as the role of the private sector in vegetable breeding increased, and with it the share of hybrids in the market, the role of international agricultural research shifted from the provision of ready-made varieties to the provision of specific resistance traits. Still, international germplasm continued to be used in varietal development with 11.6 t (14 %of the total market) of hybrid tomato seed and 15.0 t (13 %) of hybrid chili pepper seed sold in 2014 containing international germplasm in its pedigree. We estimate that over half a million farmers use such seed. We conclude that for tomato and chili pepper, international breeding needs to focus on prebreeding research, capacity strengthening of smaller seed companies, and the delivery of open-pollinated varieties for marginal environments.

Keywords Crop breeding Resistance breeding Seed policy World Vegetable Center

Introduction A good crop starts with good seed. Delivering good seed to millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries involves a complex chain of basic and applied research and contributions of public organizations, private seed companies, and a large network of distributors. The importance of good seed for smallholder farm incomes and food security is increasingly well understood (Access to Seeds Foundation 2016). The importance of international crop breeding research in supplying improved open-pollinated breeding lines 38

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to national agricultural research systems (NARS) in developing countries is also widely recognized (Morris 2002; Lantican et al. 2005; Thiele et al. 2006; Brennan and Malabayabas 2011). Much less understood is the role of international research in supplying breeding material to private companies, especially in vegetables. This is a relevant line of inquiry, because after a wave of seed sector reforms in developing countries in the 1990s, the private seed sector is flourishing in many parts of the world (Access to Seeds Foundation 2016).

One might argue that where private companies dominate breeding research and seed production, international crop breeding is no longer as important because the investment by private companies in research and development dwarfs that of international agricultural research centers. This paper therefore explores the contribution of crop breeding research by international agricultural research centers to crops dominated by the private sector. We use the case of vegetables in India and focus on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), two of the country’s most important vegetables. These are also crops in which hybrid seed production has had a large impact, thus attracting much private sector investment.

In India, before seed sector liberalization in 1988, crop breeding research was primarily done by the institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), such as the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), and state agricultural universities. Formal seed production was done by the National Seeds Corporation, state seed corporations, and a handful of private companies. Informal seed production of open-pollinated varieties by farmers, farmer associations and local companies was the main source of seed supply. Seed sector reform allowed unrestricted import of vegetable seed (subject to tariffs and phytosanitary regulations) and allowed foreign and large domestic companies to enter seed production (Pray et al. 2001).

The reform led to rapid expansion of private seed production for crops in which hybrid seed production was possible, such as cotton, pearl millet, sorghum, maize and many vegetables (Morris et al. 1998; Pray et al. 2001; Kolady et al. 2012), and slower but steady growth in private seed production of other crops such as rice and wheat (Tripp and Pal 2001; Matuschke et al. 2007; Spielman et al. 2013). For vegetables, the reform led to rapid growth in private sector research and development (R&D) and a parallel demise in the importance of national and state seed corporations. Intellectual property rights protection for new plant varieties, introduced in 2001, further boosted private crop breeding research (Kolady et al. 2012). Currently there are about 850 seed companies (mostly seed producers) operating in India in 2014, of which about 50 have capacity in crop breeding research (Reddy et al. 2014).

The World Vegetable Center is the only nonprofit international agricultural research center with a worldwide mandate for vegetable research and development. The Center’s genebank contains more than 8300 accessions each of tomato and pepper (Schreinemachers et al. 2014; Ebert and Chou 2015). Its breeding programs focus on the development of improved open-pollinated vegetable lines suitable for tropical and subtropical conditions. Genebank accessions are made available through standard material transfer agreements (SMTAs) while improved breeding lines are made available through material transfer agreements (MTAs) as public goods for global use. Over 22 thousand seed samples of tomato and over 33 thousand seed samples of pepper were supplied to institutions 138 countries from 2001 to 2013 (Ebert and Chou 2015; Reddy et al. 2015). For both species, 80 % of the seed shipments were improved breeding lines and 20 % were germplasm accessions (Ebert and Chou 2015; Reddy et al. 2015). India has been the main recipient, receiving 16 % of all pepper samples distributed worldwide (Reddy et al. 2015). Lin et al. (2013) mentioned that private companies received 64 % of the seed samples sent to India. The World Vegetable Center’s tomato and pepper breeding programs are located in Taiwan and seed shipments to India are channeled through the Center’s genebank and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi. Local breeding programs use these samples as parent material in their own crop improvement programs. The adoption of varieties by farmers is therefore the result of a collaborative effort between international agricultural research, national agricultural systems, and seed companies.

Materials and methods The main data for this study come from a survey of vegetable seed producers in India. We constructed a list of all seed companies and public sector organizations involved in tomato and pepper breeding and seed production by combining own contacts with information from the Asia and Pacific Seed Association and seed catalogues. The list was gradually refined after visiting each company and asking what other companies and institutions were involved in breeding research on these crops. The final list had 27 private companies and 9 public sector organizations.

Quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire survey eliciting information on seed sales of tomato and pepper varieties released since 1988 and for which sales were at least 0.2 t/year. Data were collected from November 2014 to May 2015. The

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basic method of data collection is similar to that of previous studies (e.g. Morris 2002; Thiele et al. 2006). However, data collection from private companies is much more difficult than from public sector organizations because companies consider their sales data confidential. Each seed producer was therefore visited in person to explain the purpose of the study and to ensure data confidentiality.

The data collection required careful persuasion and follow-up.

For each variety, companies were asked if: (1) it is an unmodified World Vegetable Center line; (2) it is a cross of two World Vegetable Center lines; (3) one of the parents is a World Vegetable Center line; (4) some World Vegetable Center material is in the pedigree, but more distant than a parent; or (5) it is a variety unrelated to the World Vegetable Center. We also asked the year the variety had been introduced and the amount of seed produced per year from 2012 to 2014. If the Center’s material had been used to develop a new variety, then we asked which traits had been incorporated. From these data we estimated the number of released varieties, the quantity of seed containing genetic material from international vegetable breeding, and the amount containing specific traits. Personal visits were also used to ask in-depth questions about the role of public international germplasm and alternative sources of germplasm.

Nearly all seed producers provided data on their total volume of seed sales (Table 1). Twenty tomato and 17 chili pepper seed producers provided disaggregated seed sales data showing the volume of seed sales that did and did not contain World Vegetable Center germplasm. This included six seed companies that provided variety-specific sales data for tomato derived from World Vegetable Center germplasm, but not for other varieties. Detailed disaggregated sales data for all varieties were provided by 6 tomato and 8 chili pepper producers. Jointly, these companies accounted for about a third of the total hybrid seed market. In the analysis we assumed that seed producers who did not provide data on the volume of seed sales containing World Vegetable Center germplasm did not use the germplasm.

Results Varieties containing international germplasm Of the 27 private seed companies that provided data, 9 had global operations (working on several continents), 13 had regional operations across South Asia, and 5 had operations mainly in India. Most private companies were relatively young, with 58 % founded after 1988 and 38 % founded after 2000. The nine public sector seed producers included 2 seed corporations and 7 research organizations. These research organizations were not considered commercial seed producers as they develop new varieties and then license them to other seed producers. The names of all participating companies and organizations are listed in the Appendix.

Most of the commercial seed producers said they had received World Vegetable Center germplasm at some time in their history: 93 % had received pepper germplasm and 85 %had received tomato germplasm. This shows that seed producers were well aware of the Center as a source of germplasm. Other frequently mentioned sources of germplasm included universities in India, the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, United States universities (University of California, Davis; University of Florida; Cornell University), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), own field collections of landraces, and commercially available varieties.

Table 1 Level of participation in the study by private and public seed producers in India, 2014 Tomato

Chili pepper

Private companies

Public sector

Private companies

Public sector

Seed producers approached for the study Of which provided data on

27

8

26

8

Total volume of seed sales

25

8

24

8

Seed sales volume containing World Vegetable Center material

12

8

9

8

6

0

8

0

28.5

0

37.7

0

Seed sales disaggregated by varietiesaa Total market share of those companies providing seed sales by variety (%)

b

a Six more private companies provided variety-specific sales data for those varieties that contained World Vegetable Center germplasm, but not for other varieties b In % of the total market size by volume

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In the period 1988–2014, the surveyed companies sold seed (in amounts[0.2 t/year at the peak) of 216 tomato and 209 chili pepper varieties (Table 2). Of these, 68 tomato varieties (31 %) and 45 chili pepper varieties (22 %) contained the Center’s germplasm.

For a subset of 39 tomato and 37 chili pepper varieties containing World Vegetable Center material we know the year of introduction.

Plotting the cumulative number of varieties containing such material against time shows that the Center’s germplasm has continued to be incorporated in commercial tomato and chili pepper varieties since 1995, all of which were hybrids (Fig. 1).

Table 2 Number of commercial tomato and chili pepper varieties produced by 36 seed producers in India in 1988–2014 and the role of World Vegetable Center germplasm in these Tomato

Chili pepper

All seed producers

Private companies

Public sector

All seed producers

Private companies

Public sector

Varieties commercialized Of which

216

187

29

209

187

22

With World Vegetable Center material

68

61

7

45

39

6

Without World Vegetable Center material

148

126

22

164

148

16

Furthermore, for a subset of 136 tomato and 110 chili pepper varieties we have more detailed data on the extent to which they harbor the Center’s material in their pedigree (Table 3). The data show that until 1995, when the private seed sector started to develop, nearly half of these tomato varieties were unmodified World Vegetable Center lines, but after 1995 the Center’s material was more commonly used as a parent or as a source of specific traits. Also for chili pepper after 1995, the Center’s material was mostly used as either a parent or as a source of specific traits.

Traits used and traits prioritized As private seed companies in India currently tend to use World Vegetable Center material as a source of plant traits rather than as a source of ready-made varieties, it is important to understand which traits were used, and which traits they currently prioritize in their breeding programs.

For 59 tomato and 37 chili pepper varieties with the Center’s germplasm in their pedigree, private seed companies disclosed which traits were used. For tomato varieties, bacterial wilt resistance, tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) resistance, and early blight resistance were the three most frequently used traits (Table 4). About 7 % of the hybrid tomato seed sales of private companies in 2014 had the first two traits, while 5 % had early blight resistance. Almost half of the seed companies used World Vegetable Center material as a source of TYLCV resistance in one or more of their varieties currently sold, and one-third of the companies used the Center’s material as a source of bacterial wilt resistance. Seventy percent of the private seed companies also mentioned these two resistance traits as a priority in their ongoing tomato breeding programs, while another 55 % percent mentioned early blight resistance. Another widely used trait was root-knot nematode resistance. The Center’s developed traits such as high lycopene, color, taste, short maturity, heat tolerance, and long shelf-life were not, or not knowingly, incorporated into commercial tomato seed. Heat tolerance, early blight resistance, high yield, and long shelf-life were also frequently mentioned as priority traits for tomato breeding, but only one seed company mentioned taste and nutritional value as a priority.

For chili pepper, the most widely used World Vegetable Center traits were cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and high yield, incorporated in 4 and 5 % of hybrid seed sales of private seed companies, respectively (Table 5). The CMS trait is important for cost effective hybrid seed production as it permits commercial hybridization without manual emasculation, thereby reducing the cost of hybrid seed production by 40 % compared to manual emasculation (Lin et al. 2013). However, CMS ranked low as a priority for future breeding. Unlike breeding for pest and disease resistance, which is a continuous effort as pathogens overcome resistance, CMS is a one-time technological breakthrough—though stepwise improvements in the technology are possible. Anthracnose resistance and Seed Times July - December 2016

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Fig. 1 Cumulative number of new hybrid varieties of tomato and chili pepper with World Vegetable Center material in their pedigree, by private seed companies in India, 1995–2013

virus resistance were given the highest priority in chili pepper breeding, mentioned by 80 % of the seed companies. Among the virus resistance traits, Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistance and Chili veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV) resistance were the most important traits. High fruit yield was also regularly mentioned as a priority. The Center’s pepper germplasm has been widely used by Indian pepper researchers for several other strategic and applied research purposes (Reddy et al. 2015).

Role of international germplasm in current seed sales Current (2014) tomato seed sales of the surveyed seed producers were estimated to be 91.5 t (Table 6). Of this, 85 t are hybrids and 6.5 t are open-pollinated varieties produced by public sector institutions. Our data capture nearly 100 % of the hybrid seed market, as several company executives estimated the total hybrid tomato seed market at 80–90 t/year.

However, the total market for open-pollinated varieties is much larger because most of it is produced in the unregulated market by farmers and small local producers. For the hybrid seed market, 11.6 t was estimated to contain World Vegetable Center-developed germplasm — a market share of 14 %.

Table 3 Commercial tomato and chili pepper varieties produced by 28 private seed companies in India from 1988 to 2014, and the contribution of World Vegetable Center germplasm Tomato

Chili pepper

< 1995

> 1995

< 1995

> 1995

37

99

12

98

Unmodified World Vegetable Center lines

48.6

0.0

0.0

0.0

Cross of two World Vegetable Center lines

2.7

1.0

0.0

1.0

One parent is a World Vegetable Center line

2.7

24.2

0.0

25.5

Some World Vegetable Center material, but more distant than a parent

0.0

14.1

0.0

11.2

Variety unrelated to the World Vegetable Center

45.9

60.6

100.0

62.2

Unique varieties commercialized Of which (% of varieties)

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Table 4 Use of World Vegetable Center-developed plant and fruit traits in tomato hybrid seed production by private seed companies in India, 2014 Varieties containing the trait

Seed sales containing the trait (t)

Companies using the trait in any of their varieties (%)

Priority trait in breeding (% of companies)

Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) resistance

21

5.9

29

70

Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici) resistance

2

–

5

10

Gray leaf spot (Stemphylium solani) resistance

–

–

–

–

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) resistance

1

0.3

5

40

Tomato mosaic virus (TMV) resistance

5

0.7

14

15

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) resistance

40

5.6

48

70

High lycopene/beta-carotene content

–

–

–

5

Heat tolerance

2

–

–

55

Early blight (Alternaria solani) resistance

8

4.3

14

55

Root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) resistance

2

2.8

5

25

High yield

12

–

5

50

Color or size

20

1.0

10

25

Taste

8

–

–

5

Long shelf-life

9

–

–

45

Traits (causal agent of disease)

Columns 2–4 are based on the response of 11 private seed companies that used World Vegetable Center germplasm in some of their varieties.

Column 5 is based on the response of 20 private seed companies

As for chili pepper, our data suggest that the total market size was 125.1 t of seed in 2014, of which 120 t was hybrid seed. Again, this captures about the entire hybrid seed market, which company executives estimated to be 110–125 t. World Vegetable Center germplasm was found in 15.0 t of hybrid seed, which accounted for 13 % of the hybrid pepper seed market. Global and regional private seed companies dominate the Indian hybrid seed market, controlling 92 % of estimated volume of seed sales for tomato and 91 % for chili pepper (Fig. 2). Global companies made little use of World Vegetable Center germplasm, which was found in only 1 % of their tomato and 4 % of their chili pepper sales by volume. The Center’s germplasm made the largest absolute contribution to regional companies where it was incorporated in 19 % of tomato seed sales and 16 % of the chili pepper seed sales. Yet, in relative terms, the Center’s germplasm was the most important to public sector institutions, as 38 % of public sector hybrid tomato seed and 72 % of public sector chili pepper seed contained its germplasm (see also Table 6).

Farm-level adoption Over the last two decades, many open-pollinated tomato and chili pepper varieties that were popular with farmers and had been developed by public research organizations have been replaced by commercial hybrids developed by private seed companies. Seed companies and public sector institutions differ in opinion about the exact share of hybrids in the total area planted. Seed companies estimated it at close to 85 % for tomato and 70 % for chili pepper, whereas public sector institutions estimated it at around 60 % for tomato and 50 % for chili pepper. All experts agreed the hybrid market segment has grown quickly, and that many farmers now prefer to pay for hybrids, particularly in irrigated areas. Public research institutions increasingly have turned to developing hybrid parents and licensing them to private companies, as they are unable to market them to farmers effectively.

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Table 5 Use of World Vegetable Center-developed plant and fruit traits in chili pepper hybrid seed production by private seed companies in India, 2014 Traits (caus- Seed sales al agent) containing the trait (tons)

Traits (causal agent)

Companies using the trait in any of their varieties (%)

Priority trait in breeding (% of companies)

Anthracnose (Colletotrichum spp.) resistance

1

–

11

80

Aphid (Myzus persicae) resistance

3

0.7

11

10

Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) resistance

3

1.4

16

10

Chili veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV) resistance

3

0.6

11

30

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistance

1

0.1

5

45

Cytoplasmic male sterility

13

5.2

5

15

Phytophthora blight (Phytophthora capsici) resistance

1

0.3

5

–

Potato virus Y (PVY) resistance

2

0.5

26

15

High yield

14

5.6

32

40

Short duration

1

–

5

25

Color or size

3

0.7

11

35

Taste

3

0.3

11

5

Long shelf-life

1

0.9

5

15

Columns 2–4 are based on the response of 8 private seed companies that used World Vegetable Center germplasm in some of their varieties. Column 5 is based on the response of 20 private seed companies

Table 6 Seed sales of commercial tomato and chili pepper varieties produced by 28 seed producers in India in 2014 and the role of World Vegetable Center germplasm in these Tomato

Chili pepper

All seed producers

Private companies

Public sector

All seed producers

Private companies

Public sector

Seed sales (t) Of which

91.5

81.5

10.0

125.1

117.6

7.6

Hybrids (t)

85.0

81.4

3.7

120.0

117.6

2.4

OPVs (t)

6.5

0.2

6.3

5.1

0.0

5.1

Seed sales with World Vegetable Centerdeveloped material (t) Of which

11.9

10.2

1.7

15.8

13.3

2.6

Hybrids (t)

11.6

10.2

1.4

15.0

13.3

1.8

OPVs (t)

0.3

0.0

0.3

0.8

0.0

0.8

Seed producers (n)

33

25

8

32

24

8

OPVs Open-pollinated varieties

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Fig. 2 Market share of the private and public sector in hybrid seed production of tomato (a) and chili pepper (b) in India, and the use of World Vegetable Center germplasm, 2014. Notes:

With = Seed has World Vegetable Center germplasm in its pedigree; Without = Seed has no World Vegetable Center germplasm in its pedigree

We estimated that World Vegetable Center germplasm was incorporated in 11.6 t of tomato and 15.0 t of chili pepper hybrid seed sold annually in India. Assuming an average seed rate of 120 g/ha for tomato and 150 g/ha for chili pepper, as estimated by respondents during the in-depth interviews, this gives a potential area of 96,500 ha planted under tomato and 100,000 ha planted under chili pepper (Table 7). Based on an average planted area of 0.31 ha/farm for tomato and 0.44 ha/farm for chilies (Government of India 2015), this suggests that the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s material reaches 309 thousand tomato and 229 thousand chili pepper farmers in India per year.

However, India is a net exporter of vegetable seed. Seed companies tend to use India as a base for seed production for other countries in South Asia and sometimes even to East Africa and Southeast Asia. Data on vegetable seed exports are difficult to obtain and much of the seed export is informal.

Qualitative feedback of seed company executives and breeders During the in-depth interviews, seed company executives and vegetable breeders explained that the vegetable seed market is India is highly competitive. The market is highly segmented by many fruit and plant characteristics with different companies dominating different market segments in different locations of India. Seed company executives indicated that new hybrids have a short lifespan.

Many resistance traits break down within 5 years and successful varieties are quickly copied by competitors, after which profits disappear. Several executives mentioned that intellectual property rights in India are not being enforced. Due to the slow pace of litigation in India, by the time a court case opens, the variety is most likely already out of the market. Seed company executives and breeders are fully aware that under these circumstances, research and development as well as marketing are essential to remain competitive.

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Table 7 Estimates of farm-level use of World Vegetable Center-developed germplasm in commercial tomato and chili pepper hybrids in India, 2014 Tomato

Chili pepper

Hybrid seed containing World Vegetable Center germplasm (t/year)

11.6

15.0

Area reached (‘000 ha)a

96.5

100.0

Farm households reached (‘000)b

309

229

Traits (causal agent)

a b

Assumes an average seed rate of 120 g/ha for tomato and 150 g/ha for chili pepper Assumes an average planted area of 0.31 ha/farm for tomato and 0.44 ha/farm for chili pepper

Breeders at several companies said that World Vegetable Center material with resistance helped them to cut short the time needed to develop own resistance traits from scratch. Mostly they were interested in specific traits such as tomato resistance against bacterial wilt and Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and resistance in chili against anthracnose and Chili veinal mottle virus (ChMV). Twenty seed companies were currently testing TYLCV resistant materials of the Center. Yet it was often mentioned that the Center’s traits did not perform well under Indian conditions as pathogen strains and climatic conditions in India are very different from those found in Taiwan or Southeast Asia. Respondents from several companies said the Center’s material would be more useful if more of the breeding work and testing could be done in India. The head of the vegetable department of one the largest seed producers in India suggested the World Vegetable Center could collaborate in a consortium of partners in India and consider doing contract research with the National Seed Association of India.

Another theme that clearly emerged from the interviews was the pressure to deliver new varieties rapidly. One private company breeder mentioned that it took him two seasons to purify the Center’s material to use as hybrid parents and another 2–3 years to produce new varieties, which he felt was too long given the rapid churning of varieties in the market. Two other breeders mentioned that although the Center’s material had useful resistance to diseases, it did not have desired fruit characteristics. The material did therefore not produce varieties in high demand with farmers. It was felt that the Center’s material was useful as base material, but not directly as parental material. This observation confirmed our quantitative result: that the direct release of, or crossing of, two of the Center’s lines was uncommon after 1995 (Table 3).

Discussion India is a case where a sophisticated private seed industry has developed over the past 20 years. This is attributed to the deregulation of seed policy in 1988, leading to tremendous investments in research and development by existing foreign and large domestic companies, and encouraging the initiation of new seed companies, all of which resulted in greater competition in the seed industry (Pray et al. 2001). Liberalization eliminated significant restrictions on the importation of vegetable seeds, including hybrid cultivars developed in other countries, and joint ventures with multinationals (e.g. Peto USA and Indo-American) expanded access to proprietary vegetable germplasm from the USA, Europe, Japan and other countries for use in breeding new cultivars. These increased investments were matched by a significant increase in the number of researchers and area under experimental stations (Pray et al. 2001) made possible by the presence of established public research institutes and many agricultural universities that train plant breeders and scientists in related disciplines such as plant protection, seed technology, and biotechnology. The combination of economic incentives, an enriched genetic base for breeding, and trained human capital to build multidisciplinary breeding teams made possible a surge of improved vegetable cultivars that have benefited farmers.

Implications The main finding of our study is, as the role of the private sector in vegetable breeding research increased, and with it the importance of hybrids, international agricultural research became more important as a source of specific traits rather than as a source of readymade tomato varieties. Consequently, the role of international vegetable breeding as done by the World Vegetable Center should evolve to complement that of the private sector in the region and fill in the critical gaps noted below. We also compare our findings to the experience in maize breeding research, which, like vegetables, has seen a rapid surge in private sector interest.

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Pre-breeding research Long-term development of strategically important traits is often neglected in private sector breeding programs because of the pressure to constantly deliver new varieties. Our study showed most tomato and chili pepper hybrids have a short lifespan and seed companies have mostly short-term breeding targets. Prebreeding research includes the identification and introgression of resistance genes from wild relatives into elite lines. International agricultural research centers in partnership with public sector institutions in India have a comparative advantage in this area because of in-house availability of genetic resources and proven expertise in trait discovery and development.1 For maize in Asia, Gerpacio (2003) similarly observed that public sector organizations have tended to shift their role towards pre-breeding and germplasm conservation.

Support of small- and medium-sized seed Companies Our study highlighted the relative importance of international breeding research for small- and medium- sized companies, while global seed companies, on the other hand, made little use of public international germplasm. Farmers and consumers benefit from a healthy and competitive seed sector with strong vegetable breeding programs generating improved cultivars and striving to better satisfy farmers and consumers. The supply of improved breeding lines as non-exclusive, international public goods, helps small- and mediumsized companies with limited own research capacity to develop their own varieties.

Studying the role of the private and public sector in maize, Morris et al. (1998) also concluded that international agricultural centers and public sector programs allow small seed companies to compete with large companies. Besides improved germplasm, training in advanced methods of vegetable breeding, particularly the use of molecular markers, also contributes to a more equitable field of competition, but was not assessed in our study.

Improved inbred lines Despite the commercial success of hybrids, there remains a role for open-pollinated (inbred) varieties, particularly of chili pepper grown in rainfed areas, but also for many other vegetable species that have a smaller market potential or for which hybrid seed production is not viable. For instance, the Center works on many open-pollinated traditional vegetables in Sub-Saharan Africa (Dinssa et al. 2016). Improved inbred lines can also serve multiple purposes, such as inbred varieties, hybrid parental lines, or breeding stocks for isolating desirable traits. For maize, Morris et al. (1998) observed that public sector breeding programs have been important in producing varieties for specific niche environments such as rainfed production systems. However, the capacity of the public sector in seed multiplication and seed distribution tends to be weak and innovative solutions are needed to reach farmers in marginal areas.

Collaboration with private seed companies The Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collaboration with seed companies has not been straightforward. The Center often does not receive feedback from seed companies about the performance of its lines and the communication between the Center and private seed companies is irregular.

Better communication would help to inform strategic decisionmaking in breeding programs and better tailor research toward impact.

A consortium approach between the World Vegetable Center and private seed companies to deliver specific breeding outputs might create better conditions for impact and information sharing. Such an approach might serve the present situation better than giving all seed producers free and open access to all improved tomato and chili pepper breeding lines. However, we expect that there will continue to be a need for non-exclusive open-pollinated improved breeding lines to serve niche environments and to help smaller companies to maintain competitive. Another consideration would be the establishment of a trust fund to maintain the genetic diversity stored in the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genebank as most companies understand the value of this. Such trust fund might, however, not be suitable to fund the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s breeding programs because companies prefer breeding projects with clear outputs, timelines and budgets.

1 For instance, World Vegetable Center researchers are leading the development of TYLCD resistance, insect resistance, and flavonoids in tomato (Hanson et al. 2000; Kadirvel et al. 2012; Rakha et al. 2015) and are also leading research on the introgression of anthracnose resistance in C. annuum chili pepper (Gniffke et al. 2013; Suwor et al. 2015).

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Study limitations Data collected for this study relied on the knowledge of vegetable breeders about the pedigree of the inbred lines used in their breeding programs. One problem mentioned by several companies was the frequent movement of breeders from one company to another, as the competition for skilled vegetable breeders is high. Companies also tended to ‘‘self down’’ each other’s hybrids and derive lines with desirable traits for use in their own breeding programs. Therefore, breeders might not always know where a particular trait originally came from. It is thus very likely that some varieties, particularly the older ones, unknowingly had traits developed through international agricultural research. We are therefore likely to have underestimated the true contribution of international agricultural research. On the other hand, there might have been some degree of positive response bias; companies that used international public germplasm were more likely to give accurate data than companies that did not. However, we conservatively assumed that all varieties and seed volumes for which it was not explicitly mentioned that World Vegetable Center material was used, did not contain such material.

Conclusion After the 1988 seed sector reform in India, improved open-pollinated vegetable lines produced by international vegetable breeding have continued to be used by the rapidly expanding private seed sector to develop hybrids. We found 61 tomato hybrids and 39 chili pepper hybrids currently on the market containing World Vegetable Center material in their pedigrees, accounting for 14 and 13 % of the tomato and chili pepper hybrid seed market, respectively, and potentially reaching over 0.5 million farmers annually.

However, the role of international vegetable breeding has changed, as breeding lines are more frequently used as base material to obtain specific traits than as readymade lines for crossing or varietal release.Wetherefore conclude that the international breeding of tomato and chili pepper needs to orient itself towards pre-breeding research, capacity building of smaller seed companies to strengthen competition in the seed sector, and the development of specific inbred lines for niche production systems. A consortium approach between the World Vegetable Center and private seed companies might fit the present situation better than giving free and open access to all improved breeding lines.

Acknowledgments This study was financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan) and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) through core contributions to the World Vegetable Center. We thank the companies and organizations mentioned in the Appendix for sharing data. Michael Turner provided helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. Finally, thanks to two anonymous reviewers for sharing their thoughtful comments.

Compliance with ethical standards Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Appendix List of private companies and public organizations that contributed to the study.

Private companies (global) 1. Advanta Ltd. 2. East West Seed India Pvt. Ltd. 3. HM Clause India Pvt. Ltd. 4. Enza Zaden India Pvt. Ltd. 48

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5. Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds 6. Rijk Zwaan B.V. 7. Syngenta India Ltd. 8. Monsanto/Seminis 9. United Genetics India Pvt. Ltd. Private companies (regional) 10. Ajeet Seeds Ltd. 11. Bejo Sheetal Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 12. Bharat Nursery Pvt. Ltd. 13. I&B Seeds Private Pvt. Ltd. 14. JK Agri Genetics Ltd. 15. Krishidhan Vegetable Seeds India Pvt. Ltd. 16. Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Pvt. Ltd. (Mahyco) 17. Namdhari Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 18. Nath Bio-Genes (India) Ltd. 19. Nirmal Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 20. Rasi Seeds Pvt. Ltd 21. SeedWorks India Pvt. Ltd. (acquired by Bayer CropScience in June 2015) 22. VNR Seeds Pvt. Ltd. Private companies (local) 23. Ankur Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 24. Bioseed Research India Pvt. Ltd. 25. Indo-American 26. Tulasi Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 27. Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd. Public corporations 28. Tarai Development Corporation 29. National Seed Corporation Research organizations 30. Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI, New Delhi) 31. Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR, Bengaluru) Seed Times July - December 2016

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32. Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR, Varanasi) 33. Punjab Agricultural University (PAU, Ludhiana) 34. Dr. Y.S.R. Horticultural University (YSRHU, Venkataramannagudem) 35. G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GBPU&T, Pantnagar) 36. Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University (HPAU, Palampur)

References: Access to Seeds Foundation (2016) Access to Seeds Index 2016. Access to Seeds Foundation, Amsterdam Brennan JP, Malabayabas A (2011) International Rice Research Institute’s contribution to rice varietal yield improvement in South-East Asia, ACIAR Impact Assessment Series Report No. 74. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra Dinssa FF, Hanson P, Dubois T, Tenkouano A, Stoilova T, Hughes J, Keating JDH (2016) AVRDC—The World Vegetable Center’s womenoriented improvement and development strategy for traditional African vegetables in sub-Saharan Africa. Eur J Hortic Sci 81(2):91–105 Ebert AW, Chou Y-Y (2015) The tomato collection maintained by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center: composition, germplasm dissemination and use in breeding. Acta Hortic 1101:169–176 Gerpacio RV (2003) The roles of public sector versus private sector in R&D and technology generation: the case of maize in Asia. Agr Econ 29(3):319–330 Gniffke P, Shieh S-C, Lin S-W, Sheu Z-M, Chen J-R, Ho F-I, Tsai W-S, Chou Y-Y, Wang J-F, Cho M-C, Schafleitner R, Kenyon L, Ebert AW, Srinivasan R, Kumar S (2013) Pepper research and breeding at AVRDC—The World Vegetable Center. In ‘‘XV EUCARPIA Meeting on Genetics and Breeding of Capsicum and Eggplant (2–4 September)’’, Turin, Italy, pp 305–311 Government of India (2015) All India report on agriculture census 2010-11, Agricultural Census Division, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Delhi Hanson PM, Bernacchi D, Green S, Tanksley SD, Muniyappa V, Padmaja AS, Chen HM, Kuo G, Fang D, Chen JT (2000) Mapping a wild tomato introgression associated with tomato yellow leaf curl virus resistance in a cultivated tomato line. J Amer Soc Hortic Sci 125(1):15–20 Kadirvel P, la Pen˜a R, Schafleitner R, Huang S, Geethanjali S, Kenyon L, Tsai W, Hanson P (2012) Mapping of QTLs in tomato line FLA456 associated with resistance to a virus causing tomato yellow leaf curl disease. Euphytica 190(2):297–308 Kolady DE, Spielman DJ, Cavalieri A (2012) The impact of seed policy reforms and intellectual property rights on crop productivity in India. J Agr Econ 63(2):361–384 Lantican MA, Dubin HJ, Morris ML (2005) Impacts of international wheat breeding research in the developing world, 1988-2002.

CIMMYT, Mexico, D.F. Lin S-W, Chou Y-Y, Shieh S-C, Lin L-H, Ebert AW, Kumar S, Mavlyanova R, Rouamba A, Tenkouano A, Afari-Sefa V, Gniffke P (2013) Pepper (Capsicum spp.) germplasm dissemination by AVRDC—The World Vegetable Center: an overview and introspection. Chron Horticult 53(3):21–27 Matuschke I, Mishra RR, Qaim M (2007) Adoption and Impact of Hybrid Wheat in India. World Dev 35(8):1422–1435 Morris ML (2002) Impacts of international maize breeding research in developing countries, 1966–98. CIMMYT, Mexico, D.F. Morris ML, Singh RP, Pal S (1998) India’s maize seed industry in transition: changing roles for the public and private sectors. Food Policy 23(1):55–71

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Pray CE, Ramaswami B, Kelley T (2001) The impact of economic reforms on R&D by the Indian seed industry. Food Policy 26(6):587–598 Rakha M, Hanson P, Ramasamy S (2015) Identification of resistance to Bemisia tabaci Genn. in closely related wild relatives of cultivated tomato based on trichome type analysis and choice and no-choice assays. Genet Resour Crop Evol. doi:10.1007/s10722-0150347-y Reddy MK, Srivastava A, Kumar S, Kumar R, Chawda N, Ebert AW, VishwakarmaM(2014) Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) breeding in India: an overview. SABRAO J Breed Genet 46(2):160–173 Reddy MK, Srivastava A, Lin SW, Kumar R, Shieh HC, Ebert AW, Chawda N, Kumar S (2015) Exploitation of AVRDC’s chili pepper (Capsicum spp.) germplasm in India. J Taiwan Soc Hortic Sci 61(1):1–9 Schreinemachers P, Ebert A, Wu M-H (2014) Costing the ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources at AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center. Genet Resour Crop Evol 61(4):757–773 Spielman DJ, Kolady DE, Ward PS (2013) The prospects for hybrid rice in India. Food Security 5(5):651–665 Suwor P, Thummabenjapone P, Sanitchon J, Kumar S, Techawongstien S (2015) Phenotypic and genotypic responses of chili (Capsicum annuum L.) progressive lines with different resistant genes against anthracnose pathogen (Colletotrichum spp.). Eur J Plant Pathol 143(4):725–736 Thiele G, Hareau G, Sua´rez V, Chujoy E, Bonierbale M, Maldonado L (2006) Varietal change in potatoes in developing countries and the contribution of the International Potato Center: 1972–2007. Social Sciences Working Paper No. 2008-6 International Potato Center (CIP), Lima, Peru Tripp R, Pal S (2001) The private delivery of public crop varieties: rice in Andhra Pradesh. World Dev 29(1):103–117

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Project Veggie (Vegetable Production System) in Space - A New Research Rajani* and Shourabh Joshi Assistant Professor, Department of Agriculture Faculty of Science- JaganNath University, Jaipur-303901, *Email: rawat.rajni08@gmail.com

Abstract: The Veggie system was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp. (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin, and tested at Kennedy before flight. Veggie, along with two sets of pillows containing the romaine seeds and one set of zinnias, was delivered to the station on the third cargo resupply mission by Space X in April 2014. The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious, and safe source of fresh food and a tool to support relaxation and recreation. The Veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery, but utilizes the cabin environment for temperature control and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth. With the long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS), it has become clear that more emphasis needs to be placed on improving human habitability. The Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE) provides a means to supply crews with a continuous source of fresh food and a tool for relaxation and recreation. VEGGIE can support a variety of experiments used to determine how plants sense and respond to gravity. The plants will be harvested for further investigation and consumed by the crew members. VEGGIE’s growth volume will be the largest volume available for plant growth on ISS. This will enable growth of larger plants that were previously not grown on ISS due to size restrictions.

Additionally, the large, adjustable LED light bank makes VEGGIE an ideal facility for other experiments requiring a temporary light source. As with all basic research, an improved understanding of plant growth and development has important implications for improving plant production on Earth.

Keywords: VEGGIE’s, Orbital Technologies Corp., International Space Station and LED light

Introduction Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn’t need it to flourish. Fresh food grown in the microgravity environment of space officially is on the menu for the first time for NASA astronauts on the International Space Station. The effect of microgravity on plant growth is an important research area since plants could eventually be a major contributor to biological life support systems (BLSS) in future long term space missions.

What is VEGGIE’s ?

The Veggie system was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp. (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin, and tested at Kennedy before flight. Veggie, along with two sets of pillows containing the romaine seeds and one set of zinnias, was delivered to the station on the third cargo resupply mission by Space X in April 2014. The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious, and safe source of fresh food and a tool to support relaxation and recreation. The Veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery, but utilizes the cabin environment for temperature control and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth.

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NASA’s plant experiment, called Veg-01, is being used to study the in-orbit function and performance of the plant growth facility and its rooting “pillows,” which contain the seeds. NASA is maturing Veggie technology aboard the space station to provide future pioneers with a sustainable food supplement – a critical part of NASA’s Journey to Mars. As NASA moves toward long-duration exploration missions farther into the solar system, Veggie will be a resource for crew food growth and consumption. It also could be used by astronauts for recreational gardening activities during deep space missions.

The first pillows were activated, watered and cared for by Expedition 39 flight engineer Steve Swanson in May 2014. After 33 days of growth, the plants were harvested and returned to Earth in October 2014. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the plants underwent food safety analysis. The second Veg-01 plant pillows were activated by Kelly on July 8 and grew again for 33 days before being harvested. The seeds had been on the station for 15 months before being activated.

The collapsible and expandable Veggie unit features a flat panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation. Using LED lights to grow plants was an idea that originated with NASA as far back as the late 1990s, according to Dr. Ray Wheeler, lead for Advanced Life Support activities in the Exploration Research and Technology Programs Office at Kennedy.

The astronauts will clean the leafy greens with citric acid-based, food safe sanitizing wipes before consuming them. They will eat half of the space bounty, setting aside the other half to be packaged and frozen on the station until it can be returned to Earth for scientific analysis.

Objectives The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious, and safe source of fresh food and a tool to support relaxation and recreation. The Veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery, but utilizes the cabin environment for temperature control and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth.

Facility Operations

• VEGGIE is deployed in an EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack.

• The pillows with seeds in them are installed on to a root mat, which is installed into the VEGGIE bellows.

• Power is applied and water is added to the root mat to begin seed germination. Water and growth height is maintained throughout the plant growth cycle until the vegetables are harvested and the growth cycle can be restarted.

Dr. Gioia Massa is the NASA payload scientist for Veggie at Kennedy. Massa and others worked to get the flight unit developed and certified for use on the space station. The purple/pinkish hue surrounding the plants in Veggie is the result of a combination of the red and blue lights, which by design emit more light than the green LEDs. Green LEDS were added so the plants look like edible food rather than weird purple plants. “Blue and red wavelengths are the minimum needed to get good plant growth,” Wheeler said. “They are probably the most efficient in terms of electrical power conversion. The green LEDs help to enhance the human visual perception of the plants, but they don’t put out as much light as the reds and blues.”

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Wheeler, Massa and Dr. Gary Stutte, all from Kennedy, previously investigated similar experiments to grow plants in the Habitat Demonstration Unit at NASA’s desert test site near Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2010 and 2011. Wheeler said Veggie will help NASA learn more about growing plants in controlled environment agriculture settings. Similar settings include vertical agriculture, which refers to stacking up shelves of plants that are grown hydroponically and then using electric light sources like red and blue LEDs. This kind of system is popular in some Asian countries and beginning to grow in the U.S. “Future spaceflight missions could involve four to six crew members living in a confined space for an extended period of time, with limited communication,” Whitmire said. “We recognize it will be important to provide training that will be effective and equip the crew with adequate countermeasures during their mission.”

The countermeasures could include things like meaningful work. Habitat-related modifications also could include plant life. Whitmire said Earth studies have shown plants are associated with well-being and optimal performance. Plants potentially could serve as a countermeasure for long-duration exploration missions.

Massa agrees: “Besides having the ability to grow and eat fresh food in space, there also may be a psychological benefit. The crew does get some fresh fruits or vegetables, such as carrots or apples, when a supply ship arrives at the space station. But the quantity is limited and must be consumed quickly.”

Having something green and growing a little piece of earth to take care of when living and working in an extreme and stressful environment could have tremendous value and impact.

“The farther and longer humans go away from Earth, the greater the need to be able to grow plants for food, atmosphere recycling and psychological benefits. I think that plant systems will become important components of any long-duration exploration scenario,” Massa said.

The system also may have implications for improving growth and biomass production on Earth, thus benefiting the average citizen.

Massa said many of the lessons NASA is learning with Veggie could be applied in urban plant factories and other agriculture settings where light is provided by electrical light and water conservation is practiced. “We hope to increase the amount and type of crop in the future, and this will allow us to learn more about growing plants in microgravity,” Massa said. “We have upcoming experiments that will look at the impacts of light quality on crop yield, nutrition and flavor, both on Earth and in space.”

Reference:

• https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/383.html#top

• Vegetable Production System (Veggie) Project. Human Exploration and Operational Mission Directorate. Active projecr (20112021) (file:///C:/Users/jnu.JNU/Downloads/TechPort%20Data%20Sheet%20Download%2004%20Jan%202017.pdf)

• Linda Herridge, 2014.Veggie Plant Growth System Activated on International Space Station. NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center. (https://www.nasa.gov/content/veggie-plant-growth-system-activated-on-international-space-station).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_in_space.

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Scope of potato as the fourth staple crop for South Asia Susan Mathew Senior Programme Officer, CUTS International, Email: sma@cuts.org

Abstract: Potato is a prominent staple crop that can also ensure food insecurity in the current scenario of cereal crops buckling under climate change impacts. This paper looks at various potato varieties which are feasible in the diverse agro-climatic conditions of India as well as South Asia. The paper also compiles substantial trade data with respect to potato and seed potato to indicate the scope and attempts to analyse the data trends. The paper also offers alternate policy suggestions and measures to facilitate the promotion of potato as the fourth staple crop for India as well as South Asia.

Key Words: Food security, Potato, Seed, South Asia, Trade

Solving food insecurity through potato: By definition, staple crops constitute a dominant portion of a standard diet and supply a significant portion of the intake of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. By this definition, potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is widely consumed in India after rice, wheat and maize, contributing to the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food security (Vidyadharan and Mathew 2016). The contribution of potato in agricultural GDP from unit area of cultivable land is also about 3.7 times higher than rice and 5.4 times higher than wheat (CPRI 2015).

Considering the nutritional aspects, a potato tuber contains 80 per cent water and 20 per cent dry matter consisting of 14 per cent starch, 2 per cent sugar, 2 per cent protein, 1 per cent minerals, 0.6 per cent fibre, 0.1 per cent fat, and vitamins B and C in adequate amount. A common misunderstanding is that potatoes are not appropriate for health due to its carbohydrate content, but numerous research sources have shown that the natural resistant starch in potatoes result in decreased glycemic response, increased insulin sensitivity in healthy individuals, individuals with Type II diabetes as well as insulin resistant individuals (CPRI 2016).

In the current scenario of subsistence small-farm agriculture and exploding demographics in India, scientific evidence proves that the production and cultivation of potato can be a secure solution for combating food insecurity in India as well as South Asia.

Understanding potato varieties: Unlike its European summer counterparts, Indian potato was usually grown by farmers of the indo-gangetic plains (IGP) in winters with about 10-11 hours of sunshine and crop duration of 90-100 days. The potato production during winter also acted as a surplus crop for farmers when irrigation conditions are minimal. Interestingly, the earlier varieties of potato found in South Asia were quite often shared among neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh of India due to their proximity with the IGP. However, a successive post-harvest storage phase comprising of long summer created an urgent need for technological advancements in potato varieties. Keeping this in mind, research institutions in India have been successful in creating more than 43 table varieties and more than five processing varieties of crops. These varieties are also suitable for the early, medium and late crop duration across

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the eight agro-ecological zones of India too (CPRI 2014). As a result, farmers across the country have been able to grow potato in varied climatic conditions under different soil types. This has also ensured that produce is now available for processing around the year, which so far was not the case.

In addition to serving the farmers of India, Indian potato varieties and seeds are also commercially grown in other countries. Countries such as Afghanistan (K. Chandramukhi), Bangladesh (K. Sindhuri), Bhutan (K. Jyoti), Nepal (K. Jyoti, K. Sindhuri) and Sri Lanka (I-822 as cv. Khrushi, I-1085 as cv. Sita) are some of the neighbouring countries of India in South Asia who have benefited from the mentioned varieties.

The trade of potato1 and seed potato2 for India as well as for South Asia holds immense potential to address food insecurity as well as decreased yield of cereal crops due to climate change impacts. This paper will attempt to look at trade data for potato and seed potato in India as well as South Asia to study and analyse the trade trends reported. The conclusions will attempt to direct discussions which can address the potential of potato trade within South Asia.

Potato cultivation and production in South Asia: Similar to India, other South Asian countries have also shown substantial production of potatoes for table purposes. The data displayed in figure 1 show that among the SAARC countries, India has shown considerable production in potato, followed by Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. In terms of production of potato seed, India (3078944 tonne) seems to be the forerunner and with Bangladesh (442702 tonne), Nepal (238600 tonne) and Pakistan (163820 tonne) trailing behind.

It is worthwhile to note from the figure that the prominent producers in South Asia are also connected by land to each other.

Numerous studies have shown that most of the South Asian countries thrive on the cross-country bilateral as well as multilateral trade within the South Asian subcontinent (Walker, Schmiediche and Hijmans 1999, Ingco 2003, Ezeta 2008, Scott and Suarez 2011) The bilateral trade of India with the BBIN3 countries has also been recorded historically as well as renewed in recent times.

Indicates HS Product Code: 07.01- Potatoes, fresh or chilled (http://bit.ly/2ezipPq) Indicates HS product Code: 0701.10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Seed (http://bit.ly/2ezipPq) 3 Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) 1 2

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The trade scenario of potato with respect to India and other South Asian countries has been given in table 1 and table 2. In table 1, the numbers show that SAARC4 countries contribute to only 3.71 per cent of the total exported value of potato in the world (4145847 US dollar thousand). They also contribute only to 2.03 per cent of the total imported value of potato in the world (4398372 US dollar thousand). However the SAARC countries exhibit a trade surplus of +1.68 per cent for potato which is substantial considering the area under cultivation and production patterns of SAARC countries with respect to the rest of the world.

Table 1: Trade status of potato* within SAARC (2010-2014) (in US dollar thousand) List of Exporters

% Exported Value

List of Importers

% Imported Value

Pakistan

2.00

Sri Lanka

0.76

India

1.10

Nepal

0.61

Bangladesh

0.40

Pakistan

0.50

Afghanistan

0.14

Bangladesh

0.09

Bhutan

0.12

Maldives

0.06

Nepal

0.002

Bhutan

0.02

Sri Lanka

0.0003

India

0.00

SAARC

3.72

SAARC

2.03

World

4145847.20

World

4398372.00

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calculations using data from ITC Trade Map, Accessed on 15th October, 2016 | *Product: 0701 - Potatoes, fresh or chilled

Table 2 displays that majority of the importers for potato for India are from South Asia (Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) and for SAARC as well (Afghanistan, Sri Lank, Nepal). Considering that these countries have already been able to tap into the potato market of SAARC, it would be worthwhile to initiate discussions among traders and processors on understanding the potholes for increasing the ease of business.

Table 2: List of top 10 markets for potato* for SAARC (2010-2014) (in US dollar thousand)

List of Exporters

Exported Value

List of Importers

Imported Value

India

16464.60

Afghanistan

52350.00

Pakistan

9963.00

Sri Lanka

21728.80

Netherlands

8726.20

Nepal

17778.00

China

2420.80

Russian Federation

14228.80

Bangladesh

1553.40

Pakistan

11058.60

Belgium

1115.60

Malaysia

9800.00

France

1060.80

United Arab Emirates

5589.40

Germany

886.60

Turkmenistan

3676.50

Iran, Islamic Republic of

886.00

India

3197.40

United Arab Emirates

688.80

Singapore

2614.60

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calculations using data from ITC Trade Map, Accessed on 15th October, 2016 | *Product: 0701 - Potatoes, fresh or chilled 4

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Potato seed trade in South Asia: Data from table 3 indicates that India has substantial relations with Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for potato as well as seed potato markets. It is interesting to note that multiple middle-eastern as well as Asia-Pacific countries also depend on Indian varieties of potato and seed potato.

There is also evidence that other countries like Mexico (I-654 as CCM-69.1), Philippines (I-1035 as cv. Montanosa, I-1085 as cv. BSUP04), Madagascar (I-1035 as Malaika), Bolivia (I-1039 as cv. India) and Vietnam (I-1039 as cv. Red skin) also grow Indian potato varieties and hybrids (CPRI 2015).

Table 3: List of top 10 importing markets for potato* and seed potato** for India (2010-2014) (in US dollar thousand) List of Importers for potato*

% Exported Value

List of Importers for seed potato**

% Exported Value

Nepal

36.02

Sri Lanka

57.817

Pakistan

21.80

Senegal

11.766

Sri Lanka

19.09

Egypt

11.043

Russian Federation

5.30

Pakistan

4.121

Mauritius

3.40

United Arab Emirates

3.687

Maldives

2.44

Malaysia

3.452

United Arab Emirates

2.32

Nepal

2.151

Malaysia

1.94

Saudi Arabia

1.554

Kuwait

1.94

Russian Federation

1.518

Oman

1.51

Myanmar

0.831

World

45711.40

World

1106.60

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calculations using data from ITC Trade Map, Accessed on 15 October, 2016 *Product: 0701 - Potatoes, fresh or chilled | **Product: 070110 - Seed potatoes th

The data displayed in Table 4 indicates that the trade status of seed potato is quite minimal within the SAARC group. Multiple stakeholder interactions have also shown that while access to potato for table-purpose and processing is comparatively easier while not so in the case of seed potato. The data also show a trade deficit of -1.17 per cent for the trade status by SAARC countries for seed potato. A common observation has been that this is primarily due to concerns revolving around sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) regulations required for ensuring disease and pest free seed potato trade.

Table 4: Trade status of seed potato* within SAARC (2010-2014) (in US dollar thousand) List of Exporters

% Exported Value

List of Importers

% Imported Value

India

0.11

Pakistan

0.66

Bangladesh

0.04

Bangladesh

0.44

Pakistan

0.01

Sri Lanka

0.15

Bhutan

0.001

Nepal

0.02

Sri Lanka

0.0002

Bhutan

0.0004

Nepal

0.0001

India

0.00

SAARC

0.17

SAARC

1.28

World

970322.20

World

920387.60

Source: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calculations using data from ITC Trade Map, Accessed on 15th October, 2016 | *Product: 070110 - Seed potatoes 58

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Table 5 shows that among SAARC countries, India is the only substantial exporter with the imported value for SAARC being 294 US dollar thousand. SAARC countries are also importing from European countries like Netherland (10170 US dollar thousand) and Belgium (476 US dollar thousand) too. This brings the limelight to the discussions regarding what are the issues which have facilitated potato trade but have not been influential in creating ease of business for seed potato.

Table 5: List of top 10 markets for seed potato* for SAARC (2010-2014) (in US dollar thousand) List of Exporters

Imported Value

List of Importers

Exported Value

10170.40

Sri Lanka

808.50

Belgium

476.00

Senegal

325.50

France

352.60

Malaysia

311.33

India

294.40

Singapore

282.67

Germany

202.40

Qatar

173.00

United States of America

171.20

Egypt

152.75

Ireland

122.67

Pakistan

115.00

China

68.33

Afghanistan

69.33

Australia

51.00

Russian Federation

67.00

Denmark

20.00

Saudi Arabia

50.25

Netherlands

Source: Author’s calculations using data from ITC Trade Map, Accessed on 15th October, 2016 *Product: 070110 - Seed potatoes

Avenues for discussions: The data presented above presents numerous opportunities for improvement and policy interventions. Based on the set of data trends observed in earlier sections and field level stakeholder interaction, some major policy suggestions have been delineated below: 1. While consuming potato for staple diet was a common practice in India in earlier times, increasing annual incomes and shift in dietary options to exotic vegetables has side-lined the poor man’s crop. Dismantling misconceptions about potato’s nutrition content and awareness about local transparent-skin potato varieties is the need of the hour for promoting higher rate of adoption among consumers as well as farmers 2. Under changing global consumption patterns, Indian potatoes have the possibility of substituting the European market during the European lean period of January – June. Indian potatoes in the terai region have also helped substantiate potato processors need in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan during stress production periods. These evidences indicate that there is a scope of alternating the import and export trade trends within SAARC countries as well as with the world markets too.

3. A primary issue which interdicts the trade of seed potato within SAARC countries is the agricultural SPS regulations included under the big umbrella of ‘listed commodities’ for trade. While national governments engage in mutual discussions, engagement policies like ‘Look East’ have been successful in facilitating trade at smaller volumes through border haats.

4. Technological advancements in potato research are currently progressing in leaps and bounds. The next step to monitor is the adoption of disease resistant and yield increasing varieties by farmers. Concentrated efforts through agricultural universities, farmer producer organisations and multi-national research bodies need to be streamlined in order to create a butterfly effect.

The Indian government aims to increase potato productivity to 34.51 t/ha with production of 124.88 million tonne by increasing the area under cultivation to 3.62 million ha. In the coming days as focus shifts from conserving groundwater resources and climate change mitigation, cereals and pulses have a long road ahead. As the country moves ahead to combat food insecurity as well as combat the after-effects of climate change, potato cultivation will assume giant strides in technology as well as commerce.

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Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank Dr. Shambhu Kumar (Acting Head, Central Potato Research Station, Patna, Bihar) and Mr. Vijoy Prakash (Former Agricultural Price Commissioner, Department of Agriculture, Government of Bihar) for their insights shared as part of the FOODSEC project (http://bit.ly/2fWxzUc), that have also been included in this paper.

Works Cited CPRI. “Health benefits associated with potato consumption.” Potato: A good source of food and nutrition. Shimla Central Potato Research Institute. 2016. http://14.139.61.86/ebook_potato_nutrition/index.htm (accessed October 15, 2016).

—. “Indian potato varieties and their salient features.” Edited by Vinod Kumar, S. K. Luthra, Vinay Bhardwaj and B. P. Singh. Shimla: ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, 2014.

CPRI. Vision-2050 document of ICAR-CPRI, Shimla. Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, 2015.

Ezeta, Fernando N. “An overview of potato production in Asia and the Pacific Region: Markets, development and constraints.” Edited

by Minas K. Papademetriou. Workshop to commemorate the international year of the potato. Bangkok, Thailand: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 2008. 11-17.

Ingco, Merlinda D. Agriculture, trade and the WTO in South Asia. World Bank Publications, 2003.

Mathew, Susan. Agricultural Input Trade & Food Security in South Asia. Discussion Paper, CUTS International, 2015.

Mirza, Tasneem, and Eleanor Bacani. Addressing hard and soft infrastructure barriers to trade in South Asia. South Asia working paper series no. 16, Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 2013.

Scott, G. J., and V. Suarez. “Growth rates for potato in India and their implications for industry.” Potato Journal 38, no. 2 (2011): 100112.

Vidyadharan, Veena, and Susan Mathew. “Climate change impacts on Indian agriculture: Staple crops and food security scenarios.”

CUTS International, 2016.

Walker, T. S., P. E. Schmiediche, and R. J. Hijmans. “World trends and patterns in the potato crop: An economic and geographic survey.” Potato Research, June 1999: 241-264.

The article has been published with permission of authors

60

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Seed Times July - December 2016

Seed production of cherry tomato under protected structures B S Tomar*, V R Yalamalle ** and B Vidyadhar *** *Head, Division of Vegetable Science, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi -110012, Email- head_veg@iari.res.in **PhD Scholar, Division of Seed Science & Technology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi ***Assistant Professor, Agriculture College, Aswaraopet, Andhra Pradesh

Abstract: Cherry tomato is emerging as an important salad crop. It is highly nutritious, rich source of lycopene, Ă&#x;-carotene, flavonoids, vitamin C, and minerals. Seed production of cherry tomato is highly profitable and has high export potential. Seed production of cherry tomato under semi climate controlled structures can yield up to 50 % more seed yield compared insect proof net house. The seed quality is also higher in semi climate controlled structures. Training and pruning is an essential component of cherry tomato seed production.

Indertminate varieties need to be stacked. Retention of five trusses per plant and 10 berries per truss is essential for getting higher seed yield as well as seed quality. Cherry tomato is a self pollinated crop and hybrid seed production requires hand emasculation and pollination. The berries mature in 30-40 days after pollination and fermentation is the preferred method of seed extraction.

Harvested seeds must be dried to 6% moisture and packed in moisture impervious packing material. The seeds can be safely stored for two to three years if stored in cooler places. Seed yield may vary from 5-8 kg/ 1000m2 protected structures under different climatic conditions.

Keywords: Cherry tomato, seed production, protected structure, seed yield, seed quality Cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var cerasiforme L.) is gaining popularity as an integral component of salad in and around the globe. It has nutraceutical potential, contained vitamin A and C and minerals (K, P, Mg and Ca), photo-chemicals (lycopene, Ă&#x;-carotene, flavonoids) (Crisanto-Juarez et al. 2010). Lycopene has an antioxidant role, which minimizes the risk of cancer, prostate adenocarcinoma and cardiovascular diseases in humans (Takeoka et al. 2001). In addition, cherry tomato is used for the preparation of tomolive and tomatina, which are having more industrial value. The cultivation of cherry tomato is becoming popular particularly among upper segments of the society. Thus, to meet the growing demand of cherry tomato for the urban population and to overcome the recurring biotic and abiotic production constrains during rainy and post rainy season under open field conditions, protected cultivation is one of the most advisable means of production to address such constraints. The demand of the quality seed of cherry tomato is increasing for cultivation under protected structures but the cost of the seed and uncertainty in supply affecting the cherry tomato cultivation.

Seedling raising and transplanting For ensuring better success of establishment and reducing the seed demand the seedlings should be raised by plug tray method using soil less media consisting of cocopeat,vermiculite and perlite in the ratio of 3:1:1 (on a volume basis). The seedlings should be transplanted at the two true leaves stage during first week of September.

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Protected structure for higher seed yield and quality Different types of greenhouses (i.e. semi climate controlled and naturally ventilated), walk-in tunnels, insect proof net houses. Provides protection from various biotic and abiotic stresses. Vidyadhar et al., 2015 studied the effect of growing conditions on seed yield and quality in cherry tomato variety Pusa Cherry Tomato 1 and recommended the use of semi climate controlled poly house to get high seed yield & quality (7.11 g/plant & 8.532 kg/1000m2 poly house). However, the benefit cost ratio (BCR) is higher in insect proof net house (1:2.70) followed by semi-climate controlled poly house (1:1.62).

Table 1: Effect of growing structures on berry weight and seed yield characters in cherry tomato cv.

Pusa Cherry tomato 1 Growing conditions

Mature berry weight (g)

Number of seeds/berry

Seed yield/ plant

Germination %

Semi-climate controlled polyhouse

5.12

34.52

7.11

84.63

Naturally ventilated polyhouse

4.58

31.44

4.08

79.88

Insect proof net house

4.23

29.91

3.38

79.88

CD (0.05)

0.16

0.88

0.0008

1.64

Staking & pruning Determinate varieties do not need staking. Stacking helps in increasing the number of plants per unit area and relies on vertical intensification. Prune the plant to one or two vigorous stems by snapping off â&#x20AC;&#x153;suckersâ&#x20AC;? when they are 2 to 4 inches long. Staking and pruning is essential to get early fruit set, larger fruit and make harvest easier. Stacking with the help of jute rope in poly houses or wooden stakes under open conditions can be used.

Truss load and berry retention effect the seed yield and quality The distribution of assimilates among sinks is regulated by the sinks itself (Marcelis 1996). hence in fruit bearing crops, fruits themselves play a major role in allocation of biomass, as they are the main sinks in these crops (De Koning 1993). Vidyadhar et al., 2014 studied the optimum truss load and berry number in cherry tomato. The retention of 5 truss per plant and pruning truss to10 berry recorded higher berry weight, number of seeds/berry, seed yield/berry and higher seed quality.

Table 2: Effect of truss load and berry retention on seed yield attributes of Pusa cherry tomato-1 Truss load per vine

Mature berry weight (g)

Number of seeds/berry

Seed yield/berry (g)

Germination %

Five truss

7.37

63.25

0.0893

84.68

Seven truss

7.23

59.27

0.0880

83.35

Nine truss

6.39

46.58

0.0852

82.46

CD (0.05)

0.035

0.383

NS

0.44

Ten berry

8.21

61.53

0.0913

86.01

Fifteen berry

6.90

56.03

0.0863

83.01

Twenty berry

5.88

51.54

0.0841

81.46

CD (0.05)

0.035

0.383

NS

NS

Berry retention per truss

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Pollination management Cherry tomato is a self pollinated crop for the varietal seed production, thus it must be ensured that the seed crop has at least 50 meter and 25 meter isolation for foundation and certified seed respectively. For hybrid seed production block method of planting is preferred. Pollen parent is transplanted 15 days earlier than the seed parent to ensure the use of very first flowers of the truss for pollination. The seed parent and pollen parent is planted in 3:1 ratio (1200: 300 plants in 1000 m2 polyhouse). The emasculation and pollination is continued for 45-60 days. Flower buds from the first flush which will be opening in two to three days are chosen for emasculation. By using sharp-pointed forceps pull the anther cone out of the bud, leaving the calyx, corolla and pistil. Flowers from the male parent is collected a day prior to anthesis and collected in butter paper bags and dried by placing them 30 cm below a 100watt lamp overnight. The pollen is sourced from male parent The best time for pollen collection is during the early morning before the pollen has been shed. The pollen is separated from the anthers and collected in plastic cups. By using pollen ring the emasculated female parent is pollinated. Any non-crossed flowers on the female plants are removed to avoid selfed seeds.

Harvesting Berries start ripen about 40-60 days after pollination, but may take longer if temperatures are cool.Keep the fruits on the vine until they are fully mature, preferably to the pink or red ripe stage. This enables the seed to develop normally and fully. Vidhyadhar et al., 2014 harvested the fruits at various days after anthesis (DAA) at 10 days interval from 15-65 days after anthesis (DAA) and concluded that the berry should be harvested 65DAA/light red or red fruit colour stage to obtained higher seed yield with better seed quality fruits under Delhi condition during autumn-summer season.

Table 3: Influence of days to maturity on seed yield and quality traits in cherry tomato (Pusa Cherry tomato-1 Days after anthesis (DAA)

Mature berry weight (g)

No. of seeds per berry

Seed yield per berry (g)

Germination %

15 DAA

2.94

11.33

0.014

47.67

25 DAA

3.24

15.59

0.016

61.63

35 DAA

3.61

18.45

0.044

64.13

45 DAA

4.03

22.37

0.060

65.79

55 DAA

4.32

27.25

0.062

73.58

65 DAA

4.64

31.95

0.111

80.67

CD (0.05)

0.07

0.31

0.00

2.73

Seed Extraction The ripe fruits are either crushed manually or with the help of machine. The seeds are separated from the pulp. Gather the seeds and gel mass in a suitable container such as plastic tub or bucket. The seed are separated either by fermentation process or acid extraction. If temperature is above 25°C, one day of fermentation may be sufficient. Acid extraction is done by using 0.7% hydrochloric acid (HCl) at a rate of seven milliliters of HCl per kilogram of seed-gel mass. Stir the seeds for 30-40 minutes till the mucilage is softened. Wash the seed 3-4 times.

Seed Drying Placed the washed seeds in bags. Excess water can be removed by hanging the seeds in the shade for a day. After the excess water is removed, uniformly spread the seeds on drying floor. Loosen any clumps of seeds. The seeds can be air dried or by use of drier. The drying temperature should not exceed more than 28-30 °C. Higher temperatures at the time of drying may cause seeds to germinate.

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Seed Packaging and Storage The seeds should be dried to 6% moisture and stored in moisture impervious packing materials. The seeds can be easily stored for 2-3 years if stored below 20°C and 30 % relative humidity (RH).

Conclusion With the changing consumer preference and health consciousness the demand for cherry tomato is increasing in urban areas. The seed production of cherry tomato is highly remunerative and farmer can fetch gross return of Rs 80,000 to 1,00,000 from 1000 m2 area and has high export potential to the European market. The seed production of cherry tomato must be taken up in semi climate controlled structures in North India and under insect proof house in Southern India during autum- winter conditions.

Reference: Crisanto-Juarez A U, Vera-Guzman A M, Chavez-Servia J L and Carrillo-Rodriguez J C 2010. Calidad de frutos ded tomates silvesters (Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme Dunal). Revista Fitotechnia Mexicana 334: 1–6.

De Koning A N M 1993. Growth of a tomato crop: measurements for model validation. Acta Horticulturae 328: 141–6.

Marcelis L F M 1996. Sink strength as a determinant of dry matter partitioning in the whole plant. Journal of Experimental Botany 47(1): 281–1 Takeoka G R L, Dao S, flessa D M W, Gillesp T, Jewell B, Huebner D Bertow and Ebeller S E 2001. Processing effects on lycopene content and antioxidant activity of tomatoes. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry 49(3): 713–7.

Vidyadhar B, Tomar B S, Singh B 2015.Effect of truss retention and pruning of berry on seed yield and quality of cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var cerasiforme) grown under different polyhouse structures Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 84 (11): 1335–41 Vidyadhar B, Tomar B S, Singh B, Kaddi G 2015. Effect of growing conditions on growth, seed yield and quality attributes in cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var cerasiferme). Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 85 (1): 114–7 Vidyadhar B, Tomar B S, Singh B, Kaddi G 2014. Influence of stage of fruit maturation on the seed yield and quality traits in cherry tomato grown under different protected conditions. Progressive Horticulture, 46(1): 124-32

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Okra: Challenges, Opportunities and Possibilities Dr. J. C. Rajput* & Mr. M. B. Patil** *Director of Research, Nirmal Agricultural Research And Development Foundation, Pachora, Dist-Jalgaon, Maharashtra(India)., Email: drjcrajput@nirmalseedsindia.com **Plant Breeder, Nirmal Agricultural Research And Development Foundation, Pachora, Dist-Jalgaon, Maharashtra(India)., Email: mukeshpatil @nirmalseedsindia.com

Okra (Ablemoschus esculentus (L) Moench) is an annual, often cross pollinated vegetable crop belongs to Malvaceae family. It is warm season vegetable crop widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is commercially important vegetable widely grown in low to high input system for domestic and export markets. India is the largest producer of okra having 504 thousand hectare area and production of 5709 thousand MT, with productivity of 11.5 MT/ha (source-NHB-2015). In India major okra producing states are UP, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, AP, KN and Maharashtra.

Okra is well known for its nutritive value because of its vitamin and mineral contents. Okra has many medicinal uses. It is powerhouse of nutrients including soluble fiber in the form of pectin and gum which reduces the cholesterol and lowers the risk of heart diseases.

Tuberous roots of some wild okra are used to overcome impotency in human beings by tribal people of India. (chopra, et. al, 1986).

Okra reported desirable alkaline pH which helps in relieving effect in gastrointestinal ulcer by neutralizing digestive acid (Wamanda, 2007). Okra mucilage is effective as blood volume expander and has potential to cure renal diseases (Siemonsma and koume, 2004).

The okra has many application in fiber, paper, artificial wood industries and jaggery preparations.

Challenges: 1. Narrow variability: Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus (YVMV) disease is the most important hurdle in okra cultivation. So far, Plant Breeders have kept YVMV resistance as prerequisite in okra breeding for getting desirable quality and yield. As a result, selection for resistance is being carried out which resulted in development of genotypes having narrow genetic base. The populations that have a narrow range of genotypes and are more phenotypically uniform may merely fail to adopt and reproduce at all the conditions.

2. Inadequate Biotic Resistance: YVMV and Enation leaf curl virus (ELCV) are most destructive diseases of okra and causes 32 to 95 per cent economic losses. Major emphasis is being given to develop YVMV & ELCV resistant lines to address the constraints in okra cultivation. Fusarium Wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum) disease is caused by fungi, which persist in the soil for a very long time. The fungus invades the root system and colonizes the vascular system. No effective control is available other than a long rotation. Powdery Mildew (Erysiphe cichoracearum) disease is found mainly on the older leaves and stems of plants.

The crop is attacked by number of pests of which shoot and fruit borer, leafhopper, whitefly, red spider mite, solenopsis mealy bug and root-knot nematode are most serious, causing substantial reduction in crop growth and yield. The loss in marketable yield has been estimated to the tune of 50 - 94 % depending upon the stage of crop growth at which the infection occurs.

3. Lack of abiotic Resistance: Frost tolerance is a crops ability to survive a frost or below freezing temperatures. When air is cooled to below the dew point, dew can be formed on surfaces. If temperatures goes below 2.22°C, the result is frost, which is frozen ice crystals which is dangerous for most vegetable plants. Okra requires temperature range of 22-350C for normal plant

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growth. It is cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions around the world. In fact, it is one of the most heat and drought-tolerant vegetable species in the world. It is very sensitive to frost, plant growth remains stunted below 120C temperature.

Seed fails to germinate below 170C (Chauhan, 1972). It has been noticed that, narrow sense heritability and genetic advance varied across crosses, traits and stress conditions. For fruit yield, narrow sense heritability and genetic advance were high under nonstress conditions as compared to drought, which indicated that direct selection of fruit yield would only be feasible under non-stress conditions.

4. Limited Heterotic Effect: Hybrid vigour for yield and quality has been the main driving force for acceptance of okra by the farmers and consumers around the globe including India. All local and open pollinated varieties of okra conventionally grown in the country are currently being replaced by F1 hybrids. It is established that, wide genetic variability for desirable traits is imperative for obtaining high heterosis. In okra YVMV disease incorporation from limited sources leads to narrow genetic variability which prevails in germplasm.

Moreover, there is cross incompatibility among the most of the wild relatives of okra due to different ploidy levels. Hence the wild relatives could not be effectively used for development of variability. These factors lead to germplasm with narrow genetic base which shows limited heterosis. Vegetable breeders have widely exploited and used heterosis in boosting up yield of many crops. The goal of okra hybrid breeding is to identify and then reliably reproduce superior hybrid genotypes. Virtually all commercial okra hybrids are made from crosses of inbred lines.

5. Cost of Hybrid seed production: Large-scale F1 hybrid seed production in okra becomes limited due to the tedious handemasculation, followed by hand-pollination, incurring additional labour and higher cost of F1 seed production. Genetic male sterility(GMS) is usually recessive and monogenic, hence, can be used in hybrid seed production.

6. Effect of climate change: Change in cropping pattern and planting season is major challenge in present situation. Agriculture, which is sensitive to the climate change will react sharply to the changing cropping pattern and the change in planting season, will put pressure on the breeders to develop adaptable hybrids for these conditions. With changing climatic conditions, the host pathogen interactions will also change. It was observed that more virulent pathotypes are emerging & affecting the crops. Major concerns of growers are disease resistance, pest and drought tolerance. The continuous struggle of developing resistance in vegetable crops is a biggest challenge for breeders.

7. Lack of Post harvest Information: Okra pods are immature fruits and are harvested when they are very tender. Marketable fruits harvested at 3 to 7 days after anthesis. Okra should be harvested when the fruit is bright green, the pod is fleshy and seeds are small. At later stage, the pod becomes fibrous, tough and the green color and mucilage content decreases. Quality losses occur during marketing are often associated with mechanical damage, water loss, chilling injury, and decay. If stored at higher temperatures, the pods loses quality due to dehydration, yellowing and decaying. Pods harvested more than 7 days after fruit set were of poor quality mainly due to an increased crude fiber and a reduction in moisture (Iremiren et al., 1991). The pods harvested with minimum handling and field packaging can retain their green colour, crispy texture with minimum rotting (3.0%) and physiological loss in weight (15.8%) and good appearance upto 13 days of cold storage whereas normal handled pods can be stored up to 5 days at 8 ± 1ºC, 90–95% relative humidity (RH) and thereafter fruit lose their general appearance on the 7th day of storage and were unmarketable. Therefore, in order to maintain high quality of okra from harvesting to the final destination (consumer), the okra pods should be harvested with minimum handling followed by field packaging in corrugated fibre boxes (CFB).

Opportunities: Okra has a good export potential as it accounts for 60% of the export of fresh vegetables. Green, lustrous, tender fruits having 7-10 cm length are prefered in export market. The hybrids with export quality fruits and high yielding ability are prefered by farmers. At present, the existing hybrids in the market are lacking one or other traits. Hence exploitation of hybrid vigour, under-standing genetics of resistance and improvement of quality aspects with an eye on the export market needs to be concentrated in okra improvement programme. India exports okra mainly to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are the largest. In Europe, the largest importers are the UK, Germany, Switzerland and France. Nearly 35-40 per cent of domestic production from India is exported. Apart from the present export, the Indian people residing in other than mentioned countries likes to have okra so it may also increase the export of okra in near-future. Creation of brand is important it may be in the form of state-wise or fruit colour-wise. For regular supply of fresh fruits there is need to provide cold storage facilities near the growing belts. European maximum residue levels (MRLs) are very low and hence organic or pseudo-organic growing practices have to be adopted to ensure compliance with strict European Union MRLs.

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Indian seed Industry is one of the most mature and vibrant one in the world currently occupying the 6th position. Hybrid seed production in crops like tomato, hot pepper, sweet pepper, brinjal and okra is a highly labour oriented and capital-intensive activity.

Total vegetable F1 seed market is 1500 crores, out of that, okra ranks second which account more than 100 crores worth. Similarly, there is good scope for frozen/dehydrated and canned fruits for internal and external market. However suitable varieties and technologies for this purpose needs to be evolved.

Possibilities: Eight Abelmoschus species occur in India. Out of these, A. esculentus is the only known cultivated species. A. moschatus occurs as wild species and is also cultivated for its aromatic seeds, while the rest six are truly wild types. The wild species occupy diverse habitats. The species A. ficulneus and A. tuberculatus is spread over the semi-arid areas in north and northwestern India; A. crinitus and A. manihot (tetraphyllus and pungens types) in tarai range and lower Himalayas; A. manihot (tetraphyllus types), A. angulosus, and A. moschatus in Western and Eastern Ghats; and A. crinitus and A. manihot (mostly pungens types) in the northeastern region, depicting their broad range of distribution in different phytogeographical regions of the country. Exploitation of wild species and distantly related genotype in hybridization will play a major role in variability generation. For this purpose the techniques like protoplast fusion can be explored to develop new genotypes with desirable traits. The advantage of somaclonal variation in okra can be explored to generate variability. Among the conventional techniques mutation breeding is also important for variability generation Continuous struggle of developing biotic resistance in vegetables, forced to plant breeders to use MAS & RNAi technology for YVMV & ELCV for durable resistance. Frequent breakdown of YVMV resistance (emergence of polyphagous ‘B’ biotype of B.tabaci with increased host range of more than 600 plant spp.) will be taken into consideration. ELCV resistance should be mandatory for okra improvement. Recently some of the public and private institute are actively involved in okra improvement programme with support of Govt. Of India. Nirmal seeds private limited working on national projects i.e. “Development of okra varieties resistant to YVMV using marker assisted selection” in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi with objectives i.e. Development of Mapping population for YVMV resistance, Phenotyping and genotyping of mapping population, Identification of markers linked to YVMV resistance and their validation and ddevelopment of okra lines resistant to YVMV.

Stages of Okra Regeneration

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Similarly, NSPL also working with collaboration with Delhi University on RNAi project entitled “Development of okra using RNAi constructs” to develop virus resistant okra lines and hybrids. The companies like MAHYCO, Rasi seeds, Ankur seeds, Bejosheetal and Nirmal seeds etc. are also working on transgenic approaches on okra for development of varieties having abiotic and biotic stress tolerance.

As mentioned earlier okra hybrid are becoming popular among the Indian farmers, number of private seed companies are involved in hybrid development programme. However, the high cost of hybrid seed of okra becomes a limiting factor for adoption of new hybrids among the farmers. It is estimated that, 70 per cent saving in time and manual labour may possible by using GMS base hybridization programme. IIHR, Bangalore has successfully developed promising GMS lines which can be effectively and efficiently used by okra breeders to minimize cost of seed production.

Reference: Chauhan, D.V.S (1972). Vegetable production in India Ram Prasad & suns, Agra, India.

Chopra, R.N., Nayar, S.L, and Chopra, I.C (1986). Glossary of Indian Medical Plants. CSIR, New Delhi.

Dhall, R.K., Sharma, S.R and Mahajan, B.V.C. Development of post-harvest protocol of okra for export marketing Published online 2012 Mar. 27th . doi: 10.1007/s13197-012-0669-0 Dhankar, B.S. and Singh, R. (2009). Okra Hand Book : Global production, processing and Crop improvement.

Iremiren, G.O., Osara, A.W. and Okiy, D.A (1991) effect of age of harvesting pod set on the growth, yield and quality at Okra. Exp. Agric.

27:33-37.

Marsh, L. (1992). Emergence of seedling growth of Okra genotype at low temperature, Hort, Sci. 27(12) : 1310-1312.

Narendran, M., Deole, S.G, Harkude, S., Shirale, D., Nanote A., Bihani, P., Parimi, S., Char, B.R. and Zehr, U.B. Efficient genetic transformation of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) and generation of insect-resistant transgenic plants expressing the cry1Ac gene. J Food Sci Technol. 2014 Aug; 51(8): 1622–1625.

National Horticulture Board Database, 2015.

Processing, Functional, and Nutritional Properties of Okra Seed Products. Journal of Food Science August 2006 53(3):810 - 816.

Siesmonsma, J.S and Kauame, C. (2004). Vegetable In: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (Grubeen, GJH & Denton, OA Eds.) PROTA foundation, Wageningen, Netherlands/backhuys publishers, Leinden, Netherlands/ CTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. Pp. 20-29.

Wamanda, D.T. (2007). Inheritance studies in collected local Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) cultivars. In: combining ability analysis and heterosis on Diallel cross of Okra. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 5 (16), 2108-2155.

Watt, B.K and Merill, A.L. (1963). Composition of Foods : Raw, Processed, Prepared. Agriculture Hand Book No.8. Washington, D.C. Pp 190 .

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Legume Vegetables Seed: Scope of Improvement In India Meenu Kumari* and H.S. Singh** * Scientist, ICAR-IIHR- Central Horticultural Experiment Station (ICAR-IIHR), Aiginia, Bhubaneswar-751019, Email- meenu10iari@gmail.com ** Principal Scientist, Central Horticuttural Experiment Station (ICAR - IIHR), Bhubneswar - 751019 Seed holds the key to ensure the crop diversity and food security worldwide. A true seed is defined as a fertilized mature ovule consisting of embryo, stored food material and protective coats. Quality seeds of improved or high yielding varieties have played a key role in green revolution and have made the country self sufficient in food grains. Therefore, sowing of quality seed lead to healthy future. The quality seed and planting material share approx. 30% for enhanced productivity of vegetable crops. Though, lack of awareness and unavailability of sufficient quality seed enforce traditional farmers to use their own saved seeds every year. The total vegetable seed market in India including OPVs and hybrids is likely to reach INR 283 billions by 2020 due to improvement of seed replacement rate, production and distribution of quality seeds suitable to different agro-climatic zones (www.news.kenresearch. com/post/2016). The F1 seeds (hybrids) contributed largely to reduce the use of pesticides by incorporating biotic stress resistance and connsequently increased the yield and keeping quality. Hybrid vegetable seed industry in India shares 11% of worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market and cabbage (60%) with cauliflower (45%) covers the maxium acerage but legume vegetables stand nowhere in this race except pea and french bean. One of the most concerned facts for vegetable seed industry is low seed replacement rate of legumes that varies from 8 to 40% (veg. Pea: 8%, beans:15%, cowpea: 40%). It is most challenging to create the demand of truthfully labelled seed where replacement rate is less.

The legume family is the third largest flowering plants family with approximately 650 genera and nearly 20,000 species (Arora, 1995).

This group contains a range of vegetables consisting of pea, cowpea, french bean, dolichos bean, lima bean, cluster bean, broad bean, sword bean, winged bean, kewanch etc. But seed stock of NSC (National Seed Corporation) covers 17.75% of total stock availability consisting limited varieties of four legume vegetables only (Table 1). Of these vegetables, only limited number of varieties have been identified through AICRP for cultivation in different agro-climatc zones of country (Table 2). It indicates the struggling status of legumes cultivation and their seed availability which need to be upgraded like solanaceous or other major group of vegetables. These vegetable crops are not only important source of crude protein in human diet but also supply vitamins and minerals in abundance. In Africa, most of legumes are commonly eaten as a pulse along with sorghum and millets while in India, green tender pods and shelled immature seeds are consumed as vegetable and dry seeds for pulse also. Beside having immense nutritional importance, nitrogen fixation capacity of legume crops make it more sustainable for rejuvenation of soil fertility. The richness of legume plant diversity as mentioned in Table 3, is largely due to ecological diversity superimposed with tribal and ethnic diversification, plant usages and religious rituals. Legumes diversity is widely distributed in the North Eastern region and Western Himalayan region. However in terms of consumption, only pea, cowpea, dolichos and french bean make major group whereas, other minor legumes are available for short duration in market.

Table 1: Availability of legume vegetable TL seeds with NSC (till 03.10.2016) Sr. No.

Crop

Total qty. (kg)

1

Cowpea Pusa Komal

2776.00

2

Cowpea KK

669.00

3

Dolichos KB

459.00

4

Dolichos PEP

7864.55

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Sr. No.

Crop

Total qty. (kg)

5

Frenchbean AK

10464.75

6

Peas Arkel

1010.00

7

Peas AP 1

420.00

8

Peas AP 3

601.50

9

Peas AP KU

100.00

Total

24364.8

Grand total of seed stock at NSC

137266.42

Percentage of total availability

17.75%

(Source: http://www.indiaseeds.com/seed_aval/sv031016)

Table 2: Development of varieties/hybrids* in legume vegetable crops Sr no.

Crop

O.p. varieties

Hybrids

Total

Varieties under seed chain

1

Garden pea

26

-

26

VL-7, Vivek Matar-11, Arka Priya, Vivek Matar-10, MA-6, Mithiphali, Arkel, PSM -3, Azad Pea-3, Azad P-1, Kashi Nandani (VR5), Kashi Udai (VR-6), Narendra Sabji Matar-4, Narendra Sabji Matar-5

2

Cowpea

12

-

12

Arka Samrudhi, Cowpea-263, Pusa Komal, Utkal Manik, Arka Suman, Arka Garima, Kalyanpur5269, Kashi Kanchan(CP-4), Kashi Gauri(CP-2)

3

French bean

10

-

10

P. Surekha, P. Suyesh, Arka Sharat, Arka Anoop, Arka Suvidha, Contender, Arka Komal, Azad Rajmah-1

4

Dolichos

9

-

9

P.Suruchi, Rajni, Arka Jay, Arka Amogh, Arka sambram, Konkan Bhushan, Swarn Utkrist, Phule Gauri, Pusa early Prolific

(Source: ICAR-AICRP Veg., 2014-15), * Alongwith these mentioned crop, varieties are also developed in other crops but their seed are not available in seed chain system.

Table 3: A list of legume vegetables commonly grown in South East Asia Crop

Botanical name

Edible part

Adaptation

Main breeding objective

Common bean/ snap bean

Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Immature pods, mature seeds

Temperate and tropics

Abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, processing purpose etc.

Lima bean

Phaseolus lunatus L.

Green seeds

Warm season

Concentrated pod maturity, yield traits, nutritional value etc.

Tepary bean

P. acutifolius A. Gray

Dry beans

Dry season

Introgression of high temperature tolerance trait to common bean varieties and yield traits

Pisum sativum L.

Immature seeds, tender pods

Cool, humid season

Early maturity, heat tolerance, processing purpose, tolerance to biotic stress etc.

Canavalia gladiata (Jacq.) D.C.

Young pods and beans

Tropics

Low HCN content in seed, no. of pods per plant etc.

Pea

Swordbean

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Crop

Botanical name

Edible part

Adaptation

Main breeding objective

Veg. Pigeon pea

Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.

Young green pods, seeds

Warm season

Synchronous anthesis, bold seed, tolerance to biotic stress etc.

Clusterbean/ guar

Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.)

Young tender pods

Dry tropics

Plant architecture, early maturity, pod quality, resistance to diseases and insect pests

Soybean

Glycine max (L.) Merr.

Immature green seeds, mature dry seed, sprouts

Tropics

Improvement for pod quality (sweetness, flavour etc.), number of branches per plant

Hyacinth bean

Lablab purpureus (L.)

Young pods, tender beans

Dry season

Photo-insensitivity, pod traits, resistance to pests and diseases

Pachyrhizus erosus Urban

Succulent roots

Hot wet tropics

High tuber dry matter content

Potato bean

P. tuberosus

Tubers

Tropical

High tuber dry matter content

Winged bean

Psophocarpus teteragonolobus D.C.

Almost all parts

Tropical

Photo-insensitivity, earliness, suitable cultivars to tubers, seeds and green pods

Fenugreek

Trigonella foenum-graceum L.

Tender leaves, mature seeds

Winter

High yielding, lower level of diosgenin etc.

Faba bean

Vicia faba L.

Yam bean

Green beans, dry seeds Temperate, cool season

Plant architecture, seed quality, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

Cowpea

Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp

Immature pods, dry beans

Tropical

Plant type, earliness, pod traits, resistance to biotic and abiotic stress

Yardlong bean

Vigna sesquipedalis (L.)

Immature pods

Warm season

Early maturity, pod traits, resistance to diseases and pests

Runner bean

Phaseolus coccineus L.

Green pods

Temperate

Adaptability, pod traits, transfer of disease resistance to common bean

Velvet bean

Mucuna pruriens

Green pods

Tropical

Less L-DOPA content in pods, pharmaceutical aspect

Moth bean

Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.)

Green pods, dry whole or split seeds

Tropical

Early maturity, high yielding

Sesbania grandiflora L.

Leaves, floral buds

Tropical and sub-tropical

Pharmaceutical aspect of leaves and buds

Agathi

Role of private sector: The private sector has played a significant role in the Indian seed industry over the last few years. More than 500 companies engaged in seed trade of various group of crops. However, the main focus of private seed companies has been on the high value low volume seeds. In the case of vegetable seeds and planting materials of horticultural crops, the private sector is the dominant player. These companies are producing seeds for more than 25 vegetable crops. However, among legume vegetables only pea, french bean, cowpea, cluster bean and to some extent dolichos bean are the choice of vegetable. Other legume vegetable crop of importance (listed in Table 3) are also not the part of private sector seed chain system.

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Not much work has been carried out on the legume vegetables for transfer of desirable traits from the wild relatives, hence yet to be commercially exploited for improvement and utilization. Therefore, ICAR prioritized the improvement of underutilized vegetable by realizing the immense potential of these crops. In this line, a network project on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Improvement of underutilized vegetable cropsâ&#x20AC;? have been launched focusing 13 important underutilized vegetable crops of different groups under network mode in which faba bean and Indian bean are included. Some of the potential crops are mentioned in this section, where improvement work need to be taken up by public sector as well as private sector also.

Potential legume vegetable: 1. Pea: One of the current priority crop under legume vegetable is garden pea which resulted in biotechnological intervention for powdery mildew and pea seed borne mosaic virus resistance in this crop. Though, pea seed requirement of 6000tons suffered by deficit of 41.7% as only 3500tons was available in stock during 2014 (Malhotra, 2014). The main reason for this deficit is, pea crop still suffers from a wide range of pests and diseases. The potential sources of resistance to many pea diseases have been documented and research priorities are focussed for combating these challenges. The ever growing abiotic challenges (heat tolerance, salinity etc.) are also a high priority for action and therefore breeders consistently delivered new pea varieties which perform better than earlier types (Table 2). However, selection and pedigree breeding through transgressive segregation became the most widely used breeding procedure in pea due to low rate of outcrossing (>1%) and tedious crossing technique.

2. Indian bean: This is also known as hyacinth bean, lablab bean or dolichos bean. This indigenous crop is grown widely in India and its cultivation spread to neighouring countries also due to diversified nature of adaptation. Its enormus variability is available throughout the country, however still some potential landraces remain unexploited and conserved by local tribals of the region.

Varaiability of pod types indicate the germplasm diversity located in eastern region of India (Fig. 1 a & b). Its improved varieties are available in seed chain both by public and private sector. Althogh there is scope of research intervention to utilize the diverse germplasm for resistance breeding as well as nutritional profilling.

Figure 1. Indian bean a) Variability of Indian bean accessions b) Full bloom stage of Indian bean

a

b

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3. Lima bean: It is one of the least exploited crop of Phaseolus group and also known as double bean or butter bean. This is not grown commercially in India and therefore not popular like french bean. It is mostly grown in hilly areas of the country and locally known as ‘Wal’ at some places. The fresh green beans from tender pods are harvested for use as vegetable, however whole pods are also consumed after boiling (Fig. 2 a & b). There are two main seed morphotypes: small and large seeded forms among which large and bolder seeded one preferred mostly for consumption in India. Breeding for number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, nutritional value of seeds and physiological traits need to be strengthen for its popularization.

4. French bean: Common bean possess the maximum importance in terms of adaptation and cultivation. It is occupying more than 85% of production area sown to all Phaseolus species in the world. Classification is based on plant architecture and divided mainly in two groups: Bush or dwarf type and indeterminate or climbing type. Mostly bush type beans varieties preferred by farmers, especially for fresh market and processing purposes. Bush varieties possess lodging resistance, concentrated flowering and pod set, upright growth habit, short duration and synchronic maturity of pods after 50 to 60 days of seed sowing. Therefore, public sector institutions emphasised improvement programme more towards bush types beans and some of them already available in seed chain system (Table 1). However, only selected varieties are available for indeterminate group of french bean e.g. Kentucky Wonder, NZ, Ooty-1. These climbing type lodge severely but produce pods for longer duration and ultimately result higher yield. Additionally it also produces clean produce as pods are hanging through trellis support and do not touch the soil surface. Pole type beans are also preferred for mixed cropping alongwith maize, as individual plant get support from maize.

A landrace of indeterminate group french bean, commonly known as “Raikia bean” is very popular in eastern state of India, Odisha (Fig. 2c). Its tender, delicious pod and stringless character is unique of its kind. Cultivation of Raikia bean in Kandhamal district of odisha has given a new identity to its growers. Potential of this bean may be assessed by increase of 130 hectare area for beans production along with cauliflower during 2015-16 fiscal year (Orissa post, 25/7/16 http://www.orissapost.com/). But its availability is limited to nearby markets due to non-involvement of organized sector for its quality seed production. Low yield for this traditional bean is also a major constraint for its limited spread. Therefore, research activities need to be taken up for improvement of Raikia bean.

5. Field bean: This crop is most commonly known by its vernacular name (Hindi - Ballar; Marathi-Popat, Gujarati - Val; Telugu Anumulu; Tamil - Mochai; Kannada - Avare; Malayalam - Mochakotta). It is wild relative of Dolichos lablab var. lablab and cross compatible with indian bean in both way crosses. Its tender as well as dried seed is consumed as vegetable and pulses, respectively (Fig. 2d). This crop has traditional value also. It is mostly cultivated by small and marginal farmers by use of their own saved seeds.

This semi-erect, bushy, perennial herb cultivated as an annual. It shows little or no tendency to climb. Leaflets innately trifoliate, smaller than those of var. typicus. Flowers borne on a straight upright stalk, often a foot high on which they open in succession. Pods oblong, flat and broad, firm-walled and fibrous, contain 4-6 seeds with their long axis at right angles to the suture. Seeds almost rounded white, brown or black. The plant emits a characteristic odour.

It is oftenly cultivated as a rainfed crop and utilizes residual moisture after rice crop. Its popularity is limited to parts of Maharastra, A.P., Telangana and Karnataka however this crop efficiency has not been tested in other agro-ecological zones of the country.

Therefore, this vegetable-cum-pulse crop may be tested as a potential crop in place of other less remunerative crops under rice-fallow system. Again, its scientific cultivation, synchronize flowering, improvement for yield and economic traits, mechanical harvesting issues need to be taken up as research activities.

6. Runner bean: It is more commonly known as scarlet runner bean. It is grown at higher elevations in the tropics. It has resistance to bean yellow mosaic virus, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas phaseolicola, Ascochyta spp., bean common mosaic virus and cucumber mosaic virus. Besides having potential to be used for resistance breeding, its attractive scarlet flower make it suitable for ornamental plant also. The plant of pole types need to be staked with bamboo poles or supported on trellis. It is grown in north-eastern hills of India and exploration have been attempted by NBPGR for collection of available variability (Fig 2 e).

7. Agathi: The Agathi is valued for its flowers and young leaves which is rich in Vitamin A. It has pharmaceutical, ornamental, food and fodder values also. It is a perennial crop, commonly grown as a backyard tree and exclusively found in Punjab, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Andaman. It is propagated by seed. Till date, there is no improved variety of agathi but two forms are known one of white flowers and other with red flowers (Fig 2 f). White flowered type are more suitable for kitchen gardening.

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8. Cowpea: It is also known as southern pea or black-eyed pea and considered as one of the most important legume vegetable. It is widely cultivated for its long, green or purplish pods to be cooked as vegetable or for dry seeds as pulses. Plant habit, seed and pod characters classify them into three groups- common cowpea, producing 20-30 cm long pods with small seeds; catjang bean, 7-13 cm long pods with 5-6 mm kidney shaped seeds and yard long bean with 30-90 cm long pods and elongated kidney shaped 8-12 mm long seeds. Pole type and bush type varieties for high yield and early maturity traits are available in market released from both public and private sectors.

Figure 2: a) Lima bean pods (immature) b) Lima bean (mature/dry seeds) c) French bean(raikia bean) d) Field bean e) Runner bean seed variability f) Agathi (flower buds)

9. Velvet bean: It is also known as kewanch which is native to Africa and tropical Asia. It is rich in protein and contain nutritional quality comparable to that of other legumes like soybean, lima bean etc. Traditionally, the seeds of Mucuna is used for treatment of Parkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disease and in preparation of Unani medicines, also. This medicinal cum vegetable crop need attention towards cultivation and harvesting technique for optimum yield and quality.

10. Sword bean: This is a domesticated species of leguminaceae family. It is grown as a perennial climber and mostly cultivated in central and south India. Young tender pods, seeds and leaves are consumed as vegetable but it remains as a minor vegetable due to HCN toxicity when eaten uncooked though it can be removed on cooking. The crop is grown from seed. Its forage and seeds have many nutritional and ethnomedicinal properties which make it a potential crop for improvement programme.

11. Faba bean: The faba bean, is also known as horsebean or bakla bean. It is mainly grown as a pulse crop in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. But its green tender pods and shelled green beans are also eaten as vegetable. The seeds are rich source of protein and also have antinutritional factors (tannins, vicine, convicine) which cause favism. Plant architecture, resistance to biotic and abiotic sources and seed quality attracts attention for scope of improvement and therefore, it have been included in ICAR network project for undertilized crops.

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12. Winged bean: The winged bean, is also known as goa bean, manila bean and four angled bean. It is a perennial but grown as annual crop. Its green tender pods, shelled beans, dry seed, leaves, flowers, tuberous roots are eaten. Besides, this crop also consisting of medicinal properties alongwith rich source of protein and oil. It is widely grown as a backyard crop among tribals of eastern and north-eastern parts of India. Perhaps the improvement programme initiated in late 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for winged bean though its popularity is not upto the mark and still need focus to draw this crop in mainstream.

13. Vegetable soybean: The vegetable soybean, is similar to its grain species but harvested earlier at tender green stage yielding sweeter and bold seeds. The green vegetable soybean or Edamame, cultivated from a long back in East Asian countries (China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand) and popular for snacks purpose flour. Soybean, of the common Asian legumes, are the richest in protein, iron and calcium (Keatinge et. al. 2011). It has short growth duration of 65-75 days and making it suitable to fit into narrow windows in a crop rotation with high yield approx. 40 tons/hectare, of which 10 t/ha is consumable and the rest is usable as fodder or green manure (Shanmugasundaram 2004). Therefore, incorporation of vegetable soybean into Indian diets has great potential and promising for widespread implementation in India.

Future prospects: 1. Considerable diversity exists among the legume vegetables based on plant ideotype, morphological characters, reaction to disease and pests, adaptation and traditional ethics. The establishment of NBPGR, ICAR, BSI and various universities have made tremendous impact on collection, evaluation, conservation and utilization of regional germplasm for development of horticultural varieties. Although keeping in view of the raising food and nutritional security, more legume vegetable germplasm needs to be identified for collection particularly for high yield, quality, resistance to diseases and pests, tolerance to abiotic stress etc.

2. The legume group having a number of crops and it is not possible to undertake the research in all crops at a time, therefore crops should be prioritized for survey, collection and utilization based on its economic importance, nutritional value and market acceptance.

3. The germplasm of potential legume vegetable should be characterized and evaluate in different agro climates using standard descriptors.

4. The germplasm should be shared among the breeders and institute at national and international level for its effective utilization in improvement programme and varieties may be developed for quality and disease resistance.

5. Less known legume vegetable seed should be distributed to farmers who attend some training progammes organized by ICAR institutes or NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. There is need to include lesser known legume vegetable seeds in seed kit which is remunerative source of income for farmers and also contribute for nutritional security.

6. Concept of seed village or seed bank should be adopted for multiplication of certified seed for legume vegetables under supervision of ICAR institutes/ state officials/ KVKs/ seed certification agencies.

Conclusion: Networking related to conservation of legumes diversity, its popularization and its channeling to main food basket with nutritional point of view, for income generation and poverty alleviation are the main objective of harnessing legume seed diversity. Although there is no any institution or organization working exclusively for legume vegetable improvement or its seed production in India, the impact of ongoing projects under ICAR, AICRP on vegetable crops, seed producing agencies (private and public) have direct or indirect implications for conservation of diversity.

References: Arora, R.K. 1995. Genetic resources of vegetable crops in India: their diversity and conservation, p.29-39. In: R.S. Rana, P.N. Gupta, Mathura Rai and S. Kochhar (eds.), Genetic Resources of Vegetable Crops, NBPGR, New Delhi, India.

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Keatinge, J. D. H., W.J. Easdown, R.Y. Yang, M.L. Chadha, S. Shanmugasundaram. 2011. Overcoming Chronic Malnutrition in a Future Warming World: The Key Importance of Mungbean and Vegetable Soybean. AVRDC â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan.

Malhotra, S. K. 2014. Strategies to enhance productivity and production in vegetable crops. Presentation ICAR-DAC Interface meeting. http://nhm.nic.in/ Shanmugasundaram, S., M. R. Yan. 2004. Global expansion of high value vegetable soybean. World Soybean Research Conference, 7th p.915-920, 2004. www.news.kenresearch.com/post/2016 http://www.orissapost.com/2016

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Seed Production Tecnology in Hybrids through Transgenic Approach Shourabh Joshi* and Dr. Rajani** *Assistant Professor, Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Science- JaganNath University, Jaipur-303901 **Assistant Professor, Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Science- JaganNath University, Jaipur-303901, Email: rawat.rajni08@gmail.com

Abstract Productivity in corn has been greatly enhanced by the use of hybrid corn seed. Corn hybrids are characterized by increased resistance to diseases and enhanced agronomic characteristics compared with the parental lines. The production of hybrid corn seed involves a cross between two inbred lines, where the pollen from the tassel/male parent is used to fertilize the ear/female parent. Because corn is self-pollinated, hybrid corn seed is typically produced by the removal of male flowers (tassels) from the female parent plant either mechanically or by hand. These methods of detasseling reduce yields and are expensive. Mechanical detasseling may result in upto percent reduction in seed yield compared to hand detasseling treatments. Additionally, female plants may escape detasseling or develop secondary tassels after manual detasseling resulting in female plants that are self-pollinated. Thus, the seed of female in bredplants is harvested along with the hybrid seed resulting in reduced genetic purity and lower seed yield for the final hybrid variety.

Thus technology developed to produce non-transgenic male-sterile female inbred parent plants for hybrid corn seed production without the need for tassel removal or bagging.

Keywords: Detasseling, hybrid, transgenic, SPT, maintainer line, inbred line Seed corn production differs from commercial grain production because seed companies impose strict requirements to maintain seed identity and high levels of genetic purity of the final product. This purity is accomplished using contracts, tracking and traceability systems, quality assurance processes, record maintenance, auditing, proper labelling, appropriate sampling and testing and identity preservation systems (Sundstrom, Williams et al. 2002).

The Pioneer Hi-Bred SPT process is designed to produce non-transgenic male-sterile female inbred parent plants for hybrid corn seed production without the need for tassel removal or bagging. As a process, SPT uses two types of inbred corn lines: 1) nontransgenic male-sterile inbred lines (referred to as ms45) that cannot produce pollen but can produce fertile egg cells, and 2) a transgenic malefertile line containing a DP-32138-1 SPT maintainer cassette within thems45 genetic background (referred to as DP-32138-1 corn) that permits pollen development in which half the pollen is non-transgenic and viable and the other half is transgenic but not viable.

The maintainer can also produce fertile eggs which allows for production of new transgenic seeds of the maintainer line (see below).

The DP-32138-1 SPT maintainer cassette contains three linked genes that are differentially expressed over time, including Ms45 (expressed in the anther), alpha-amylase (expressed in the pollen grain), and ds Red (expressed in the kernel)The Pioneer Hi-Bred SPT process consists of three major steps (Figure 1): 1) DP-32128-1 seed increase, 2) non-transgenic ms45 male sterile corn increase, and 3) hybrid seed production using non-transgenic seed from use of the SPT process. The steps of this process are described in additional detail, below.

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Step 1: DP-32138-1 SPT Maintainer Seed Increase: The first major step of the Pioneer Hi-Bred SPT process propagates DP-32138-1 corn (see Step 1, Figure 1, and Figure 2). Propagation involves both the self-pollination of DP-32138-1 corn in the field and mechanical sorting to select for the desired seed. In contrast to a male sterile ms45 corn line, DP-32138-1 corn is able to produce pollen by means of the fertility trait MS45 which was engineered into the DP-32138 SPT maintainer cassette. Half of the pollen produced by DP-32138-1 corn contains the DP-32138-1SPT maintainer cassette and is not viable (pollen expresses a starch-consuming enzyme, ZMAA1);however, the remaining half of the pollen does not contain the DP-32138-1 SPT maintainer cassette and is fully viable.

Both transgenic (where the DP-32138-1 SPT maintainer cassette is present) and non-transgenic(SPT absent) kernels are produced in 1:1 ratios, following the self-fertilization of DP-32138-1corn (Figure 2). Seed that is normal (yellow) in color is non-transgenic for SPT (does not contain the DP-32138-1 SPT insertion). Pinkish-red seed that fluoresces a bright red color under appropriate illumination is transgenic for SPT (contains the DP-32138-1 SPT insertion).

Figure 1.Outline of the SPT Process for Producing Hybrid Seed.

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Figure 2. Production of the 32138 SPT Maintainer Line (Figure 1, Step I)

In order to separate these two kernel types, mechanical color sorting is used to detect the the32138 SPT maintainer cassette (containing the dsRed fluorescent protein) (see Figure 3). The remaining kernels, non-transgenic due to the absence of the 32138 SPT maintainer cassette, are discarded after mechanical sorting. Pure seed of DP-32138-1 SPT maintainer is then available for the propagation of non-transgenic male-sterile female inbred parent seed (Figure 1, Step II).Yellow, non-transgenic seed collected from the first color sort will be discarded.

II: Male-Sterile Female Inbred Parent Seed Increase: The second major step of the Pioneer Hi-Bred SPT process produces male-sterile female inbred plants for use in hybrid seed production (Figure 1, Step II). This process involves the interplanting of both DP-32138-1 andms45 corn (non-transgenic). Within this cross, DP-32138-1 represents the only pollen donor. Consequently, DP-32138-1 corn may cross with itself or with ms45 corn. Both transgenic(where the 32138 SPT maintainer cassette is present) and non-transgenic kernels (SPT cassette is absent) are produced following these crosses (Figure 4). Only the non-transgenic pollen is viable and can pollinate the male-sterile female inbred line.

Similar to the previous step of DP-32138-1 propagation, mechanical color sorting is used to distinguish transgenic kernels from nontransgenic kernels; in contrast, however, two rounds of mechanical color sorting are used to select for non-transgenic kernels (absence of the ds Red fluorsence protein, and thus, absence of the 32138 SPT maintainer cassette) for use in hybrid seed production (see Sort B, Figure 3). Kernels expressing DsRed, and thus containing the32138 SPT maintainer cassette, are discarded after mechanical color sorting. Kernels produced from the second major component of the Pioneer Hi-Bred SPT process are non-transgenic. Consequently, any hybrid corn lines produced from these kernels are also nontransgenic. Additionally, propagation of both the DP-32138-1 (Stage I) and ms45 corn lines(Stage II) precedes commercial corn grain production by two generations. The final stage of of hybrid seed production is likely accomplished at a distant location relative to Stage I or II production, at seed production sites not directed by Pioneer (which handles the first stages of production).

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Consequently, because of the geographic separation of any seed that may contain the 32138 SPT maintainer cassette, admixture by mechanical means of commercial corn grain with DP-32138-1 corn is unlikely. This unlikely potential for admixture with DP-32138-1 corn is further reduced by the relatively small cultivation acreage that will use the SPT technology; fields containing DP-32138-1 are not expected to exceed 20,000 acres or approximately 0.023percent of total U.S. corn grain producing acreage.

Figure 4.Production of the Non-Transgenic Female Sterile Inbred (Step II).

Step III: Commercial Corn Hybrid Seed Production: Commercial corn hybrid seed production(Figure 1, Step III) using the male-sterile seed (non-transgenic) prepared using SPT technology will be completed as it is for conventional production methods. The purity of the male-sterile female inbred plants produced from the SPT process is insured in Step II because of the built-in biological feature in which transgenic pollen is non-viable and because the seed was passed twice through mechanical color sorters (refer to Pioneer 2009, Appendix 3 for details on the color sorter). Therefore,

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the hybrid seed harvested and sold to growers for commercial grain production is non-transgenic for SPT and the resulting hybrid plants are fully fertile. The hybrid seed grown for grain is non-transgenic for SPT and therefore, the grain harvested is also nontransgenic for SPT.

Acknowledgement We highly acknowledge Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. to provide detailed information as open soure on hybrid Seed Production Technology (SPT) process through transgenic approach.

Reference: Sundstrom and Williams, (2002).”Identity Preservation of Agricultural Commodities “Agricultural Biotechnology in California Series.

Pioneer (2007).”Increased Demand for Corn Increases Demand for Field Workers.”Retrieved March 30, 2010, http://www.pioneer.com/ web/site/portal/menuitem.e920f5adeba7ab243cda47b2d10093a0/.

Pioneer (2008). “DuPont Reaffirms Expectations for North America Seed Corn Market Share.” Retrieved March 30, 2010, http://www.pioneer.com/web/site/portal/menuitem.3838193e84e5d111828d9b26d10093a0/.

Pioneer (2009). Petition for the Determination of Non-regulated Status for Maize 32138 SPT Maintainer Used in the Pioneer Seed Production Technology (SPT) Process. Submitted by N. Weber, Registration Manager. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, IA Pioneer (2010).”Corn.”Retrieved March 4, 2010, http://www.pioneer.com/web/site/portal/products/corn/.

The article has been published with permission of authors

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Informative Statistics Related To Vegetable Seed (India & World) 1. Global Vegetable Seed Market

2. Leading Crop Segments: India (FY 2013)

Crop Segments

Global Vegetable Seed Market Europe , 26%

China, 41%

North America, 9% Rest of APAC , 10%

India, 7%

Latin America, 7%

Source: ISF & Sathguru Analysis

3. Top Vegetable Crop Seed Exporter

Varietal Rice, 13%

Israel Japan Thailand 3% 4% 3%

Chile 5% China 6% France 12%

United States 18%

India 1%

Soybean, 4% Bajara, 3% Jowar, 2% Mustard, 3% Sunflower, 1%

Cotton, 36%

Source: Sathguru Analysis

Vegetable Seed Export Destinations S. America 0%

N. America 12%

Europe 23%

Netherlands 44%

Asia 57%

Africa 8% Source: APEDA and Sathguru Analysis

5. Tomato -Top Export Destinations(Value)- From India

6. Cabbage- Top Export Destinations(Value)- From India

Top Export Destinations (Value) Pakistan 4% France 5%

Other 14%

Thailand 15%

Netherland 27% United States 27%

Source: APEDA & Sathguru Analysis 82

Wheat, 5%

4. Vegetable Seed Export Destinations (From India)

Source: APEDA

Singapore 8%

Hybrid Rice, 8%

Vegetable, 16%

Top Vegetable Crop Seed Exporter (Value) Italy 4%

Corn, 9%

Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

Top Export Destinations (value) other Sri Lanka Kenya 3% 11% 5% Zambia 5% Pakistan 69%

Senegal 7% Source: APEDA and Sathguru Analysis

Seed Times July - December 2016

7. Melon- Top Export Destinations(Value)- From India

8. Other Vegetables- Top Export Destinations, FY 2012-13

Top Export Destinations (Value)

Top Export Destinations - Other Veg.

Kenya 11%

Yemen 7%

Other 5%

Singapore 21%

United States of America 32%

Netherlands 24%

9. Raddish- Top Export Destinations, FY 2012-13

Top Export Destinations - Onion Seed

Korea 74%

Kenya 20%

France 7% Chaina 0%

Source: APEDA and Sathguru

Seed Times July - December 2016

Bangladesh 11%

10. Top Export Destinations- Onion Seed (From India), FY 2012-13

Top Export Destinations - Radish Seed

New Zealand Vietnam 0% 9%

Pakistan 30%

Russia United 2% States 9% Malaysia 2% Korea 3% Thailand Singapore Japan France 5% 4% Netherland 4% 4% 5% Source: APEDA and Sathguru

Source:APEDA and Sathguru

Italy 1%

Others Countries 21%

Itaky Thailand 7% 2%

Bangladesh 1%

Sri Lanka Italy 3% 2%

Pakistan 42% Netherland 32%

Source: APEDA and Sathguru Analysis

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Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Position in World Agriculture 11. Major world producers of fruits and vegetables 2013

Table 8.6: Major world producers of fruits and vegetables 2013 (Area: million ha, Production: million t, Productivity: t /ha) Country

Fruits Area

Country

Production Productivity

Vegetables Area

Production Productivity

China

13.86

154.364

11.14

China

24.42

583.32

23.89

India

6.94

82.632

11.91

India

8.65

121.02

13.99

Brazil

2.29

37.774

16.50

USA

1.05

34.28

32.65

USA

1.13

26.986

23.88

Mexico

0.67

13.24

19.76

Spain

1.57

17.699

11.27

Italy

0.51

13.05

25.59

Mexico

1.28

17.553

13.71

Spain

0.34

12.70

37.35

Italy

1.15

16.371

14.24

Turkey

1.12

28.28

25.25

Indonesia

0.71

16.003

22.54

Iran

0.87

23.65

27.18

Philippines

1.23

15.887

12.92

Russian Federation

0.79

15.49

19.61

Turkey

1.15

15.341

13.34

Egypt

0.75

19.59

26.12

Others

28.31

276.06

9.75

Others

19.06

271.07

22.07

World+(Total)

59.62

676.67

11.35

World+(Total)

58.23

1135.69

19.50

Source : Horticultural Statistics at a Glance 2015, Horticulture Statistics Division, Department of Agriculture, Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

(Website: agricoop.nic.in/imagedefault/hortstat_glance.pdf).

Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML

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Seed Times July - December 2016

India’s Position in World Agriculture India’s Position in World Agriculture

12. Major world producers of vegetables 2013

Table 8.7: Major world producers of vegetables 2013 Table 8.7: Major world producers of vegetables 2013

Country Country China China India India Russian Fed. Russian Fed. Ukraine Ukraine USA USA Germany Germany Bangladesh Bangladesh France France Netherlands Netherlands Poland Poland Others Others World+ World+ (Total) (Total)

(Area: million ha, Production: million t, Productivity: t /ha) (Area: million ha, Production: million t, Productivity: t /ha) Country Tomato

Area Area 5.62 5.62 1.99 1.99 2.09 2.09 1.39 1.39 0.43 0.43 0.24 0.24 0.44 0.44 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.34 0.34 6.49 6.49 19.34 19.34

Country Country China China India India USA USA Iran Iran Russian RussianFed. Fed.

Area Area 1.03 1.03 1.22 1.22 0.06 0.06 0.07 0.07 0.09 0.09

Potato Potato Country Production Productivity Production Productivity 95.99 17.09 China 95.99 17.09 China 45.34 22.76 India 45.34 22.76 India 30.20 14.46 USA 30.20 14.46 USA 22.26 15.99 Turkey 22.26 15.99 Turkey 19.84 46.61 Egypt 19.84 46.61 Egypt 9.67 39.83 Iran(IR) 9.67 39.83 Iran(IR) 8.60 19.38 Italy 8.60 19.38 Italy 6.98 43.40 Brazil 6.98 43.40 Brazil 6.80 43.65 Spain 6.80 43.65 Spain 6.33 18.78 Uzbekistan 6.33 18.78 Uzbekistan 124.43 19.19 Others 124.43 19.19 Others 376.45 19.46 World+ 376.45 19.46 World+ (Total) (Total)

Onion Country Onion Country Production Productivity Production Productivity 22.35 21.77 China 22.35 21.77 China 19.30 15.86 India 19.30 15.86 India 3.16 54.47 Iran 3.16 54.47 Iran 2.38 33.96 Egypt 2.38 33.96 Egypt 1.98 23.15 Turkey 1.98 23.15 Turkey

Area Area 0.98 0.98 0.88 0.88 0.15 0.15 0.31 0.31 0.21 0.21 0.16 0.16 0.10 0.10 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.06 1.77 1.77 4.73 4.73

Tomato Production Productivity Production Productivity 50.66 51.69 50.66 51.69 18.23 20.72 18.23 20.72 12.57 83.80 12.57 83.80 11.82 38.13 11.82 38.13 8.53 40.62 8.53 40.62 6.17 38.56 6.17 38.56 4.93 49.30 4.93 49.30 4.19 69.83 4.19 69.83 3.68 73.60 3.68 73.60 2.25 37.50 2.25 37.50 40.93 69.51 40.93 69.51 163.96 34.66 163.96 34.66

Area Area 0.79 0.79 0.72 0.72 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.03

Brinjal Brinjal Production Productivity Production Productivity 28.46 36.11 28.46 36.11 13.44 18.62 13.44 18.62 1.35 31.89 1.35 31.89 1.19 27.85 1.19 27.85 0.83 31.09 0.83 31.09 0.51 21.68 0.51 21.68

Turkey Turkey Egypt Egypt

0.06 0.06 0.05 0.05

1.90 1.90 1.90 1.90

29.86 29.86 35.96 35.96

Iraq Iraq Indonesia Indonesia

0.02 0.02 0.05 0.05

Pakistan Pakistan

0.13 0.13

1.66 1.66

13.19 13.19

Japan Japan

Brazil Brazil

0.06 0.06

1.54 1.54

26.81 26.81

Algeria Algeria

0.05 0.05

1.34 1.34

Others Others

1.63 1.63

World+ World+ (Total) (Total)

4.44 4.44

0.01 0.01

0.51 0.51 0.32 0.32

10.98 10.98 33.11 33.11

Italy Italy

0.01 0.01

0.22 0.22

21.47 21.47

27.62 27.62

Philippines Philippines

0.02 0.02

0.22 0.22

10.33 10.33

28.28 28.28

17.35 17.35

Others Others

0.17 0.17

2.36 2.36

13.88 13.88

85.80 85.80

19.32 19.32

World+ World+ (Total) (Total)

1.87 1.87

49.42 49.42

26.43 26.43

Continued Continued …. ….

Seed Times July - December 2016

Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

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85

India’s World Agriculture Agriculture India’s Position Position in in World

Country Country

(Area:million millionha, ha,Production: Production:million milliont,t,Productivity: Productivity:t /ha) t /ha) (Area: Cabbage and and other other Brassica Brassica Country Cauliflowerand andBroccoli Broccoli Cabbage Country Cauliflower Area Area

Production Productivity Productivity Production

Area Area

Production Productivity Productivity Production

China China

0.96 0.96

32.27 32.27

33.68 33.68

China China

0.45 0.45

9.18 9.18

20.25 20.25

India India

0.37

8.53 8.53

22.94 22.94

India India

0.40 0.40

7.89 7.89

19.62 19.62

Russian Russian Fed.

0.11

3.33 3.33

29.92 29.92

Spain Spain

0.03 0.03

0.54 0.54

17.79 17.79

Rep Rep of Korea

0.03

2.43 2.43

70.94 70.94

Mexico Mexico

0.03 0.03

0.48 0.48

15.06 15.06

Japan Japan

0.03

2.36 2.36

79.34 79.34

Italy Italy

0.02 0.02

0.38 0.38

24.37 24.37

Ukraine Ukraine

0.08

2.08 2.08

26.63 26.63

France France

0.02 0.02

0.34 0.34

19.11 19.11

Indonesia Indonesia

0.06

1.41 1.41

22.01 22.01

USA USA

0.01 0.01

0.29 0.29

20.49 20.49

USA USA

0.02

1.24 1.24

50.90 50.90

Poland Poland

0.01 0.01

0.28 0.28

21.86 21.86

Romania Romania

0.06

1.16 1.16

21.05 21.05

Pakistan Pakistan

0.01 0.01

0.23 0.23

17.13 17.13

Angola Angola

0.08

1.14 1.14

13.87 13.87

Egypt Egypt

0.01 0.01

0.18 0.18

29.00 29.00

Poland Poland

0.02

1.02 1.02

45.47 45.47

Others Others

0.25 0.25

2.50 2.50

10.00 10.00

Others Others

0.61

14.40 14.40

23.61 23.61

World+ World+ (Total) (Total)

2.44 2.44

71.44 71.44

29.28 29.28

World+ World+ (Total) (Total)

1.25 1.25

22.28 22.28

17.82 17.82

Country Country

Okra Okra Area Area

Production Production

Productivity Productivity

India India Nigeria Nigeria

0.53 0.53 0.39 0.39

6.35 6.35 1.10 1.10

11.96 11.96 2.86 2.86

Sudan (former) (former) Sudan Iraq Iraq

0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02

0.26 0.26 0.14 0.14

11.90 11.90 7.76 7.76

Cote d’Ivoire Cote d’Ivoire Pakistan Pakistan Egypt Egypt Cameroon Cameroon Ghana Ghana Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Others Others World+(Total) World+(Total)

0.05 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.04 0.04 1.100 1.100

0.14 0.14 0.11 0.11 0.10 0.10 0.07 0.07 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.30 0.30 8.69 8.69

2.78 2.78 7.66 7.66 13.20 13.20 3.03 3.03 20.60 20.60 14.20 14.20 7.50 7.50 7.90 7.90

Source : Horticultural Statistics at a Glance 2015, Horticulture Statistics Division, Department of Agriculture, Source : Horticultural a Glance 2015, of Horticulture Division, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation &Statistics FarmersatWelfare, Ministry AgricultureStatistics & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India.

(Website: agricoop.nic.in/imagedefault/hortstat_glance.pdf).

(Website: agricoop.nic.in/imagedefault/hortstat_glance.pdf).

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Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

236 236

Seed Times July - December 2016

Vegetables

Fruits

Plantation crops

Spices

Flowers

Others Total (Horticulture) 100.00 Note QG $GYDQFH (VWLPDWH

100.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

Source ,QGLDQ +RUWLFXOWXUH 'DWDEDVH 1DWLRQDO +RUWLFXOWXUH %RDUG 1+%

WR +RUWLFXOWXUDO 6WDWLVWLFV DW D *ODQFH +RUWLFXOWXUH 6WDWLVWLFV 'LYLVLRQ 'HSDUWPHQW RI $JULFXOWXUH &RRSHUDWLRQ DQG )DUPHUV :HOIDUH '$& ): 0LQLVWU\ RI $JULFXOWXUH 13. Percent share of major horticulture cropsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; export )DUPHUV :HOIDUH *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD :HEVLWH DJULFRRS QLF LQ LPDJHGHIDXOW KRUWVWDWBJODQFH SGI

Table 4.11: Percent share of major horticulture cropsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; export Produce / Products

Floriculture Fresh Onions Walnuts Fresh Mango Grapes Fresh Apple Fresh Banana Oranges (Fresh/Dried) Guavas (Fresh/Dried) Litchi Papaya (Fresh/Dried) Pineapples (Fresh/Dried) Fresh Sapota Cabbage Lettuce (Fresh/Chilled) Cauliflowers and Headed Broccoli (Fresh/Chilled) Peas Tomatoes (Fresh/Chilled) Potato (Other than seeds) Sweet Potato Total Note QG $GYDQFH (VWLPDWH

2012-13 Quantity Value

Percent share of export 2013-14 Quantity Value

2014-15* Quantity Value

100.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

: +RUWLFXOWXUDO 6WDWLVWLFV DW D *ODQFH +RUWLFXOWXUH 6WDWLVWLFV 'LYLVLRQ 'HSDUWPHQW RI $JULFXOWXUH Source: Source http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML &RRSHUDWLRQ DQG )DUPHUV :HOIDUH '$& ): 0LQLVWU\ RI $JULFXOWXUH )DUPHUV :HOIDUH *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD :HEVLWH DJULFRRS QLF LQ LPDJHGHIDXOW KRUWVWDWBJODQFH SGI

Horticulture

14. Percent Table share of production of majorshare horticulture crops 4.10: Percent of production Crops 2010-11

100.00

Vegetables Fruits Plantation crops Spices Flowers Others Total (Horticulture) Note QG $GYDQFH (VWLPDWH

of major horticulture crops

Percent share of production 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 138

100.00 100.00 100.00

2014-15*

100.00

Source ,QGLDQ +RUWLFXOWXUH 'DWDEDVH 1DWLRQDO +RUWLFXOWXUH %RDUG 1+%

WR +RUWLFXOWXUDO 6WDWLVWLFV DW D *ODQFH +RUWLFXOWXUH 6WDWLVWLFV 'LYLVLRQ 'HSDUWPHQW RI $JULFXOWXUH &RRSHUDWLRQ DQG )DUPHUV :HOIDUH '$& ): 0LQLVWU\ RI $JULFXOWXUH )DUPHUV :HOIDUH *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD :HEVLWH DJULFRRS QLF LQ LPDJHGHIDXOW KRUWVWDWBJODQFH SGI

Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML

Table 4.11: Percent share of major horticulture cropsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; export Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

Seed Times July - December 2016

Produce / Products 2012-13

Percent share of export 2013-14

2014-15*

87

Horticulture

15. All India area and production of major vegetable crops

Table 4.9: All India area and production of major vegetable crops $UHD © K D 3URGXFWLRQ © W

Crops Area

2012-13 Production

Beans

Bottlegourd

Brinjal

Cabbage

Capsicum

Carrot

Cauliflower

Cucumber

Okra

Onion

Peas

Potato

Radish

Sweet Potato

Tapioca

Tomato

Others Total 9205.00 Note QG $GYDQFH (VWLPDWH Source :

88

Area

2013-14 Production

2014-15* Area Production

162187.00

9396.00

162897.00

9541.00

168300.00

+RUWLFXOWXUDO 6WDWLVWLFV DW D *ODQFH +RUWLFXOWXUH 6WDWLVWLFV 'LYLVLRQ 'HSDUWPHQW RI $JULFXOWXUH &RRSHUDWLRQ DQG )DUPHUV :HOIDUH '$& ): 0LQLVWU\ RI $JULFXOWXUH )DUPHUV :HOIDUH *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD :HEVLWH DJULFRRS QLF LQ LPDJHGHIDXOW KRUWVWDWBJODQFH SGI

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Horticulture 16. State-wise area and production of vegetables

Table 4.3: State-wise area and production of vegetables $UHD © KD 3URGXFWLRQ ©W

States/ Union Territories Andaman & Nicobar Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Dadra & Nagar Haveli Delhi Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Lakshadweep Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Puducherry Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Telangana** Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal Total

2012-13 Area Production

9205.19 162186.57

2013-14 Area Production

9396.05 162896.91

2014-15* Area Production

9541.43 168300.38

Note : QG $GYDQFH (VWLPDWH (VWLPDWHV IRU 7HODQJDQD IRU DOWKRXJK LW ZDV SDUW RI $QGKUD 3UDGHVK IRU PDMRULW\ RI WKH SHULRG Source : +RUWLFXOWXUDO 6WDWLVWLFV DW D *ODQFH +RUWLFXOWXUH 6WDWLVWLFV 'LYLVLRQ 'HSDUWPHQW RI $JULFXOWXUH &RRSHUDWLRQ DQG )DUPHUV :HOIDUH '$& ): 0LQLVWU\ RI $JULFXOWXUH )DUPHUV :HOIDUH *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD :HEVLWH DJULFRRS QLF LQ LPDJHGHIDXOW KRUWVWDWBJODQFH SGI

Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML

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Horticulture

State-wise area under vegetable crops during the year 2014-15

Source: http://www.iasri.res.in/agridata/16data/HOME_16.HTML

122 90

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Horticulture

State-wise production of vegetable crops during the year 2014-15

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Vegetable Seed Industry - India & World

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17. Area and Production of Horticulture Crops

Source- Pocket Book of Agricultural Statistics, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

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NOTES

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NOTES

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