Fruit trees are very vital, not only from the nutritional point of view, but also from environment enrichment viewpoints since here the emphasis is on low-external-input-dependent eco-friendly fruit trees, and such methods.
- Species: Kinds of fruit trees include Ziziphus (ber), mango (Mangifera indica), Indian gooseberry (Embillica Officinalis), Annonas, Guava (Psidium guajava), Karonda (Carissa Carandas).
- Varieties: Identification, screening and selection of resistant and better varieties of the above fruit species have been carried out on about 100 varieties; about 10 varieties of special importance are selected.
- Technologies: Low-external-input production technologies, propagation techniques have been experimented with and demonstrated.
- Improvement Campaigns: Enhancing quality & quantity of output especially in the case of Ber (Ziziphus) which exists wildly in hundreds in most villages. Improvement campaigns model carried out in 290 villages included training to village men and women as Village Technicians, propagation techniques and social engineering, pest management, post-harvest home-preservation techniques, nutrition analysis and local consumption.
Research & Innovations
- Collection & assessment of 6 fruit tree species and their 40 varieties.
- Eco-friendly techniques to augment productivity and quality with self-reliant regenerative techniques, and little or no external inputs.
- Eco-friendly and chemical-free home preservation methods for extending shelf-life and family consumption for nutrition in the case of Jujuba (Ber) fruits. Getting its nutrition analysis done.
- Training village men & women as Village Technicians for propagation, cultivation, management of canopy & root
Future Plans
- Further work on 5 new varieties of 5 crops.
- Augmenting productivity and profitability by 20%.
- Further work in canopy & root management.
- Making the propagation material of selected varieties of fruits available to NGOs (NPOs) and individuals.
- Training course on appropriate propagation techniques.
- Maintaining and upgrading the germplasm collection of promising varieties of 5 fruit species.
