Division of Fruit Crops

From long term experiments of 5 to 10 years, important cost effective technologies were developed such as organic farming through waste recycling as vermicompost, arecanut + livestock mixed farming models for different holdings, nutrient recommendations for HYV's and cropping system models, water harvesting structures, drip irrigation and fertigation and sustainable cropping system models involving arecanut and valued added intercrops like pepper, banana, cocoa, coffee, medicinal and aromatic crops, and vanilla.

(During the Period of 2019-2023) 

Developed farming system models one each suitable to the rainfed lowland situations of the region and another for rainfed uplands with predominant cropping of plantation crops. The lowland model involved rice based sequential cropping system with integration of dairy, mushroom and poultry and recycling of resources. The upland model involved cashew, coconut and arecanut based systems with integration of backyard poultry, piggery and vermi composting.

Fingerprinting of guava and papaya genotypes Validation of markers in papaya Development of genomic resources in pomegranate

• Working on the crop improvement of guava and papaya including the maintenance of Field Gene Bank.
• Involved in the development of two guava hybrids viz., Arka Kiran and Arka Rashmi and one mango hybrid Arka Udaya .
• Involved in the Characterization of guava, papaya   and mango accessions as per the standard descriptor.
• Involved in the characterization of 40 unique indigenous ‘appemidi’ mango types using SSR markers including documentation.

       Associated and  developed the high yielding varieties of Coconut (4no), Mango (1) and  papaya (1) varieties. Surveyed and collected  20 accessions of mango and 35 coconut accessions from A&N Islands which includes three dwarf type and a makapuno type. The makapuno type with soft endosperm is first report and collection from the A&N islands. Characterized the 24 Pacific Ocean accessions and 6 Nicobar Island accessions and a descriptor has been prepared according to COGENT Descriptor (64traits).