Division of Vegetable Crops

Genesis

The Division of Vegetable Crops was established at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bangalore in the year1968 to carry out research on improvement and production technology in different vegetable crops. Since then, the division has been continuously striving to develop superior high yielding vegetable varieties / hybrids in both tropical and subtropical vegetable crops through crop improvement programmes and also to bring out appropriate production technologies which will minimize the cost and maximize vegetable production and profitability. Presently the division has six laboratories of which five are breeding laboratories and one is devoted to production technology aspects. Presently, there are 12 scientists working in the division on more than 20 vegetable crops.

Mandate

• Breeding for high yield, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in vegetable crops
• Breeding for improved quality attributes like extended shelf life, processing and nutritional qualities
• Developing improved production technology including organic farming in vegetable crops and off season vegetable production in open field and in poly house / protected cultivation.

Thrust areas

• Collection, evaluation, characterization, selection/identification and Introgression of specific biotic and abiotic stress tolerance traits from the wild and land races in vegetable crops.
• Germplasm enhancement through base broadening for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance apart from yield and quality traits.
• Development of tomato varieties /hybrids with multiple disease resistance to  ToLCV+GBNV+BW+EB+RKN+LB and MAS for gene pyramiding and gene stacking.
• Development of tomato varieties / hybrids with tolerance to heat and soil moisture stress and MAS   for gene stacking.
• Development of varieties/ hybrids with resistance to bacterial wilt in purple round, green round and purple oblong genetic back ground and pyramiding of bacterial wilt resistance genes in to different genetic back grounds through marker assisted selection in brinjal.
• Development of inbred lines/ varieties in hot peppers and sweet peppers resistance to Phytophthora wilt and bacterial wilt.
• Incorporation of CMV, ChVMV & Phytophthora resistance into cytoplasmic genic male sterile (A & B) lines through marker assisted backcross (MAB) method.
• Development of hot pepper and sweet pepper varieties suitable for heat set i.e. fruit set at  420C day and 280C night temperatures.
• Development of onion varieties/F1 hybrids with multiple disease resistance(purple blotch, basal rot and white rot) and tolerant to soil moisture stress tolerance through MAS.
• Evolving onion varieties/ F1 hybrids suitable for export qualities in yellow, rose and multiplier onion.
• Development of high yielding  F1 hybrids in tropical carrots through MAS.
• Development of high yielding hybrids using male sterility with good curd quality undertropical conditions in Cauliflower.
• Development of French bean (pole & bush types) varieties with combined resistance to  Rust, MYMV and BCMV and stemfly through MAS
• Development of French bean (pole & bush types) varieties for high temperature tolerance with MYMV resistance through MAS
• Evolving cowpea (pole & bush types) varieties resistant to aphid borne mosaic virus through MAS
• Incorporation of root rot resistance (Fusarium solani/ Rhizoctonia spp) into the pea lines with combined resistance to powdery mildew and rust through MAS
• Breeding for high temperature tolerance in peas through MAS.
• Evolving dolichos varieties with combined resistance to rust and Dolichos yellow mosaic virus in pole/ bush type  in Dolichos through MAS.
• Evolving watermelon, pumpkin and muskmelon varieties/hybrids for yield and  resistance biotic stresses through MAS.
• Evolving muskmelon varieties/hybrids with multiple resistances to powdery mildew, downy mildew and gummy stem blight.
• Development of gourd varieties / hybrids(ridge gourd, bitter gourd and bottle gourd) for resistance to biotic stresses using MAS.
• Development of okra varieties/hybrids  with multiple disease resistance to yellow vein Mosaic virus, enation leaf curl virus and powdery mildew.
• Agrotechniques for rainfed production of vegetable crops.
• Organic production in vegetable crops
• Protected cultivation and precision farming in high value vegetable crops.
• Microirrigation and fertigation in vegetable crops.

 Significant achievements in the vegetable improvement: 

• Since inception, totally 96 varieties / hybrids were developed / released in 25 vegetable crops by the Division of Vegetable Crops.
• Out of this 78 are varieties and 18 are F1 hybrids.
• Among these 32 varieties and 12 F1 hybrids have been notified by the CVRC at the national level.
• 27 varieties and 8 F1 hybrids have been notified by the Karnataka SVRC.
• 37 varieties / hybrids developed are resistant to diseases and seven varieties/ hybrids are tolerant to abiotic stresses like low moisture stress and high temperature.  

Varieties/F1 hybrids resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses were developed and released for cultivation in the following crops. ((Hyper link:  Please see the Varieties/ F1 hybrids section for details).

Crops	Biotic / Abiotic stresses
Tomato	Triple resistant F1 hybrids (Resistant to Bacetial wilt, ToLCV and early  blight, Tolerant to low moisture stress and high temperature.
Brinjal	Bacterial wilt resistant varieties and a F1 hybrid.
Chilli	Varieties / F1 hybrids resistant to powdery mildew and tolerant to viruses and thrips.
Onion	Tolerant to purple blotch and basal rot and thrips.
French bean	Resistant to rust and bacterial blight.
Dolichos and Cowpea	Tolerant to low moisture stress
Garden pea	Resistant to powdery mildew and rust.
Watermelon	Resistant to downy mildew, powdery mildew and anthracnose.
Okra	Yellow vein mosaic virus resistant.
Carrot	Resistant to powdery mildew.
Amaranth	Resistant to white rust.
Pumpkin	Resistant to fruit fly.

• Male sterile lines were developed in onion, chilli(CGMS lines) and okra (GMS lines).
• Markers were identified for tomato ToLCV resistant genes(Ty1, Ty2, Ty3).
• Markers were idenfied for resistance to rust and MYMV in french bean.

Significant achievements in the production technology in vegetable crops.

The major thrust in production technology was to develop integrated crop management practices to improve productivity and quality of vegetable crops. Concerted efforts in the past four decades resulted in year round production of quality vegetables with higher crop productivity along with maximum factor productivity for inputs such as land, labour, water and nutrients. These included quality seedling production using pro-trays  under cover, optimizing crop density & cropping period, integrated water  and nutrient management, production technology for rain fed situations,  micro irrigation & fertigation, raised bed cultivation and mulching, protected cultivation of high value vegetables and organic farming are thrust areas where significant achievements have been made.

• Judicious use of inputs likes organic manures, water and mineral fertilizers for enhancing input use efficiency have been standardized for several vegetable crops.   
• Quality vegetable seedling production in raised bed in open as well as protrays using protected structures have been standardized..
• Protocols for year round production of   high value vegetables using protected structures have been developed.
• Irrigation water saving techniques like alternate furrow irrigation and micro irrigation system to increase water use efficiency has been standardized.
• Integrated nutrient and water management technologies to be adopted in vegetable production to minimize the ill effects of excess use of these inputs and optimize their use to realize the intrinsic genetic potential of improved vegetable varieties have been developed.
• Drip fertigation and polyethylene mulching protocols have been standardized in several vegetable crops.
• Organic farming practices have been standardized for selected vegetable crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, drumstick, French beans, rose onion, onion and tomato.
• Precision farming protocols to enhance factor productivity of water and nutrient, crop yield and quality have been standardized in selected vegetable crops, such as okra, tomato in open fields and solanacious and melons in green house.

Impact of Technologies

Many of the IIHR developed vegetable varieties have made great impact at the national level. For example: Okra variety Arka Anamika has covered more than 30 percent of the area. While Arka Komal and Arka Suvidha have covered 40 and 20 percent of the french bean growing area in the country. Similarly, onion variety Arka Kalyan, Watermelon variety Arka Manik, pumpkin variety Arka Suryamukhi also have made significant impact in the farmers field. Recently released triple resistant tomato F1 hybrids namely Arka Samrat and Arka Rakshak, virus tolerant CGMS based chilli F1 hybrids Arka Meghna and Arka Haritha, Rust bacterial blight  resistant french bean variety Arka Anoop have become highly popular. Tomato F1 hybrid Arka Rakshak has recorded 175 t/ha in the front line demonstration conducted in farmers field at Chikkaballapur in Kharif 2012.

Technologies commercialized and revenue generated

Crop	Technologies commercialized	Revenue generated (Rs.)
Tomato	Parents of F1 hybrids Arka Samrat and Arka Rakshak
Chilli and bell pepper	CGMS lines of chilli Powdery mildew resistant lines of chilli Powdery mildew resistant lines of bell pepper            Parental lines of chilli F1 hybrids Arka Meghana and Arka Haritha	40,13,952
Onion	Parental lines of F1 hybries (Arka Kirthiman, Arka Lalima)
Okra	GMS 1 and GMS 4 Cucumber Advance breeding lines IIHR34-1-1 ( White fruit ) IIHR-81-1-1 ( Green fruit)	28,46,510 60,000
French bean	French bean variety: Arka Sharath	1,50,000

 

 

 Vegetable Crop Varieties 

            Dr. H. C. Prasanna
            Principal Scientist & Head
            Division of Vegetable Crops
            IIHR, Hessaraghatta Lake Post

           

          

 

 

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