Biodiversity in arid fruit crops: A review

Abstract

Hot arid regions are confronted with climatic adversities besides lack of sufficient irrigation water availability. However, there are numerous fruit species which have inbuilt mechanism to sustain under inhospitable edaphoclimatic condition with available rainfall. The fruits like ber, deshi bordi, jhar ber, khejri, ker, pilu, etc. have been grown successfully under natural condition without irrigation. In some pockets (10-12%), where irrigation water is available either by canal system or underground tubewel, cash crops like date palm, pomegranate, fig, aonla, citrus fruits, etc. are some of the successful ventures by the farmers. The available natural biodiversity present in these fruit crops have been successfully employed to develop high yielding improved varieties mostly by selection from seedling population. The development of clonal propagation techniques enabled perpetuation of developed varieties without the loss of original quality. The strengthening of R&D in ICAR institutes and SAUs further helped in the development of location specific agro-techniques, which led to yield enhancement and post-harvest value addition in typical arid fruit crops. This review article highlights the availability of biodiversity and varietal development in arid fruit crops.