Exploring promising almond cultivars for health and prosperity

Abstract

Almond, an important temperate nut crop, is widely cultivated in many parts of the world for dried kernel. In India, cultivation is mainly confined to northern parts of Jammu and Kashmir and high hills of Himachal Pradesh. However, majority of almonds are being produced in Kashmir region due to availability of suitable climatic conditions. Most of the produce is obtained from nondescript tree of seedling origin and is characterized by hard shelled, small size nut and kernel with low yield efficiency. Since performance of a variety is determined by interaction of a genotype with the environment, therefore, proper variety selection plays an important for successful and commercial almond orcharding. Long-term experiments were conducted at CITH, Srinagar, for identification of suitable genotypes in terms of nut quality and productivity. Based on the desired traits, Waris, Pranyaj and Nonpareil cultivars are most promising for commercial cultivation under major almond growing areas.