Commercial Breeding and Seed Production of Vegetable Crops

Vegetables are a vital component of a balanced diet, and they come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, providing a wealth of nutritious options. They are considered protective foods due to their ability to prevent chronic diseases. India is the worlds second-largest producer of vegetables, ensuring a diverse and plentiful supply for its large population. Vegetable improvement has been a focus for decades, with various organizations working to develop high-yielding and stress-resistant varieties. However, disease and pest prevalence, limited access to quality seeds, and a lack of adoption of recommended technologies have created a significant gap between potential and actual yields.

For farmers, obtaining high-quality seeds is essential for successful crop production. This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview of recent trends in vegetable breeding and seed production in the country, including important crop information, seed market size, floral biology and pollination behavior, emerging breeding objectives and methods, varietal achievements, major breeding centers, private seed companies involved in improvement, market segments, ruling hybrids, varietal protection through DUS and its guidelines, and commercial seed production practices.

This resource is intended for both students and industry professionals seeking detailed information on vegetable breeding and seed production in the country.

Dr E. Sreenivasa Rao, Principal Scientist at the Division of vegetable crops, ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore has completed his PhD from IARI New Delhi and Post Doctoral from World Vegetable Center Taiwan. has more than 24 years of experience in the field of vegetable crop improvement and has contributed significantly in the area of resistance breeding of cucurbits, heterosis breeding of onion and okra and salinity tolerance in tomato. He has published more than 55 research papers, developed 13 varieties and hybrids in onion, carrot, watermelon, muskmelon, ridge gourd and okra which are well accepted by farmers and seed is in demand. He has carried out pioneering work in the area of developing synthetic varieties of onion and disease resistant root stocks for watermelon grafting. Three disease resistant genetic stocks in watermelon and ridge gourd have been registered with NBPGR. He has identified novel alleles of Dreb1 gene for salinity tolerance in tomato, Clfs1 gene for fruit shape in watermelon and Cmph gene for fruit acidity trait of muskmelon. As Advisor to the Government of Telangana, he is now involved in the Oilpalm plantation drive in the state with a target of 4 lakh ha in the next three years. He has also initiated a carbon finance program for Agro-forestry plantations in the state.

Dr B. Varalakshmi has done PhD in Horticulture from the then AP Agricultural University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh with specialization in Vegetable breeding. She has 32 years of vast experience in breeding of different vegetable crops viz., ridge gourd, bitter gourd, tropical cauliflower and leafy vegetables. So far, she has developed 9 varieties and a hybrid in these crops viz.,Arka Prasan, Arka Vikram (F1 notified for Zone 4 and 8) (Ridge gourd), Arka Vimal, Arka Spoorthi (Cauliflower), Arka Suguna, Arka Samraksha, Arka Varna, Arka Arunima, (Amaranth, first 3 notified for Karnataka), Arka Anupama (Palak notified for Karnataka) and Arka Isha (Coriander). She is responsible for maintaining the germplasm and seed production of these released varieties. She isolated unique CGMS line of ridge gourd and this trait is being transferred to desired back grounds to be used in hybrids seed production. She also developed gynoecious lines in bitter gourd. She reported for the first time the powdery mildew resistance in bitter gourd line, IIHR-144-2-1 and also identified the SSR marker linked to resistance. She has guided 5 PhD and 6 M.Sc. students. She has 117 various publications to her credit including 46 research articles in the peer reviewed international and national journals.

Dr Naresh Ponnam did his B.Sc (Horticulture) from ANGRAU, Hyderabad, M.Sc (Horticulture) from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru and Ph.D (Horticulture) from University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot. He holds considerable experience in chilli breeding, germplasm maintenance, hybridization and handling of the populations and forwarding generations through Marker assisted selection. He undergone SERB- Overseas Post-doctoral fellowship at World Vegetable Centre, Taiwan on Genotyping-by-sequencing, and SNP markers. Presently woring as Scientist at Division of Vegetable Crops, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru. He handled external projects mainly on chilli breeding programs funded by DST, NASF, MIDH and RKVY etc. He has published 36 research articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and four book chapters and several popular articles.

Dr Saheb Pal obtained his B.Sc. (Horticulture) degree in 2014 from BCKV, Mohanpur, West Bengal; M.Sc. (Horticulture) Vegetable Science degree in 2016 from Dr YSPUHF, Solan, Himachal Pradesh and PhD (Vegetable Science) degree from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi (Outreach Campus: ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru). He is the recipient of University Gold Medals in both B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree programmes. He is also the recipient of the prestigious 'Best Student of the Year 2020' award at ICAR-IARI, New Delhiand 'Best Student of the Year 2018 and 2021' at ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru. He secured AIR-1 in the ICAR-ASRB-ARS-2021 Examination in the Discipline of Vegetable Science. Presently he is working as a Scientist (Vegetable Science) at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Gauria Karma, Barhi, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand-825405.