Role of All India Co-ordinated Research Project in Vegetable

Improvement
B Singh, Ranjan K Srivatava and T Chaubey

Project Coordinating Cell (AICRP-VC)

Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi

The concept of the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP)

was introduced with the reorganization of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR) in 1956-57, and the first AICRP was initiated on maize. The
conceptualization of AICRP is believed to be an important landmark in the
history of agricultural research in India. At the national level, AICRP through
its interdisciplinary multi-location research provides opportunities for
evaluation of the improved technologies in terms of their adoptability in a
wide range of agro-ecological conditions. The objective of AICRP has been to
undertake problem-oriented applied research and testing of the technology
under different agro-climatic conditions with a view to solving the national
level problems and improve production.

About AICRP-VC
All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable Crops was
started during the fourth five-year plan in 1970-71, to provide a national grid
for multi-location testing of the vegetable technologies developed by various
research institutes and state agricultural universities. The headquarter of the
project was at the Division of Vegetable Crops, Indian Agricultural Research
Institute (IARI), New Delhi and the Project Coordinator (Vegetable Crops)
joined the project in July 1971. During 1986, level of the project was elevated
to the Project Directorate. Further, in a significant development during 1992,
headquarter of the directorate was shifted from IARI, New Delhi to the
present day Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR) at Varanasi.
Presently the AICRP-Vegetable Crops is running at 26 main and 29 voluntary
centers. AICRP (VC) is playing vital role since 1971.

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Development of varieties and hybrids
The AICRP (VC) has made strides in development and production of
vegetables in a very short span of time. Till date project has developed 461
varieties in 24 major vegetables crops viz; brinjal, tomato, chilli, Capsicum,
Pea, Okra, Onion, Garlic, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Carrot, Cowpea, Dolichos
bean, French bean, Muskmelon, Water melon, Ash gourd, Bitter gourd, Bottle
gourd, Cucumber, Pumpkin, Ridge gourd, Sponge gourd which have been
identified for cultivation in different climatic zones. Among these, 273 are
high yielding open pollinated, 141 are hybrids and 47 are resistant to diseases.

Development of Production and Protection Technologies

New varieties and strains of vegetables are constantly being

developed throughout the world. To harness the maximum yield potential of
these new developed varieties standard production techniques are required.
Vegetable crops are naturally resistant to many pathogens. In cases where
diseases are a serious threat, genetic resistance is an effective and low cost
strategy of disease avoidance. Pathogens are highly changeable, and a
resistant variety that performs well in one year may not necessarily continue
to do so. On rare occasions, predicted resistance to pathogens breaks down.
This may be due to different strains and races of disease-causing organisms
and environmental conditions that favor the organism or reduce natural plant
resistance. Hence new disease and pest management technologies are being
developed for each and every crop individually. The AICRP- VC is doing all
efforts with the help of its centres to identify new production and protection
techniques which are less labour intensive, economically viable and
practically feasible and environmentally safe.

World Scenario

India contributes about 10-12% to the world’s vegetable basket and

plays a dominating role, but steadily it is decreasing or static due to lack of the
proper infrastructure and awareness among the farmers. World’s 16%
population is Indian, to feed this population as well as get foreign exchequer
we must enhance the vertical yield level. Land and water resources are
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limited and both decreasing day by day. The world scenario of vegetable
production is shown below:

Vegetable production-Global status (2010-11)

Country Area Production Productivity % Share in

(000 ha) (000 MT) (t/ha) world
China 23936 448983 19 47
India 7803 125887 16 13
USA 1333 38075 29 4
Turkey 996 24454 25 3
Russian 970 16516 17 2
Egypt 598 16041 16 2

National Scenario

India is a vegetable producing country in the world. Its production is

increasing rapidly to feed the growing population of the country. Presently it
occupies 8.99 million hectare area with the annual production of 156.33
million tones. The country being blessed with the unique gift of nature of
diverse climate and distinct seasons, make it possible to grow an array of
vegetables number exceeding more than hundred types.

Vegetables- Nurtures Nutritional Security of the Country

In the components of a balance diet, vegetables occupy the prime place

in a predominantly vegetarian country like India. Vegetables supply several
nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, essential amino acids,
proteins dietary fibre and many other classes of biologically active chemicals.
These phytochemicals can have complementary and overlapping mechanisms
of action, including modulation of detoxification enzymes, stimulation of the
immune system and reduction of platelet aggregation, modulation of
cholesterol synthesis and hormone metabolism, reduction of blood pressure
and antioxidant, antibacterial and antiviral effects. In addition, vegetables add
variety, taste, colour and texture to diet. It is believed that increasing
availability of vegetables would contribute to the balanced diet. It would be
possible due to adoption of improved varieties and efficient methods of
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vegetable production. The per capita availability of vegetables and other food
items is shown in Table-4. It is clearly seen that the per capita daily
availability of vegetables has increased from 76 g in 1951 to 210 g in 2010,
but it is still less than the minimum requirement of 300 g per person per day.

The per capita availability of vegetables and other food items per day, 1951-2009
Year Availability (gms / head/ day) Standard Requirement for
working people (gms / head/ day)
Food Vegetable Fruits Milk Food Vegetable Fruits Milk
grains grains
1951 395 91 76 129 500 300 80 150
1991 510 187 94 175
2001 459 256 188 216
2009 444 210 40 252

Provide National Grid for Vegetable Research-AICRP Vegetables

It provides a national grid among all the organizations including
government, state agricultural universities and private concerns, working in
the field of vegetable research. It is considered as one of the most vibrant
research units in the country. The AICRP (VC) encourages the research
activities through guiding, providing all the research facilities to the peoples/
organizations working in vegetable field. It works as the power house for
vegetable research. In the beginning, the major task of AICRP (VC) was to
undertake multi-locational testing of vegetable varieties to identify the
varieties suitable for specific agro-climatic zones. Later, trials were also
included on production techniques like plant population density, fertilizer
requirements and chemical weed control. Subsequently, research programs on
chemical control of diseases and insect pests were also added. Initially, only
14 vegetables were covered under the AICRP research programs, but later
more vegetable crops were added and presently 24 crops are being dealt with.
The major emphasis however, is on 15 important vegetables— tomato, brinjal,
chilli, cauliflower, cabbage, pea, onion, muskmelon, watermelon, okra, french
bean, pumpkin, carrot, radish and garlic.
The mandate of ACRIP on vegetables is to collect, evaluate and
conserve the vegetable biodiversity that exists in different agro-climatic zones

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of the country; developing improved varieties and hybrids resistance to biotic
and abiotic stresses through multi-locational testing of mandated vegetable
crops. To develop appropriate production technology for selected vegetable
crops and standardizes appropriate protection technology for major diseases
and insect pests. Seed is major concern hence standardize the seed
production technology of mandated vegetable crops is also priority of the
programme. While undertaking the basic, strategic and applied research for
developing technology to enhance productivity of vegetable crops it has to
provide scientific leadership in coordinated network research for solving
location-specific problems of production and to monitor breeder seed
production of released / notified varieties.
Increase in area, production and productivity
During the last four decades, India has made a commendable progress
in vegetable production, cultivation area and productivity. India is the second
largest vegetable producer of the world next to China, stands higher rank in
vegetable production. During the last ten years remarkable progress has been
achieved in that the production had increased from 58.53 million tonnes in
1991 to 129.77 million tonnes in 2008-09 and an increase of more than 120
per cent. The yield per hectare during this period has increased from 10.47
metric tonnes to 16.20 metric tonnes, an increase of 60 per cent. The main
reason for the increase in productivity is large scale cultivation of high
yielding hybrid varieties with improved production and protection technology.
No other crops made such a remarkable progress in this decade as the
vegetables.
India’s share in the world production of Important vegetables
Vegetables India’s Share India’s Rank in the world
Brinjal 29.78 2
Cabbage 8.82 2
Carrots 1.86 7
Cauliflower 36.52 1
Cucumber & gherkins 0.43 27
Pumpkin, squashes 22.50 1
Tomato 5.86 6
Watermelon 5.03 3
Dry Onion 11.06 2
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Vegetables India’s Share India’s Rank in the world
Potato 7.62 5
Garlic 5.15 3
Green Pea 29.01 1
Green Bean 9.31 3
Soya Bean 3.86 5
Roots and Tubers 4.67 4

Low productivity
Now the area for vegetable has been fixed between 6- 7 million hectares,
more increase in area would decrease the area under the cereals which is as
important as vegetables. So the increase in productivity in all the possible way
to fulfill the future demands. The Productivity at farmer field as compare to
coordinated trials yields just half. Even though, the productivity per unit area
is more under coordinated trial than the productivity of developed country in
most of the vegetables as detailed below in the table:

On farm and coordinated trial productivity of vegetable crops

Crop Developed Developing World India
Countries Countries (mt/ha) On farm Coordinated
(mt/ha) (mt/ha) (mt/ha) trials (mt/ha)
Brinjal 14.30 15.9 15.40 16.23 26.30
Okra 12.20 10.10 5.00 13.10 14.5
Cabbage 25.2 17.6 21.6 14.3 36.0
Cauliflower 16.8 10.6 13.6 14.2 26.6
Tomato 33.7 18.9 25.0 15.8 30.0
Cucumber 15.1 13.9 14.5 6.4 13.6
Chilli (green) 15.9 6.7 8.2 2.0 7.5
Onion (green) 18.3 11.6 13.7 11.3 34.0
Beans (green) 7.6 6.2 6.9 2.5 11.5
Peas 7.2 3.7 6.0 14.3 16.5
Watermelon 12.9 15.8 14.7 12.7 17.6

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Vegetable productivity scenario
Crop India World Potential Maximum
(Average) (Average) productivity productivity
Tomato 17.08 26.69 60-80 70.45 (USA)
Eggplants 16.08 17.48 40-50 34.7(Japan)
Chilli 9.18 14.4 30-40 44.5 (Spain)
Okra 9.59 6.47 15-20 17.78 (Jordan)
Peas 9.14 8.35 18-20 20 (Lithuania)
Melons 20.48 20.95 30-40 45.83 (Cyprus)
Cucurbits 9.72 12.97 25-30 41.33 (Israel)
Cucumber 6.67 16.98 40-50 67.67 (Korea)
Watermelons 12.75 27.13 30-40 40.96 (Spain)
Cabbage 21.43 21.1 30-40 42.59 (Japan)
Cauliflower 17.14 18.36 35-40 45.25 (N. Zealand)
Onion 10.38 17.53 40-50 60.33 (Korea)
Garlic 4.17 12.37 15-20 23.23 (Egypt)

Post harvest losses

The vegetable perished very rapidly due to its succulent in nature. Nearly,
30% losses have been observed during the post harvest handling of the
vegetables, which reflect as loss of appearance, senescence, texture and
nutritional value and quantitative losses due to lack of adequate facilities/
technologies i.e., packaging material, long term storage facilities in general
and cool chain system in particular. Vegetable base processing industries not
located in the production areas and even that existing industries are located in
towns and cities which are very far away from production centre. Low cost
technologies for post harvest handling and packaging for domestic and export
market have not been developed adequately. Transport facilities specially
suited to vegetables are lacking.

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Post harvest losses in vegetable crops:
Vegetables Post harvest losses (%) Remarks
Onion 6.01-40.0 Storage & transportation
Potato 30.0-40.0 Harvesting & Storage
Garlic 0.9-2.7 Storage
Tomato 6.7-33.5 Transportation & marketing
Brinjal 3.7-13.4 Marketing
Cabbage 3.0-13.4 Marketing
Cauliflower 10.0-13.2 Transportation & marketing
Beans 7.45 Transportation & marketing
Smooth Gourd 8.0-15.0 Transportation & marketing
Bottle gourd 7.0-10.0 Transportation & marketing
Okra 5.0-10.0 Marketing
Chilli 4.0-35.0 Farm and storage
Beet root 10.0-15.0 Marketing
Radish 3.0-5.0 Marketing
Carrot 3.0-5.0 Transportation & marketing
Pointed gourd 19.81 Marketing storage
Garlic 0.9-2.7 Marketing storage

Various post harvest processes can significantly reduced the losses and
maintain the quality of vegetables for longer duration. Proper grading,
washing, precooling, proper packaging, storage and transportation can reduce
losses to larger extent.
Losses through pest and diseases
The vegetables are more prone to diseases and pests as compare to other
edible crops/ fruits due to its succulence in nature, attractive colour, fragnance
and eatability to the insects. Information on integrated pest and disease
management of vegetable crops has been developed but they are not easy in
handling, economically viable and cost effective. In our country, banned
chemicals are still used due to unawareness of the farmers. Cheap and
effective plant protection equipment are not readily available and the cost of
effective plant protection chemical is too high. Nursery management is a
bottle neck during the rainy season due to the fungal and bacterial diseases.

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Enhancing the vegetable production through hybrid cultivars
Hybrid technology in vegetable production is one of the most novel options
particularly due to the fact that full potential of hybrid vegetable crops have
not been exploited as compared to other crops in spite of realizing the
potential of vegetable more than 4 to 5 times as compared to cereals. In recent
past, much emphasis has been given to exploit heterosis in several
economically important vegetable crops like tomato, brinjal, pepper, cabbage,
and cauliflower, other cole crops, radish, carrot and cucurbits, etc. Vegetable
breeders prefer to select hybrid breeding because it is comparatively easy to
incorporate the resistant genes for biotic and abiotic stresses in F1 hybrid and
right of the newly evolved hybrid is protected in terms of parental lines.
Moreover, despite of exorbitant price of hybrid seeds, there has been
increasing concern of the growers on the cultivation of hybrids because under
optimum crop production and protection management, crops raised from seeds
of F1 hybrids have several distinct advantages including better yield,
adaptability under adverse conditions and ability to resist several biotic and
abiotic stresses along with consumers’ preferred quality traits.
Vegetable Seed – availability and quality

To improve the productivity of any crop, use of quality seeds is

essential. Presently, a majority of vegetable varieties grown on farmers’ fields
are the results of AICRP efforts. Among the identified varieties/hybrids, share
of open pollinated varieties (OPVs) is high, although the yield potential of
OPVs is lower as compared to that of hybrids. The replacement of hybrids is
quicker than of the OPVs, mainly due to the involvement of seed industry.
Resistant varieties of major vegetables have also been identified, which have
minimized the use of pesticides. The seed replacement in varieties of
important vegetables varied from 42 per cent in leafy vegetables to 99 per cent
in tomato, the overall replacement of the seed being nearly 80 per cent (Table-
10). Such a high rate of seed replacement indicates the importance given by
the farmers to utilize good quality seeds for increasing production and getting
higher net returns from vegetable cultivation.

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Quality seed production
Vegetable crops Total requirements Seed availability Availability
(tonnes) (tonnes) %
Beans 11880.1 7983.4 67.2
Brinjal (eggplant) 239.6 151.9 63.4
Cabbage 228.1 197.1 86.4
Cauliflower 228.1 197.1 86.4
Cucumber 54.1 39.3 72.6
Chilli 2046.4 1504.1 73.5
Gourd 2046.4 1504.1 73.5
Leafy vegetables 5530.0 2328.1 42.1
Melons 423.4 377.7 89.2
Okra 4645.8 4292.7 92.4
Onion 4849.4 4233.5 87.3
Peas 17037.2 15929.7 93.5
Radish 745.8 719.7 97.5
Tomato 169.9 168.8 99.3
Others 3718.4 2699.6 72.6
Total 53842.7 42326.8 78.6
Source: Seeds Association of India

Development of hybrids through AICRP

Tremendous efforts have been made by both public and private sectors in
developing the hybrid in a number of vegetable crops. The share of hybrid
varieties in several vegetable crops has gradually been increasing. Realizing
potentials of vegetable hybrid technology in India, Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) initiated a network project entitled “Promotion
of Hybrid Research in Vegetable Crops” during 1995-96. This project was
initiated in nine vegetables, viz., tomato, brinjal, chilli, capsicum (bell
pepper), okra, onion, cabbage, cucumber and bitter gourd with the objectives
(i) to promote hybrid research in order to increase productivity per se the
country, (ii) to incorporate biotic stress resistance in the hybrids, (iii) to
strengthen hybrid seed research and hybrid seed production technology and
(iv) to test the proven hybrids for their potentiality and (v) to establish their
production technology. Based on critical review of the achievements of this
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project, a mission mode project is under operation with financial support from
National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP). This project was aimed at
hybrid research especially on the development of specific quality hybrids of
tomato, brinjal, chilli and onion at twelve centres. Several promising hybrids
have been developed through the project, which are currently being tested at
multilocations.
Approximate area (%) under hybrids in vegetable crops
Vegetables Approximate area under hybrids (%)
1 Tomato 75
2 Brinjal 60
3 Cabbage 80
4 Cauliflower 65
5 Smooth Gourd 20
6 Bottle gourd 60
7 Okra 45
8 Chilli 62
9 Beet root 45
10 Radish 20
11 Carrot 40

Tapping the export potential of exotic vegetables

Recently few exotic vegetables including broccoli, red cabbage, Savoy
cabbage, Chinese cabbage, celery, leek, parsley have been introduced and
their adoptability studies have been undertaken in different parts of the
country. These vegetables are getting increasing demand in the five star
cultures of the cosmopolitan cities. These vegetables generally require cool
temperature. The agro climatic conditions prevailing in several parts of north-
western Himalayas of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Kaman and Narwhal
division of Uttaranchal are very favourable for growing these exotic
vegetables. Besides, they may also be grown during winter season in plains of
north India including Punjab, U.P. and Haryana. Cultivation of celery and
parsley were started during 1990s under controlled conditions at very small
extent in Chatarpur near Mahrauli in Delhi and Kairana in Muzaffarnagar by
rich farmers to supply Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata markets. In Himachal
Pradesh, some exotic vegetables like celery, parsley, globe artichoke,
asparagus, leek, lettuce in Chail and other pockets of Shimla for supply to the
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metropolitan cities. Few multinational companies have also started processing
of few exotic vegetables. As the demand of exotic vegetable are increasing
owing to the awareness and living standard, cultivation of these vegetables
will provide employment, boost the income of growers apart from diversity in
food basket and nutritional security.
Vegetable Hybrid Seed Production: A Highly Profitable Laced Venture
According to All India Rural Credit Survey, small farmer is one with 2 hectare
of dry land or 1 hectare of wet land. Marginal farmer is one whose land
holding is less than 1 hectare of dry land or 0.5 hectare of wet land. Small and
marginal farmers constitute 2/3rd of the total farmers in India. With the
present small and fragmented land holdings, monsoon vagaries and
unseasoned rains, this farmer’s livelihood is threatened. In this background,
there is a need for promotion of vegetable farming. The hybrid vegetable seed
industry in India is estimated at 180 crore rupees. During 2001-02 nearly
16.84 per cent of total area under vegetable was under hybrid seeds. India is
the second largest user of hybrid tomato seeds after USA. cabbage and
tomato have the largest area under hybrids 80 per cent and 75 per cent of their
total area, respectively. Expansion of area under hybrid vegetables is solely
dependent on the success of hybrid seed production technology. Hybrid seed
production technology can be taken as a very remunerative venture by small
and marginal farmers. The work done at PAU, Ludhiana is terms of
development of nuclear male sterile based chilli and muskmelon hybrids and
development of their seed production technology by the Punjab farmers can
be considered as success stories in the field of hybrid vegetable technology in
India. The farmers of Punjab are producing hybrid seeds of chili CH 1 and
CH 3 using a male sterile gene (ms-10) introduced from France. Similarly,
seeds of Punjab hybrid muskmelon are also being produced by the farmers
using male sterile line (ms-1). Presently IIHR and IIVR have also developed
male sterile lines in chillies, okra and brinjal to the private seed companies as
nonexclusive basis.

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