Two virus-tolerant varieties of papaya seeds promise to increase the fruit yield for farmers in western India.

 

The city-based regional station of Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) has developed ‘Pune Selection-3’ and ‘Pune Selection-1’ lines of papaya seeds that have shown tolerance to Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) – globally identified as the common yet most destructive malady affecting the fruit.

 

While Pune Selection – 3 (pink-coloured fruit) is currently used by a small group of farmers in Akola and Solapur, ‘Pune Selection-1’ (bearing yellow fruit) is awaiting registration from the Delhi-based National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources.

 

The two virus-tolerant lines are a result of 12 years of work by IARI scientists who were determined to contain the ringspot disease. “Ringspot virus spreads from one plant to another through insects and is difficult to contain. If the plant gets infected at an early stage, the farmer may not even see any fruit. However, eating the fruit of an infected plant is not known to have caused any harm to humans,” said Savarni Tripathi, a senior scientist with IARI. “With no cure currently available to control the disease on a large scale, management of the disease is the only solution,” Tripathi said.

 

The new seed lines were developed by successively multiplying the ringspot tolerant plants. “These lines were then selected again and again, until multiple generations of them showed tolerance to the virus. We have now given seeds and plants of Pune Selection-3 to farmers,” Tripathi said.

 

In Maharashtra, papaya is grown extensively in Pune, Ahmednagar, Sangli, Satara, Nashik, Solapur, Nagpur and Amravati. It is also grown in states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and pockets of Madhya Pradesh among others.

 

Jayesh Deshmukh, an Akola-based farmer, who sowed the seeds on his three-acre farm in January this year, is happy with the output. “I would earlier grow Taiwan 786. But then I would lose almost 30% of the crop to the virus. This is the second time I am using the Pune Selection-3 variety, which requires less pesticides, bears more fruit per acre and also has seeds inside, which helps the fruit command a better market price,” Deshmukh said.

 

Source: Times of India

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