Arid Horticulture: An Overview

The arid region is spread over 38.7 million hectares mainly in the states of Rajasthan. Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh besides cold arid region situated in Leh, Laddakh and Himachal Pradesh. The region is marked by extreme environmental constraints due to which the cultivation of traditional crops is not economical. In a situation such as this, arid horticulture has ample scope to develop the hot arid and semi-arid regions. At present, the climatic scenario of arid region is also changing and the problems like frost, low temperature is becoming a challenge for cultivation of many crops. The available genetic resources of many fruit and vegetable crops have been conserved and utilized for crop improvement and increased production. For crop improvement, biotechnological methods have been tried. For large scale multiplication of quality planting material, technology has been standardized in arid zone fruits. In the present paper, an overview of the technologies developed in the field of arid horticulture, which can be used to make arid ecosystem a horticultural bowl and provide food, nutrition and livelihood security to the inhabitants has been discussed.