Thirteen high yielding, climate resilient and nutrient rich varieties of fruit, vegetable, flower and medicinal crops developed by ICAR-Indian Insititute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) would be released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the programme of release of “109 climate-resilient varieties of different field and horticulture crops” at New Delhi on 11th August, 2024.
The fruit crop hybrids Arka Udaya (mango) and Arka Kiran (guava) are high yielding and semi vigorous with high total soluble solids and are suitable for high density planting, IIHR said in a statement.
Arka Udaya rich in carotenoid content and Arka Kiran variety rich in lycopene are few nutri-rich varieties of fruit crops. The Arka Chandra variety (pummelo) is a prolific bearer with sweet pulp (low Naringenin content- the bitter principle).
The Okra hybrid Arka Nikita is iodine rich genetic male sterile line with resistance to yellow mosaic virus. The Dolichos bean variety, Arka Vistar is pole type and photo-insensitive with pod yield of 37 tonnes/ per hectare.
Arka Vaibhav variety of tuberose has double type white flowers and ideal for cut flower purpose with yield level of 2.5-3.0 lakh spikes per ha, IIHR said.
The crossandra variety, Arka Shreeya is large and novel flower type with Orange - Red flower colour and high yielding (2.23 tonnes per acre per year) with resistance to phytophthora wilt.
The gladiolus varieties, Arka Amar and Arka Aayush are resistant to Fusarium wilt. Two velvet bean varieties Arka Dhanvatari and Arka Daksha are non-itchy varieties with high L-Dopa content (Memory boosting property).
The Arka Ashwagandha variety has high root yield and withanolide content and has field tolerance to bacterial wilt and late blight diseases. Arka Prabhavi variety of Centella asiatica is high yielding with high asiaticoside content (antidiabetic and immunity boosting properties).