Preface India is the second largest country in the world in area and production of fruits. The annual production of fruits is 91.4 million tonnes from an area of 6.4 million hectares. Climatically India is favorable for the production of a variety of tropical, sub-tropical and temperate fruits. Most of the fruits are grown on wide range of agro- climatic conditions with varied production.  A large variety of fruits are grown in our country. Mango, citrus, banana, guava and apple are the main fruits. Large number of other fruits are grown in good acreage. The fruits are grown throughout the country from temperate zone to coastal tropical region. The major fruit growing states in the country are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. In previous book “Fruit Science Culture and Technology Vol 1” basic information on various horticultural aspects and in “Fruit Science Culture and Technology Vol 2” tropical fruits were discussed in detail.  In present book “Fruit Science Culture and Technology Vol 3” different sub-tropical fruits grown in the country are discussed in three sections denoted to (i) Culture and Technology of Major Sub-Tropical Fruits (ii) Culture and Technology of Common Sub- Tropical Fruits and (iii) Culture and Technology of Minor Sub-Tropical Fruits. The various aspects of fruit cultivation mainly covered are nutritive and cultural significance; origin, history, and distribution ; taxonomical and botanical description ; climatic and soil adaptability; propagation technology and rootstocks; plant and fruit physiology; planning and planting; recommended and popular cultivars; soil cultural practices technology - water need, nutritional need, weed control, inter culture; plant cultural practices technology- training and pruning, fruit thinning ,fruit quality improvement , use of plant growth regulators; special problems; harvesting and production of fruits; post-harvest fruit technology; insect-pests and diseases management ; marketing and export potential. Section-1 covers 2 leading sub- tropical fruits of the country. Similarly, section- 2 covers 4 and section-3 covers 6 sub- tropical fruits in order of their importance.

INTRODUCTION   Citrus is the most economically important fruit crops widely grown in developed and developing countries of the world and is one of the main sources of vitamin C. There is also an increasing demand of “high quality fresh citrus” driven by World Health Organization recommendations. Citrus fruits contain the largest number of carotenoids found in any fruit and extensive array of secondary compounds with pivotal nutritional properties such as vitamin E, provitamin A, flavonoids, limonoids, polysaccharides, lignin, fiber, phenolic compounds, essential oils etc. These substances greatly contribute to the supply of anticancer agents and other nutraceutical compounds with anti-oxidant, inflammatory, cholesterol and allergic activities, all of them are essential to prevent cardiovascular and degenerative diseases, thrombosis, cancer, atherosclerosis and obesity. In spite of these beneficial traits there is still a major need to improve fruit quality to meet current consumer’s demand.

INTRODUCTION Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of the important fruit crop in world grown commercially in temperate, tropical and sub-tropical regions. At present, it is one of the major horticultural industries over an area of 7.5 million hectares. Grape berries are attractive for their unique flavour and are utilized in many different ways, so its cultivation is becoming more popular. Approximately 71% of world grape production is used in wine industry, 27% as fresh fruits and only 2% as dried fruit. China is the largest producer of grapes followed by Italy, USA, France and Spain. In world, India hold 9th position in grapes production with an annual production of 2822.78 thousand MT.Peninsular India comprise of accounts for 90 % area under grapes. India has the distinction of having highest productivity (21.4 MT/ha) of grapes in the world

INTRODUCTION The pomegranate(Punica granatum L.) is one of the oldest known edible fruits, occupies the eighteenth place among the main world-fruit cultures.The fruit was naturalized throughout the Mediterranean region through ancient times and today the main areas of world production are Turkey, Spain and California. Around the world pomegranates are generally grown in Mediterranean climates, often with very warm dry summers (Wetzstein et al., 2011). During recent past, this ancient fruit has emerged as commercially important fruit, owing to its enormous medicinal and nutritional properties, built-in ability to tolerate heat and drought, low resource input demanding nature and high returns on investment (Singh et al.,2012). The fruit has growing consumer demand both for fresh use as well as processing into juice, syrup, squash and anardana (an acidulant product), owing to its attractive, juicy, and refreshing arils (Pruthi and Saxena, 1984).

INTRODUCTION The ber or Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) in the most common fruit crop grown in arid and irrigated zones of Indian sub-continent. It is one of ancient fruits of India which is cultivated practically all over the country for its fresh consumption. Ber is a tropical as well as subtropical fruit and can be successfully cultivated even in the most marginal eco-system of tropics and subtropics. Ber is a hardy fruit tree and is best known for growing under adverse soil and climatic conditions. It can thrive well even in drought, water-logged and salinity conditions. It is common notion among the people that ber is a poor man’s fruit. It is one of the most nutritious fruit compared to other ones. The grafted varieties of ber fetch even higher price in the market than several other fruits. Hence, ber stands no longer the poor man’s fruit. Now, ber growing has received a great attention and preferred as a commercial fruit crop in North Indian states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh on account of its potential for higher yield and good economic return to the growers. Moreover, the tree has less water need in the summer months during the period of dormancy, thus considered an ideal fruit for cultivation in the arid and semi-arid regions of North India. Apart from ber, no other fruit trees grow wild so extensively in this region, thus it is becoming popular among the growers.

INTRODUCTION Litchi(Litchi chinensis) is an important sub-tropical evergreen fruit crop. The tree bears heart-shaped, conical, or spherical drupaceous fruits with a thin, indehiscent pericarp that surrounds the sweet, translucent, succulent, and juicy aril. Although litchi originated in the Asia-Pacific region, orchards are found in more than 80 countries. Having introduced into India by the end of the 17th century, litchi is an important fruit crop in India and is a source of livelihood to millions especially in the Gangetic plains along the foothills of the Himalayas where the crop is grown popularly. Bihar is the major litchi-producing state in India accounting for about 37% of both national acreage and production. Muzaffarpur is famous for its Shahi litchi and is popularly referred to as the ‘Litchi City’ or ‘Litchi Hub’.In India it is grown in an area of about 85000 ha with total production of 528000 MT. Bihar is followed by West Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam in terms of production, while the highest productivity of litchi (16 MT/ha) is reported from Punjab.

INTRODUCTION Aonla or Indian gooseberry (Emblica officinalis Gaertn.) is an important indigenous minor fruit grown in tropical and subtropical regions of India. It is known with many vernacular names such as amla, aura, amlaki, nelli, amolphal, amlakamu, amlet, amlay. Aonla, cultivation is highly remunerative due to its high productivity even on marginal lands. The plant is quite hardy, heavy bearer giving better income to the farmers. It can be grown successfully in marginal soil and various kinds of wasteland conditions such as sodic and saline soils, ravines, dry and semi dry regions.

INTRODUCTION Loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica Lindl.) is an evergreen fruit tree and grown extensively in subtropical regions of world which belongs to family Rosaceae. It is also known as Japanese Plum or Japanese Medlar. The word Eriobotrya has been derived from two greek words i.e ‘erion’ and ‘botrys’ meaning wool and cluster respectively which stands for wooly inflorescence The plant is often planted in parks and gardens due to its ornamental appearance. The fruit of loquat is available in the months of March - April when very few fresh fruits are available and fetches maximum returns.

INTRODUCTION Jamun (Syzygium cumini (L) Skeels Syn Eugenia jambolana Lamk.) is an important commercial indigenous minor fruit of India and is highly suitable for avenue and for social forestry plantation. It belongs to family Myrtaceae. The other major plants belong to this family are eucalyptus, bottle brush and cloves. It is known by different names like black plum, Indian black berry, Ram jamun, jambolan, Jambul and Phalinda in different parts of country. Trees are found growing throughout the tropics and subtropics as an avenue plantation on road side, school, religious places and as wind break around the orchards. It is also occurs in the lower range of the Himalayas up to an elevation of 1,300 meters and in the Kumaon hills up to 1,600 meters above mean sea level. It is widely grown in the larger parts of India from the Indo-Gangetic plains in the North to Tamil Nadu in the South. The importance of this fruit is increasing day by day due to increasing awareness of hypoglycemic properties of this fruit against diabetics. It is adequately rich in antioxidants.

INTRODUCTION The avocado (Persea americana Mill) is the highly nutritive fruit. Its common names are alligator pear or butter fruit in English; Aguacate, Palta in Spanish and Avokado in Afrikaans. It is an evergreen sub-tropical fruit.  NUTRITIVE AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Avocado is the most nutritive among fruits. The pulp is rich in proteins and fat, but low in carbohydrates. Avocados have the highest energy value of 245 cal/100 g and reservoir of several vitamins and minerals. Avocado is rich in copper and iron, potassium and is associated with lower blood pressure as it is high in monounsaturated fat. It contains all amino acids. Another benefit is avocados shown to maintain good cholesterol while reducing bad cholesterol and triglyceride level.. Avocado is considered healthy for heart ,good for digestion and vision. It is a natural detoxification fruit and may help in preventing osteoporosis Avocado is mainly used fresh, in sandwich filling or in salads. It can also be used in ice creams and milk shakes and the pulp may be preserved by freezing. The fat in avocado is similar to olive oil in composition and is widely used in the preparation of cosmetics.

INTRODUCTION Phalsa, Grewia subinaequalis DC (syn. Grewia asiatica L.) is native to the Indian sub-continent and South-East Asia and belongs to family Tiliaceae, to which jute, our major money earning fiber crop, also belongs.Phalsa has been mentioned in our Vedic books and is native to India and other parts of southeast Asia, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is known by many names viz., Hindi (Phalsa, Shukri, Tadachi, Dhaman, Parusha); English (Indian phalsa, phalsa); Bengali (Phalsa, Shunkri); Kannada(Phulsa), Telegu (Phutiki), Tamil (Unnu), Malayalam (Chadicha) Gujarati (Shukri), Filipino (Bariuangulod) and Thai (Potaohai,Yapkheethao,Malai,Laikhon). The plant is commonly known as Gangeran. Grewia species is one of the best examples of multipurpose fruit species which are useful source of food, fodder, fiber, fuelwood, timber and a range of traditional medicines which cure a number of diseases (Sharma and Patni, 2012). 

INTRODUCTION      The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is considered to be oldest among the domesticated tree fruits. It considered a symbol of life in desert because it tolerate high temperature, drought and salinity more than many other fruits. Date palm fruits are eaten as raw dates (Khalal stage), Soft dates (Tamar stage) and dry dates (Chhuhara). Different processed products viz sugar, starch, vinegar, juice, toffies, wine, chutney, jam, pickels etc. are prepared from date fruits. Leaves of date palm trees are utilized for preparation of baskets, brooms, ropes, building materials, fuel and paper. The plantation is also useful for stabilization and maintenance of ecological balance in the desert regions

INTRODUCTION Fig  (Ficus carica L.) is commonly known as Anjeer. It has a luscious taste as a fresh fruit. The fruit of fig have been prized over centuries for the medicinal and dietary properties. The figs are consumed fresh, dried, preserved, candied, jam and canned.  NUTRITIVE AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Medicinal Uses:The latex is widely applied on warts, skin ulcers and sores, and taken as a purgative and vermifuge, but with considerable risk. In Latin America, figs are much employed as folk remedies. A decoction of the fruits is gargled to relieve sore throat. Figs boiled in milk are repeatedly packed against swollen gums. Similarly, the fruits are much used as poultices on tumors and other abnormal growths. The leaf decoction is taken as a remedy for diabetes and calcifications in the kidneys and liver. Fresh and dried figs have long been appreciated for their laxative action. The food value of edible portion of fig (Morton, 1997) is given in detail in Table 1. 

Colour Plates Chapter 1: Citrus