India ranks second in fruits with an annual production of 97.38 million metric tons, accounting for about 10.3% of the total world fruit production. However, the productivity of major fruits per hectare (14.97 tones/ha) is far below compared to world average (25 tones/ha). Among the various biotic and abiotic factors responsible for low yield and quality is a lack of knowledge about canopy management. Time bound removal of quantities curbs on import and other barriers to access to domestic market under World Trade Organization of which India is signatory, will require Indian horticultural produce to be competitive both in the domestic and export market. 

Over the last decade, area under horticultural crops grew by 2.60% per annum and production 4.8% per annum. During 2017-18 total 311.71 million tonnes horticultural crops were harvested from 25.43 million hectare area. India is 2nd largest producer of fruits in the world after China, with average productivity at 14.97 t/ha. Fruits alone were cultivated almost in 6.5 million hectare area and production of 97.38 million metric tons, (Anonymous, 2018).

Tree canopy management affects fruit yield and quality by affecting light interception. The canopy geometry should be managed in such a way that it intercepts maximum light. For high density planting system a shallow (thin) canopy 1.5-2.0 m in depth is needed to achieve the maximum efficiency for trapping sun energy through foliage and channelizing metabolites for quality fruit production with good return.

Canopy manipulation in fruit crops has a seasonal and a life-time development pattern and have lifelong advantage and disadvantage. The unmanaged canopy of fruit trees poses many difficulties i.e. difficulty in spray, pruning and hand harvesting, poor light penetration and interception throughout the canopy. Low early light interception, leaf area index and fraction of land covered by canopy, leading to delayed and poor cropping.

Mango (Mangifera indica) is one of the least professionally grown fruit crop globally. It is popularly known as ‘King of Fruits’ belongs to family Anacardiaceae. It is being cultivated for at least 4000 years (Crane, 2008). As per estimate total world mango production is 40 million tones.

Grape is one of the important fruit, crops being grown in area of 79.6 thousand hectare with annual production 1878.3 thousand MT. India is a major exporting country of grapes, it exported fresh grapes 24633.79 MT (2018-19) (Anonymous, 2018).

Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) are one of the most important commercial food crops especially in tropical regions. Banana by virtue of its multiple uses is popularly known as ‘Kalpataru’. Apart from fresh consumption as desert fruit, some types are also used for culinary purposes. It has therapeutic value; ripe banana is easily digestible and has vitamins and minerals.

The guava (Psidium guajava L.) also known as ‘the apple of tropics’ belongs to family Myrtaceae (Hayes, 1974) originated from Tropical South America stretching from Mexico to Peru and introduced in India by Portuguese during 17th century (Bose and Mitra, 2001). Guava is an evergreen fruit in nature, well adopted to a wide range of soil and agro-climates and acclaimed as ‘super fruit, due to high nutraceutical properties and in reach of poor people it has great demand.

India stands 3rd position in citrus production in world after China and Brazil. It is the most important fruit crops grown in India, however, our productivity is quite low 8.9 t/ha (Srivastava and Singh, 2006).

Apple (Malus domestica Borkh) is a typical temperate fruit; more than 80% world supply is being made from Europe (Tukey, 1982). It occupies more than 85% area and 60 % production of total temperate fruits. As per 2017-18 statistics it was cultivated over an area of 30,1000 ha with 23,27,000 metric tons production (Anonymous, 2018). Austria is leading in apple productivity; however, China is a largest producer in world.

The common pear (Pyrus communis) is known as French Pear, Asian pear also called Chinese pears, Japanese pears, Oriental pears, sand pear, salad pears and apple and pear are group of pome fruits derived from Pyrus ussuriensis and Pyrus serotina. Pyrus communis is susceptible to fireblight disease, however, Pyrus pyrifolia is resistant to this disease. Pear is only temperate fruit grown on the hills to southern parts of India. Jammu and Kashmir is leading in quality pear production.

Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) is a small to medium sized open topped branches, medium stocky, spreading as well as upright growth habit. The Peach is the native of (china, currently around 3000 peach cultivars are available in the world over (Faust and Timon, 1995).

It is an interesting and popular fruits of temperate climate. The branches are usually erect and leaves are large and thin, the flowers borne on one-yearold spur and shoots. The spur elongates in almost a straight line for several successive years because the terminal bud is leaf bud. Sweet cherry fruits are mostly consumed fresh and also used for processing purpose, syrup and some type of alcoholic drinks etc.

Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) is usually eaten as fresh while as European plum (Prunus domestica) required to process before consumption. Plum ranks next to peach as for as its economic importance is concerned. It is a delicious juicy fruit, prized both for its exquisite fresh fruit flavor and in processing industry. Due to its typical chilling requirement it is grown in cooler region. Two types of plum i.e. Japanese plum and its hybrids and European plum are grown in India.

There are number of eating type kiwi fruits in world but Actinidia deliciosa Chev, is most common. It was the recently introduced fruit in India. It was origin of China the oval fruits have flavor of gooseberry. It is egg sized, fuzzy, brown skinned green fleshed kiwifruit. Fruit is a berry, where as Actinidia chinenses a yellow fleshed fruits.

Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana L) ancient fruit of India grown in arid regions, ‘king of arid zone fruits’, thrive well in marginal areas. During severe hot, it shed off its leaves completely and thus conserves moisture by getting rid of transpiration mechanism. Flowering and fruiting mainly take place on secondary and tertiary branches.

Papaya (Carica papaya) is a important delicious fruits of herbaceous in nature,. It is most precocious fruit crops cultivated as pure as well as intercropped with mango, guava, peach, and coconut. Papaya starts bearing in 8-10 months after planting.

Bael (Angle marmelos) is an important arid fruits belongs to family Rutaceae and consists 2-3 species of which only one is in cultivation. It is important indigenous fruits of India, drought hardy tree, flowering and fruiting coincides with the onset of monsoon and fruits mature before commencement of summer. The tree shed off entire leaves during hot summer and fruits are exposed to direct sunlight, which favors ripening of fruits.

Anonymous (2018). "Horticulture At a Glance" Area, production and productivity of horticultural crops. Department of Horticulture and Food Processing, Govt of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow. Anbu S., Balasubramanyan, S., Venkatesan, K; Selvarajan M, and Duari singh R. (2009). Evaluation of varieties and standardization of production technology in Ber (Zizyphus mauritiana) under rainfed vertisols. Acta Horticulturae. 840: 55-60. Annual IDFTA. Conference, Nigara Falls, New York, USA.