Breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt and early blight

Abstract

India is the second largest producer of tomato with 11 per cent global share and cultivated on an estimated area of 0.76 million hectares with productivity of 24 tonnes per hectare. Less than 1% of the produce is processed when compared to 26% in other major producing countries. Of the estimated more than 41 million tonnes of tomato processed globally, only 130,000 tonnes were processed in India and domestic demand for processed tomato products is expanding at an estimated 30% annually. At present traditional fresh market tomato cultivars are being processed though such cultivars are unsuitable for processing. Processors in India are looking for high yielding tomato cultivars with high total soluble solids (5-6 º Brix), acidity not less than 0.4%, pH less than 4.5 and uniform red colour with a/b colour value of at least 2. In addition, firm fruited tomato cultivars with joint less pedicel (j2) which facilitate mechanical harvesting or rapid hand picking. ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research has recently developed two high yielding F1 hybrids in tomato viz: Arka Apeksha and Arka Vishesh suitable for processing. On evaluation for three years, both the hybrids recorded good level of total soluble solids (4.5-5º Brix) and colour value of 2. Further, both the hybrids had high yield potential (80-90 tonnes / hectare) with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt and early blight. Arka Apeksha and Arka Vishesh were also bred with jointless pedicel making them suitable for mechanical harvesting. Our experimental studies on vine storability revealed that all the fruits were intact on plants even 110 days after transplanting in the main field facilitating once over harvest.