Vision 2025 - National Research Centre for Grapes

6.1 INDIAN SCENARIO -REGION-WISE
In India grape are harvested almost throughtout the year (Table 5).
A region wise analysis is presented below.
Table 5. Availability of grapes of different varieties in different parts of the country in
a year
Thompson Seedless and its clones
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Bangalore Blue
Flame Seedless / Perlette
Gulabi
Region - I
It comprises of the sub-tropical regions of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The soils are alluvial with high water holding capacity. Water is available in plenty. Water table is
high in certain pockets. Soils receiving canal irrigation are gradually turning saline. The period
available for growth and ripening is hardly l10 days, which is inadequate for Thompson Seedless or
Anab-e-Shahi as these varieties suffer great losses due to berry cracking and rotting due to rains in
June-July. Therefore, the early ripening varieties like Perlette and Beauty Seedless can only be
grown.
Though Perlette is successfully grown in this region, the quality of grapes produced is very poor and
has low keeping quality. However, there is scope to improve the quality by crop regulation,
maintaining adequate leaf/fruit ratio and use of bio-regulators. Although Beauty Seedless is an early
ripener, the berry size is small, pedicel attachment is poor and uneven ripening of berries is more.
Therefore, it is not cultivated widely in this region. In recent years, under AICRP Flame Seedless has
been found promising for these regions. There is further need to identify / evolve good quality early
ripening varieties for this region.
Pest and disease incidence during growth and fruiting is less. But it is more after harvest during the
months of July and August. As a result, premature defoliation occurs, new sprouts emerge in
September and cease to grow in November impairing the vine vigour and productivity in the next
fruiting season. However, opportunities exist to prevent this situation by controlling the pests and
diseases during the monsoon season.
Region -II
It comprises of the Telangana area of Andhra Pradesh, north interior Karnataka and Madhya
Maharashtra. This region is characterized by hot and dry climate with scanty rainfall and also less
ground water potential. The idea is ideally suited for the cultivation of vinifera varieties, viz., Anabe-Shahi
and Thompson Seedless.
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