Vision 2025 - National Research Centre for Grapes

8. ISSUES AND STRATEGIES
8.1 CROP IMPROVEMENT
i. Introduction and development of early ripening varieties and rootstocks to meet the
specific requirements in north western plains, northeast and eastern India in terms of short
period available for ripening, high rainfall, water logging and high water table.
Standardization of agrotechniques of existing varieties to meet the specific requirements of
these areas.
ii. Introduction of table and wine varieties having relevance to tropical viticulture and market
importance both in domestic and export market, from USA, South Africa, Australia and
EU countries particularly Mellisa / Princess, Tudor Red Premium, Regal Seedless, Sunred
Seedless, Cristelle Seedless, Blush Seedless, Prime Seedless, Autumn Seedless, Emperor,
Marquis, Dogridge Clone 01 and 05 and IAC 572, Fercal, Schwarzmann have relevance to
Indian situation. Introduction of varieties with more keeping quality is required.
iii. Breeding of varieties with least apical dominance, high fruitfulness at the base, selfthinning
and resistance to tropical diseases and insect pests.
8.2 CROP PRODUCTION
i. The present cost structure for non-recurring and recurring expenditure works out to be Rs.
8.0 lakhs and 2.5 lakhs / ha respectively for table grapes. The major inputs are material
required for training, manures / chemical fertilizers, plant protection and other chemicals
and labour. High cost of cultivation and timely availability of skilled labour are the major
impediments to promote Indian viticulture on large scale. Hence, reducing the nonrecurring
and recurring costs and thereby reduction in the total cost of production to make
Indian viticulture more cost competitive at global level is required.
ii. Evolving cultural practices including training systems for table, wine and raisin grapes
grafted on new potential rootstocks to increase the fruitfulness of buds and their sprouting
after fruit pruning, quality of fruits and optimum yield, shelf life and quality of processed
products like juice, wine and raisins. Evaluation of alternate pruning practice to stagger the
harvest in tropical region to overcome the problem of market glut.
iii. Minimizing the cost of manuring by avoiding over-manuring and strictly going by need
based nutrient schedule based on leaf petiole analysis at the time of fruitfulness and bud
differentiation apart from soil analysis after harvesting the crop. Further, there is need to
increase the fertilizer efficiency by formulating economic and efficient manurial schedule
involving time, method, sequence and form of nutrient application.
iv. Reducing the cost of labour, since grape cultivation is labour intensive farming enterprise.
Some cultural operations like pruning, spraying, growth regulator treatments and thinning
requires a large number of labours during a short span of time. Availability of labour on
such a large scale at short time notice from small villages or small inhabitants is not
possible. Further, all the operations identified for manual cannot be mechanized,
particularly thinning and harvesting requires lot of care in handling bunches since, delicacy
is involved. Considering these aspects, mechanization of operations to be decided and the
strategy to be worked out accordingly.
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