India introduces first triple disease resistant tomato F1 hybrid

Date:03-17-2015

In recent years, the occurrence of major diseases such as Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV), bacterial wilt (BW) and early blight (EB) has become very serious in India, causing considerable yield loss for tomato producers. Yield loss due to ToLCV has been reported up to 70-100% depending on the stage of attack, and bacterial wilt can cause yield loss up to 70%. Early blight damages foliage and fruit, causing yield loss up to 50-60%. No chemicals provide effective control of these serious diseases.

Adoption of multiple disease resistant tomato varieties is the most practical and cost-effective way for growers to manage the three pathogens. Research carried out for several years at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore has produced a high yielding F1 hybrid named ‘Arka Rakshak’ with triple disease resistance to ToLCV, BW, and EB. ‘Arka Rakshak’ is a cross between advanced breeding line (TLBER-12-21-43-1) bred at IIHR and breeding line CLN-2498D developed at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan.

Breeders, virologists, bacteriologists, pathologists and molecular biologists joined in an interdisciplinary effort to breed the hybrid. Further work is underway to introgress late blight resistance genes in ‘Arka Rakshak’ to make it even more valuable to farmers in India; the new hybrid has also sparked demand for seed in Pakistan, Mauritius, Vietnam, and countries in Africa.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is the second most important vegetable crop in India after potato. It is cultivated over an area of 0.89 million hectares with production of 18.23 million metric tonnes. Average productivity is about 20.7 tonnes per hectare. Andra Pradesh, Odissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhatishgarh and Gujarat are the country’s major tomato-growing states.