Improvement of black pepper

Abstract

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L., Piperaceae) - 'King of spices' - is one of the oldest spices known. It originated in the humid, tropical evergreen forests of Western Ghats of India and is now grown in more than 25 countries, particularly in tropics. Important growing locations are India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and China. There are several production constraints faced by farmers seeking to achieve sustainable yield. Global climate change, inadequate water availability, labour scarcity, coupled with biotic stresses such as epidemic diseases and pests, are the important challenges to be addressed by scientists. In addition to these, consumers expect clean and high-quality spices. In this context, the goal of improvement of black pepper should be for bold berries with high quality and research should also be oriented to producing crop with lower levels of pesticide residues, contamination with adulterants and mycotoxins. The genetic resources of this crop in India are a great strength. This germplasm, containing local cultivars, wild forms collected from the area of origin and related species are a wealth to be utilized for crop improvement. Cultivar diversity is one of the principal components of diversity in black pepper and over 100 black pepper cultivars are established in India. The main breeding objectives are high yield, with resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, coupled with good quality parameters. The paper deals with breeding characteristics of black pepper and effective breeding strategy. Black pepper is a vine, predominantly self-pollinated and commercially cultivated through orthotropic stem cuttings. Conventionally, clonal selection is the main breeding method and historically it was adopted by the British for introducing the crop into their colonial countries, and this practice continued for a long time. Each producing country has its own selections. Research efforts have been focused on hybridization and polyploid breeding and micropropagation. Panniyur 1 is a famous hybrid and it is cultivated in many production centres. Now molecular approaches are used to develop input-responsive varieties with biotic and abiotic resistance for higher yield and quality.