Smart Fruits for 21st Century.

Abstract

Most of the underutilized fruits are rich in antioxidants and nutraceutical properties including therapeutic values. It may also be possible to ensure sustainable fruit culture activities through crop diversification in some of the agro-ecologies through integrating them in production systems by suitably manipulating crop geometry and due cultural attention. Recently, cultivation of some of these fruits gained substantial momentum due to steady appreciation of health benefits, increasing market demands and emergence of niche markets. Commercial planting under few of these crops in recent years have increased appreciably to about less than 1,000 acres in parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and also other states, where, they are being grown commercially in small or chards, mixed fruit orchards as well as popular homestead candidates. some fruit crops are mentioned in this chapter.