Studies on Papaya Cultivation and Evaluation of Different Varieties and Hybrids in Tripura

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is regarded as the wonder fruit of the tropics and sub tropics. It has got great importance due to its high nutritive value and production potentiality. Systematic and accurate estimate of area and production are not available in the state. But still papaya is the most important fruit crop in the state and is cultivated in about 1334.00 ha with an annual production of 18,455.00 mt with a productivity of 13.83t ha-1 which is far below the national productivity of 31.69 t ha-1. Eight varieties and hybrids were evaluated namely Coorg Honey Dew, Pusa Dwarf, Pusa Majesty, Pusa Nanha, Washington, Surya, RCTP-1 and local dwarf types. The Coorg Honey Dew, Pusa Majesty and local type are performing excellent with respect to yield and quality parameters. The highest plant height was observed in case of high yielding selection RCTP-1(293.55cm) and it was least in case of new local dwarf gynodioecious type (91.33 cm). The highest pulp thickness was found in new local dwarf gynodioecious type (3.37 cm) and lowest pulp thickness was recorded in case of variety Pusa Nanha (2.10 cm). The cavity index of fruits was found to vary from 22.80 per cent in local dwarf gynodioecious type to 28.27 per cent in Coorg Honey Dew. The varieties Washington, Pusa Dwarf and Surya,showed medium cavity index whereas the local dwarf gynodioecious type showed less cavity index. The highest TSS was observed in case of hybrid Surya and the lowest TSS was observed in case of variety Pusa Nanha. Most of the orchards are having the problem of water stress from December to March leads to severe moister stress and heavy rain from April to October causes heavy soil erosion, nutrition loss from top soil. The soil across the state is acidic in nature, which hampered the availability of the important nutrients to the plants and affect the yield.