Tree species are indispensable to support human life. Due to their
long life cycle and environmental sensitivity, breeding trees to
suit day-to-day human needs is a formidable challenge. Whether they
are edible or industrial crops, improving yield under optimal,
sub-optimal and marginal areas calls for uni?ed efforts from the s-
entistsaroundtheworld.
Whiletheuniquenessofcoconutaskalpavriksha(Sanskr- meaning
tree-of-life) marks its presence in every continent from Far East
to South America, tree crops like cocoa, oil palm, rubber, apple,
peach, grapes and walnut prove their environmental sensitivity
towards tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climates. Desert
climate is quintessential for date palm. Thus, from soft drinks to
breweries to beverages to oil to tyres, the value addition offers a
spectrum of pr- ucts to human kind, enriched with nutritional,
environmental, ?nancial, social and trade related attributes.
Taxonomically, tree crops do not con?ne to a few families, but
spread across a section of genera, an attribute so unique that
contributes immensely to genetic biodiversity even while cultivated
at the commercial scale. Many of these species in?uence other ?ora
to nurture in their vicinity, thus ensuring their integrity in p-
serving the genetic biodiversity. While wheat, rice, maize, barley,
soybean, cassava andbananamakeup
themajorfoodstaples,manyfruittreespeciescontributegreatly
tonutritionalenrichment inhumandiet.
Theediblepartofthesespeciesisthesource of several nutrients that
makes additives for the daily diet of humans, for example,
vitamins, sugars, aromas and ?avour compounds, and raw material for
food proce- ing industries. Tree crops face an array of agronomic
and horticultural problems in propagation, yield, appearance,
quality, diseases and pest control, abiotic stresses and poor
shelf-life.
General
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