Fruit Breeding is an art and science demanding prolonged time, space and intrinsic qualities. Seed propagation leads to heterogeneity and asexual propagation of elite clones' leads to newer and novel types. There are temperate, sub-tropical and tropical fruits differing in photo and thermo periodic requirements. There are also parthenocarpic and apomictic fruit trees demanding special breeding methods for improvement. Aroma, taste and flavor are unique to fruits unlike other horticultural crops like vegetables, spices, plantation crops and tubers.

The book unravels history of fruit breeding, biodiversity, challenges approaches and prospects, apomixes, mutation breeding, role of insects in fruit production, molecular markers, statistical techniques, rootstock breeding, breeding of mango, citrus, banana, papaya, guava, sapota, jackfruit, sugarapple/sweetsop Indian jujube and jamun. The 20 chapters in the book authored by 15 scientists from six Research Institutes and Universities expose readers to a new world of fruit breeding, very seldom ventured by breeders.

Contents: Foreword. Acknowledgement. 1. History of fruit breeding/T. Radha and S. Simi. 2. Biodiversity of fruit crops/M.R. Dinesh and G.L. Veena. 3. Fruit breeding-challenges, approaches and prospects/M.R. Dinesh and G.L. Veena. 4. Apomixis and fruit breeding/ G.L. Veena and M.R. Dinesh. 5. Mutation breeding in fruit crops/M.R. Dinesh, G.L. Veena and Bharathi Nirujogi. 6. Role of insects in fruit crop pollination /P. V. Rami Reddy and K. Sreedevi. 7. Molecular markers in fruit breeding/Kanupriya and K.V. Ravishankar. 8. Statistical techniques in quantitative genetics for fruit crop improvement research/R. Venugopalan. 9. Rootstock breeding/M.R. Dinesh. 10. Mango breeding/M.R. Dinesh. 11. Citrus breeding/Awtar Singh. 12. Banana breeding/A. Rekha. 13. Pomegranate breeding/S.S. Hiwale. 14. Papaya breeding/M.R. Dinesh and G.L. Veena. 15. Guava breeding/M.R. Dinesh and C. Vasugi. 16. Sapota breeding/A. Rekha. 17. Jackfruit breeding/Prakash Patil. 18. Breeding sugar apple/Sweetsop by T. Sakthivel. 19. Breeding in Indian jujube (Ber)/S.S. Hiwale. 20. Jamun breeding/A. Rekha.