Blueberry Cultivation-Indian Perspective

In India, blueberry cultivation is in nascent stage and not well-established plantations are available except research trials and few dispersed plantings. In Himachal Pradesh, at CSKHPKV, Palampur few cultivars were introduced and have shown adaptive to this climate since the soil is slight acidic and climate during winter remains cool enough to meet out chilling requirement up to some extent. Owing to nutritious and healthy fruit its demand in India is increasing. As blueberry is one of the fruits which have highest values of Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). Further, the identification of various antioxidant properties in blueberry fruit along with other health benefits has helped in increasing its demand among consumers worldwide. Till date, USA and some European countries are the major players in the blueberry market. Still there is a huge gap between its demand and supply in the market. India is importing about 130 MT of fresh blueberries annually and it has huge potential in Indian markets especially in metro cities. Thus, there is a vast scope of expansion of blueberry industry in the future in the developing countries especially China, India and other Esat Asian countries in coming decades. There is also no standard agro-techniques available for its cultivation under Indian conditions. However, if at all the information available till date has been compiled and written by the foreign authors. Hence, this book “Blueberry Cultivation-Indian Perspective” has been compiled in very simple and understandable language covering all aspects of blueberry cultivation. This book will be of a great help to the growers, researchers, teachers, extension workers, students and others in the field of commercial blueberry cultivation.