ABSTRACT

191Horticultural crops are grown worldwide which provide fibers, nutrients, and vitamins in the human diet. It can be consumed fresh or may be eaten after cooking, processing and constitute important part of meals of billions of people worldwide. Most vegetable crops are annual or biennial and few are perennials. The current level of production is 90 mt and the total area under vegetable cultivation is around 6.2 million hectares which is about 3% of the total area under cultivation in the country. Agricultural biotechnology deals with the practical application of biological organisms or their subcellular components in agriculture. The techniques currently in use include tissue culture, conventional breeding, molecular marker-assisted breeding, and most advanced genetic engineering. Tissue culture is the cultivation of plant cells or tissues on specifically designed nutrient media. Under optimal conditions, a whole plant can be regenerated from a single cell, a rapid and essential tool for mass propagation and production of disease-free plants. Advances in breeding help agriculture achieve higher yields and meet the needs of expanding population with limited land and water resources. In molecular-assisted breeding, molecular markers [identifiable deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences found at specific location of the genome] are being used. By determining location and likely actions of genes, scientists can quickly and accurately identify plants carrying desirable characteristics; hence, conventional breeding can be conducted with greater precision. Molecular markers can be used in plant breeding to increase the speed and efficiency of the introduction of new genes diversity, taxonomic relationships between plant species and biological processes such as mating systems, pollen, or disease dispersal. Biotechnology enables development of disease diagnostic kits for use in laboratory and field. These kits are able to detect plant diseases early, by testing for the presence of pathogen’s DNA or proteins which are produced by pathogens or plants during infection. Conventional agricultural biotechnologies work better when combined with modern biotechnological approaches. Modern agricultural biotechnology refers to biotechnological techniques for the manipulation of genetic material and the fusion of cells beyond normal breeding barriers.