India has emerged as a major stakeholder in the global horticulture scenario
accounting for 10.9% of the world fruit prodcution, with the total fruit
production of 58.7 million tonnes from 5.5 million hectares. In view of the
burgeoning population pressure, it is often not possible to get good piece of
fertile land for cultivation of fruit crops, as it is used for other important
field crops, such as food grains, oil seeds and pulses. In the recent years
there has been considerable awareness about the food and nutritional security. A
number of underutilized fruits are adequately rich in antioxidants and
phytochemicals besides some neccessary nutritional components like