National Horticulture Fair 2025 to showcase cutting-edge innovation

Bengaluru: The Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) is set to host the National Horticulture Fair 2025 from February 27 to March 1 at its Hesaraghatta campus.

Themed 'Horticulture for Viksit Bharat–Nutrition, Empowerment, and Livelihood', the fair will showcase cutting-edge crop varieties and horticultural technologies aimed at enhancing nutrition and empowering farmers.

The event will emphasise horticultural advancements for socio-economically disadvantaged farmers, helping them boost productivity, income, and livelihood. More than 250 institutions will exhibit innovations across various horticulture domains.

IIHR will also present over 250 varieties and technologies developed by ICAR-IIHR in crop production, crop protection, post-harvest management, value addition, and farm machinery.

What's new & fresh?

Watermelon-Sel-4
High-yielding variety (80 tonnes per hectare t/ha); weight ranges from 4-8 kg per fruit. 

Bottle gourd–Arka Shreyas 
Resistant to gummy stem blight fungal disease; round- or club-shaped fruits with yield potential of 48 t/ha. 

Wax apple CHESM-1 
High yielding, bears bell-shaped fruits in three years with attractive pink peel colour and less seeds. The yield is 90–120 kg fruits per plant, with fruit weight of 35–40 g. 

Red Dragon fruit powder technology 
Product has attractive dark purple colour, with higher amount of bio-active compounds. It is rich in minerals, protein and crude fibre, and is suitable for making cookies, cakes, muffins, milkshakes, and dip tea bags. 

Avocado-Arka Coorg Ravi 
Regular bearing, high yielding with fruit weight of 400-600 g, with 80% pulp content and yields 185 kg fruits/per plant. 

Leaf curl resistant chilli hybrids Arka Dhirithi & Arka Nihira 
Resistant to phytophtora root rot and chilli leaf curl virus.

Arka tender jack fruit frozen patties & kebabs
Ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products, rich in crude fibre, minerals and antioxidants with a shelf life of one year under frozen conditions. 

New varieties

Pomelo-Arka Chandra, Arka Anantha 

Custard Apple-Arka Neelanchal Vikram