Perspectives of Vegetable Grafting in Pakistan: Current Status, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

In Pakistan vegetables are grown on fairly a large area and help to fulfill the food requirements of increasing population. The average yield of vegetables in Pakistan is lower compared with the other vegetables growing countries; several reasons contribute towards this low yield such as biotic factors (diseases and pest attack), abiotic factors (low and high temperature stress, high light intensity, water scarcity, and salinity), seed quality, and potential of local vegetable's cultivars. Vegetable grafting is commercially practiced in more than 28 countries across the world. According to the best of our knowledge, up till now there is no research work or practical application of vegetable grafting in Pakistan. Thus in this review we have tried to highlight the importance of vegetable grafting, and how this technique can help uplift/boost up the vegetable sector of Pakistan. Additionally, a working model has been suggested for the development of vegetable grafting in the country. In Pakistan, vegetables such as cucumber, melon, watermelon, tomato, pepper, and bell pepper are sown in plastic tunnels during winter (November and December) to get off season/early produce, however, because of low temperature during the early crop growth period (November-February), a slow rate of growth is observed. Grafting of these vegetable onto selected low temperature tolerant rootstocks can enhance the growth and productivity of vegetables. On the contrary, watermelon, muskmelon, tomato and chilies cultivated under field conditions during the summer season (March-September) suffer from higher temperatures and water scarcity. The use of appropriate rootstocks can enhance the heat and drought tolerance of these vegetables. In short, grafting can be utilized to overcome a large number of problems associated with vegetable production in Pakistan such as soil borne and foliar pathogens, nematodes attack, low and high temperatures stress, salt and heavy metals stress, drought and flooding stress. Additionally, grafting can improve the yield; prolong harvesting period and postharvest life of vegetables, provided appropriate rootstocks are utilized. Grafting of vegetables ensures limited use of inputs (pesticides and fertilizers), thus protects environment, promotes organic vegetable production; and it can help to uplift the economic status of farmers of Pakistan.

Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Watermelon Grafted onto 10 Wild Watermelon Rootstocks under Low Nitrogen Conditions

“…The improvement of NUE efficiency is required, and the use of rootstocks has been reported to enhance the NUE in different fruit and vegetable crops, including watermelon [4,15,17,21,36,[40][41][42]. In this study, we observed that the N uptake efficiency, N utilization efficiency, and N use efficiency of watermelon was altered by the use of wild watermelon rootstocks (Figure 3a-c).…”

“…NUE of grafted transplants is dependent on the genetic potential of the scion and the rootstock, and their interaction. Rootstocks improve the ion uptake in several plant species [4,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Selection of an appropriate rootstock for a specific scion cultivar is important in order to enhance water and ion absorption, nutrient use efficiency, and plant growth and yield [23,24].…”

Antifungal activity and functional components of cell-free supernatant from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LZN01 inhibit Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum growth

“…The chlamydospores of Fon can survive for as long as 8 years in the soil and the intensive cultivation of watermelon on limited agricultural lands causes Fon to persist longer in fields, making the control of Fon difficult [2]. Different methods, such as disease-resistant cultivars [3], grafting [4,5] and intercropping [6] were utilized to overcome Fusarium wilt of watermelon.…”

Brassinosteroids Regulate Antioxidant System and Protect Chloroplast Ultrastructure of Autotoxicity-Stressed Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Seedlings

“…Continuous cultivation of cucumber on the same piece of land is a major hindrance for the further development of cucumber industry [12]. Grafting is an important technique in a modern vegetable production system because it provides resistance against soil-borne diseases leading towards increased yield [13][14][15]. At present, grafting is widely used to alleviate the obstacles caused by continuous cropping of cucumber, but the production of grafted transplants takes time, resources, and it is labor intensive [16,17].…”