Diversity of Fruits

The diversity of genetic resources provides the sustainable basis for food supply and security. A wide range of fruit species like grapes, loquat, mango, guava, citrus, banana, apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, grapes, and nuts like almond, pistachio nut, pecan nut, and walnut are grown worldwide. These fruit species have been diversified through human selection, hybridization, and other processes of fruit improvement over hundreds of years. Hundreds and thousands of clones/local cultivars of different fruit crops are grown in particular ecological regions of the world with different characteristics. Wide variation exists in fruit size, shape, color, taste, seed size, quality of the cultivars of particular fruit crop. Many of these species are also important nutritional resources for local people. The adaptation pattern of different species varies from the arid dry to the humid regions to temperate and tropical and subtropical regions of the world.