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Description: Background 1. India aims to double farmers’ income, and horticulture is viewed as the main growth engine of Indian agriculture for its high value and as an important source of nutrition. Horticulture, covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, spices, flowers, and plantation crops, contributes 33% of the agriculture gross value added. Notably, between 2011–2012 and 2021–2022, total horticulture production has increased from 257.3 million tons to 347.1 million tons, exceeding food grain production since 2012. The growing trend in horticultural production is driven by the rise of domestic consumption because of population growth, shifting farmers’ preference from food grains to high value horticulture crops, more health-conscious dietary preferences of consumers, and various government schemes that promote horticulture production. This has helped India become the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Crop-wise, the country is the world’s largest producer of mango, banana, guava, papaya, lemon, lime, and okra. However, the sector growth is largely driven by comparatively lower input costs, diversified agro-climatic conditions, and availability of manual labor, and the yield of several horticulture crops in India remains lower than the global average. The use of land and water resources is maximized to meet the growing domestic horticultural produce consumption and export demand. Therefore, the productivity of horticultural crops needs to be increased to meet their potential. 2. To improve farm productivity, India has been investing in providing irrigation, agriculture extension, and agricultural inputs such as fertilizers. Yet, one of the major challenges in increasing productivity in horticultural crops is the spread of plant viruses (or viral diseases) that causes as much as 30% yield loss. In addition, more economically destructive diseases, such as grapevine leafroll disease, can cause yield reductions |