Kiwi fruit or Chinese gooseberry (Actinidia chinensis) is perhaps the best known nutritious fruit amongst the other soft fruits. As its name indicates, the plant is of Chinese origin where this vigorous woody vine has been known for a very long time by its local name of Yangtoo. It is commonly found climbing up the tall trees along the Yangtoo Valley in Northwest Hupeh and Szechuan provinces of China between 500 to 2100 m above mean sea level.

Kiwi fruit is rusty brown with hairy surface, oblong in shape look like a sapota fruit (Achrus zapota). The brown hairs disappear by rubbing with muslin cloth/ or gunny bags after harvesting. The flesh in cross section is very beautiful and attractive. It is light green in colour and seeds are soft and small. The fruit is delicate and flavor like strawberry, rhubarb and gooseberry.

A ripe fruit is refreshing, delicate flavor with pleasing aroma and high nutritive value. It is mostly eaten as fresh fruit or combined with other fruits in salad and desserts. It is a delicacy for breakfast and made delicious pies and preserves and can be used in ice cream and syrups. The nutritive value and flavor are retained when the fruit is processed to Jam, Jelly or preserves.

Until 1960, the fruit was known as Chinese gooseberry in most of the countries including New Zealand. However, in order to promote its sale and export, New Zealanders named it ‘Kiwi- fruit’, identifying with their own identity. Though kiwi fruit originated in China, yet New Zealanders exploited its full economic potential. From New Zealand the fruit has spread to other countries of word during the past two decades. At present, it is known to be growing successfully in Japan, New Zealand, USA, USSR, Italy, Australia, France, England, Belgium, Egypt, Chile and Spain. Kiwi fruit is now universally accepted name for all export shipments even from china.

Kiwi fruit has gained popularity in the past two decades in many countries of the World. It is also known as China’s miracle fruit and the horticultural wonder of New Zealand. Infect no other fruit has gained so much popular ity in such a short period in the history of commercial production.

In India, the area under this fruit is negligible being a new exotic introduction. Thousands pf rooted plants have been distributed among the fruit growers/ research institutes/ SAUs/ NGOs of Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunanchal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir and Nilgiri Hills of our country since 15 years. Some of the vines have come into fruiting on fruit grower’s fields as well as in research organizations of Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal Pradesh and in other parts of the country and they are highly convinced about the potential and importance of this fruit crop to become commercial in the country.

No doubt, in future this will prove to be another important fruit for foot and mid Hills of Indian Hills, parallel to apple and other temperate fruit for high Hills.

BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE

The kiwi fruit has been known by a variety of botanical names for a long time. The Actinidia chinensis was accepted but during few years the name Actinidia chinensis var. hispida has become more widely used. The other major variants of A. chinensis are A. chinensis var. deliciosa A. chinensis var. setosa. In Himachal Pradesh, a germ-plasm bank of Kiwi Fruit exists at the Horticultural Research Station of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s at Dhandha, between Hira Nagar & Tutu near Shimla.

IMPORTANT CULTIVARS

At present six cultivars of kiwi namely Allison, Monty, Hayward, Abbott, Bruno (Female) and Tomuri (Male) have been introduced in India. Though morpho-agronomically these cultivars show little variations but the cultivar Hayward requires more number of days to fruit ripening than other remaining cultivars where as cultivar Allison requires least number of days. Bruno fruits are of bigger in size and contain high amount of Ascorbic acid. Where as total soluble sugar and soluble solids are Monty cultivar. Allison and Abbott. Monty is cultivator of moderate composition. Allison and Bruno are early cultivars and Hayward is the late one and Abbott and Monty are mid season ones.

COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION:
THE INDIAN SCENARIO

The kiwi fruit plantations are unique in many ways and have advantages over other fruit crops cultivation in the present scenario of Indian Himalayan region. There are several attributes that make the kiwi fruit cultivation as a viable and productive commercial proposition in mid and foot Hills of our Indian Himalayas. What apple has done to ameliorate the economic condition of the people of higher Hills, kiwi is going to uplift the economic status of mid and foot Hills farmers in the years to come who had so far no assured fruit crop for high economic returns.

WIDER ADAPTABILITY

Indian Himalayan region varies in microclimate conditions from foothill, mid hill, higher hill, cold dry deserts and alpine region in Northwest Himalayas to sub-tropical humid to dry regions in North Eastern region. The kiwi fruit grow well from 300-2000m above mean sea level wherever the climate is warm and humid. Thus the kiwi fruit cultivation can successfully be adapted in Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal, J&K, Sikkim, Arunanchal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Nilgiri Hills. The plant will grow satisfactorily under moderate to high rainfall conditions. A rainfall of about 150-cm is sufficient for successful cultivation. The strong winds and frost during growing period are however injurious. The vines are deciduous, while dormant they can withstand hard winter but their young spring growth can easily be damaged. Kiwi fruit requires 600-900 hours chilling. The summer temperature should not go beyond 35°C other wise the fruits are injured by sunburn. A deep friable well-drained sandy loam to clay soil coupled with assured irrigation is the best ideal condition for growing kiwi fruit vines.

PRECOCITY & HIGH RETURNS

Kiwi fruit starts bearing at an early age from 3-4 years after planting depending upon the climate conditions. Sizeable fruit bearing starts at an age of 5-7 years. A well trained and optimally managed plants can give an average yield of 40-80 kg fruits per plant under the Indian Agro-climatic conditions. There is no crop failure in this fruit except from hailstorms, which can damage the flowering buds and flowers. In the event of heavy hailstorms the young spring growth can also be damaged. The damage can be avoided by providing nylon netting at the time of flower bud initiation.

EASY PROPAGATION
Kiwi fruit plant can be multiplied by almost all the vegetative methods of propagation such as grafting, budding, top working, softwood and hard woodcuttings, root cuttings and micro propagation. Cuttings having treatment of IBA show good result.

NO SERIOUS PESTS & DISEASES

In Indian Agro-conditions, no serious pest and diseases attack this fruit. Therefore, it has got a better scope to become commercial eco-friendly fruit crop in Indian foot and mid hills.

MARKETABILITY:

Kiwi fruit generally ripens from Oct. to Dec. after picking the fruits from vine, which is the lean period for other fruits in the Indian market ripening influences very much by elevation and climatic conditions. Moreover, it ripens early at lower elevation and slowly progresses at higher elevation. Hard fruit of kiwi can be transported from one corner to another corner of country without using the sophisticated packing and transport means. The fruit starts ripening from 10-12 days after picking from vines. The fruits can be stored for about one month at room temperature and 4-5 months in the cold storage at 10 degree Celsius, which makes it possible to supply for long period to the market without creating a glut and fetch good price in the market.

HIGH NUTRITIVE & MEDICINAL VALUE
Kiwi fruit is very much acclaimed for its nutritive and medicinal value. Almost all the ingredients are available in kiwi fruit compared to other existing fruit crops available. It has more fibre than most breakfast cereals (even bran flakes) i.e. more than banana, papaya or orange. It is rich source of sugars and several minerals such as phosphorus, potassium and calcium. It is rich source of vitamin ‘C’ and ‘E’ and low in calories. Ascorbic acid content varies from species to species and is in good amount.