Papaya is a table fruit in most of the tropical countries cultivated mainly for fresh fruit consumption. It is consumed as a part of breakfast dessert and as fruit salad. It is also used in soft drinks, jams, ice-cream flavouring, crystallised fruit and also sold as canned cubes and juice in some countries. In India it is mostly consumed as a table fruit.   Area Of Cultivation Papaya grows well almost everywhere, except at altitudes higher than 1,500 metres. It is grown all over India and is available round the year in the country. However, Karnataka, Orissa, Assam, West Bengal and Gujarat provide ideal climatic conditions for its growth. At one time, India was a leading producer of papaya in the world. Today, it is not because its production in other countries has gone up dramatically while it rose at a much lower rate in India.

Papaya cannot tolerate low temperatures. A dry warm climate is necessary. Strong winds are highly detrimental to the trees as the hollow stems break easily.

Even though the papaya tree is adapted to a wide range of soils, it grows best in the loamy soil. Deep clayey soils that are prone to water-logging should be avoided. In heavy-rainfall areas, a prolonged stagnation of water near its stem is highly injurious.

A light or shallow ploughing or harrowing once or twice a year is necessary so also is the removal of weeds.

Low-growing vegetables of short duration may be taken as inter-crops. An occasional thinning of fruits is necessary to prevent overcrowding. Papaya may itself be grown as a `filler’ or in plantations of other crops where spacing is wide enough.

Papaya is usually propagated by seeds. Germination of seeds takes place 2-3 weeks after sowing. Seeds treated with thiourea (100-200 ppm) and gibberellic acid (GA3 at 200 ppm) germinated better. Seed germination is highest at an optimum temperature of 35°C. Storage of seeds at 10°C was found to be the best for retention of seed viability. Viability of papaya seed can be maintained for 9 months of room temperature when stored in air-tight containers. Patch budding has been reported to be quite successful (90%) in papaya but it is not practiced commercially. Tissue-culture technique has been standardized for papaya micro-propagation. It has been reported that plants raised through tissue-culture technique yielded more fruit in Pusa Delicious when compared with the seedlings. Young papaya seedlings form callus profusely in Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with auxins (NAA). Callusing was obtained from stem segments, roots and leaf tissue. Callus readily differentiated into leafy shoots in medium containing high ratio of kinetin and NAA (2.0 : 0.2 mg/litre), while root formation was favoured by a low kinetin: NAA ratio (0.2 : 0.5 ml/litre). Shoot tip culture from seedlings and lateral buds from female plants of Coorg Honey Dew variety was found to be successful. The tissue-culture plantlets measuring 5.5 to 9.5 cm and hardened in plastic chamber survived better when planted in the field. The available information indicates that tissue-cultured papaya plantlets can be used with added advantage of uniformity in plant type.

Papaya is susceptible to waterlogging and the orchard should have good drainage system, particularly in heavy soils experiencing high rainfall. Total water requirement of CO.2 variety of papaya is estimated to be of 1,800-1,900 mm and irrigation at 60-80% available soil moisture (ASM) depletion was found optimum for papaya. Plants receiving frequent irrigation with 100% evaporation replenishment maintained higher transpiration rate, lower diffusive resistance but gave significantly higher yields as compared to 50 and 25% evaporation replenishment. Evapotranspiration decreased with decreasing frequency of irrigation. Generally irrigation to grown-up plants at 7-10-day interval during hot summer months is recommended. Among various systems of irrigation, ring of furrow system of irrigation is preferred over the bed system. Bed system allows direct contact of irrigation water with the plant and thus predisposes plants to collar rot disease. Irrigation in widely spaced furrows of 100 cm resulted in significantly higher fruit yield as compared to basin and flood methods of irrigation under Bangalore condition. Drip system of irrigation helps in saving 50-60% water, and water use efficiency under drip is much higher.

Nine kg of farmyard manure per pit is applied at the time of planting followed by 35 to 45 kg of it every six months, once at the beginning of the monsoon and again in winter. A fertilizer mixture to supply 25 to 50 kg of N, 50 to 100 kg of P and 50 to 100 kg of K per hectare may be given in two equal doses every six months. According to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, ICAR, Government of India, in 1999-2000, solo papaya recorded good growth and higher accumulation of boron. Fruit set increased by 20% either by soil application or foliar spraying. Application of boron increased Ca in fruits which is an important element to increase the shelf-life of papaya. Papaya plants receiving inorganic nutrients alone (200 g each of N, P₂O₅ K₂O/plant/year) recorded highest yield, but inclusion of organic source of nutrient (farmyard manure/neem cake) produced better quality fruits. Drenching with Ridomil (0.2%) was most effective method to control root-rot.

Papaya flowers in about four months after planting and fruits are ready for harvesting in another six moths. Except during winter, the trees continue to flower and fruit all the time. Fruits are picked when they are still hard and green, but, show a distinct change in the colour of the rind. The packing of fruits in baskets in several layers should be avoided. A soft padding, such as of wood-shavings, wool or straw is recommended.