**13. Future prospects**

**• Sanchita**:- In this high yielding variety, plants are 107 cm tall and have 2-3 capsules/plant. The average seed yield and straw yield are 840kg/ha and 640kg/ha respectively. Mor‐

**• Vivek**:- The plants of this variety are 112 cm tall with 2-3 capsules/plant. It is also a high yielding variety having seed yield and straw yield up to 840kg/ha and 760kg/ha respec‐

**• Sweta**:- It is high yielding variety with 66.5kg/ha opium yield and about 18% morphine

**• Subhra**:- In this variety plants are medium sized having 3-4 capsules/plant. The average seed yield and husk yield of the variety are approx. 910kg/ha and 790kg/ha respectively.

**• Shyama**:- In this variety plants are 105 cm tall with black peduncle and also has erect in‐ cised leaves. It is a high yielding variety having seed yield, husk yield and morphine con‐

**• Sujata**:- In this variety plants are 80-100 cm tall having 3-4 flat glabrous capsules with 18-20 cm long erratic black peduncle. It is an opium less, alkaloid less and non narcotic

tively. Morphine content of this variety is also very low in husk (approx. 0.73%).

phine content of this variety is very low in CPS (approx. 0.74%).

The morphine percentage in husk is approx. 0.77%.

tent up to 720kg/ha, 650kg/ha and 0.75% respectively.

**Figure 4.** Field view of developed high thebaine lines.

content in latex.

230 Plant Breeding from Laboratories to Fields

variety.

The medicinal uses of opium poppy are innumerable and also its value as food grade crop is significant. The genetic upgradation process in opium poppy cannot be ended until and un‐ less it is able to meet the ever increasing global demand for opium alkaloids and nutritious seeds. The genetic upgradation process needs to be continued for the development of variet‐ ies rich in total alkaloid content. The conservation of germplasm and creation of genetic var‐ iability through the intervention of conventional, mutational, polyploidy and molecular approaches is essential to carry forward future breeding programmes aiming to develop de‐ signer plants in opium poppy. At present the indigenous poppy germplasm has very nar‐ row genetic base, we need to concentrate on broadening of its genetic base through the intervention of above strategies. The prospects of mutation breeding and interspecific hy‐ bridization has proved useful in creation of genetic variability and development of varieties rich in specific alkaloid with high yield needs further efforts to enhance the total alkaloid content.

The opium poppy crop is highly sensitive to several diseases caused by biological agents. The development of multiple disease resistant varieties is another major challenge in opium poppy. Very few studies have been done on this aspect, so, further studies are required to develop resistant varieties in poppy against fungus, bacteria, viruses, insects, pests etc, which causes severe damage to the crop. The genes responsible for disease resistant can be identified and characterized through molecular techniques, so, efforts should be made in the direction of developing disease resistant transgenic plants, from which the candidate gene could be transferred through back crossing program into our high yielding varieties.

Another important aspect is that the opium poppy is highly sensitive to varied environmen‐ tal conditions. Although a number of high yielding varieties have been developed, but the development of photoperiod insensitive, stable and adaptable varieties for different climatic conditions are still required. This can be achieved by transferring the genes of interest from the cultivars of different countries into our indigenous varieties in green houses. However, the development of morphine less or opium less varieties, which can check drug trafficking and allows the farmers to grow poppy without any restriction or necessity of obtaining li‐ cense, is still a challenging task. Different molecular techniques such as virus induced gene silencing, RNA interference (RNAi) technology etc., can help in the development of opium less and morphine-less varieties. Till to date, 17 genes have been identified and character‐ ized involved in alkaloid biosynthesis, but the genes involved in other benzylisoquinoline and pthalideisoquinoline pathways are still unknown. So, the efforts should be done to ex‐ plore all the genes involved in alkaloid biosynthesis which may help in development of de‐ sired designer plants in opium poppy.
