The1st volume contains 19 chapters on production technologies of horticulture crops as: 1. Horticulture 2. Orchard Designing & Planting Systems 3. Orchard Floor Management 4. Description of Fruit Crops 5. Description of Vegetable Crops 6. Nursery Raising Techniques in Fruit Crops 7. Nursery Raising Techniques in Vegetable Crops 8. Propagation Techniques for Horticulture Crops 9. Canopy Management Techniques 10. Leaf and Soil Sampling Techniques 11. Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) in Vegetable Crops 12. Field Preparation, Layout of Experimental Plot and Calculation of Fertilizer Doses for Vegetable Crops 13. Exotic Vegetables 14. Hydroponics in Vegetable Cultivation 15. Weed Management in Horticultural Crops 16. Cultural Practices for Medicinal Plants 17. Annuals and Their Management 18. Flower Arrangements 19. Architectural Landscaping.
The 2nd volume contains 15 chapters on Processing and Post Harvest Technologies. The first Processing and post harvest technologies, provides a comprehensive introduction to Indian processing industry as well as status of horticultural crops, prospects for growth of processing industry are also highlighted. 2 Biology of horticulture crops, focuses on bio-chemical and physiological changes associated with horticultural commodities. 3 Maturity indices and Harvesting practices for horticulture crops deals with concepts related to life of a horticultural produce, Maturity indices of fruits, vegetables and floral crops and harvesting practices. In chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 Preparation for market and transportation of horticulture produce, grading and packing of horticulture produce, post-harvest problems and, common disorders of horticultural crops have been highlighted respectively. 8 have been written on quality evaluation criteria for horticultural crops, 9 focuses on browning reactions. In s 10, 11 and 12 carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils topics have been described in context to food, 13 is exclusively based, on post harvest handling, storage and processing of vegetables, 14, describes evaluation of food and 15 focuses on practical chemistry applications in postharvest technology.
Horticulture, in recent years, has emerged as an important and viable diversification option in agriculture for effective land use, nutritional security and employment opportunities; and has also transformed the subsistence farming into a high value commercial enterprise.India has a wide variety of climate and soil on which a large number of Horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, medicinal and aromatic plants, plantation crops and spices are grown. Horticultural crops cover 20.7 million hectare of area, which is nearly 11.25% of total cropped area of the country and contributes 18-20% of the gross value of India’s agricultural output. Presently, our country is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetable crops in the world (surpassed only by China), accounting for about 12% of fruits and 13.25% of vegetables of the World’s production. The country produces 41% of world mango, 27% of banana, 6% of citrus, 3.2% of apples, 2.5% of grapes, 6.94% of pineapples, 10% of papaya, 19% cashewnut, 57% of arecanut, 36% of green peas, 12% onion, 8% potato, 13% tomato, 26% egg plant, 8% cabbage, 30% cauliflower and 1.5% mushrooms. The area under flowers has also been increased tremendously. In the last three decades or so, there has been significant increase in the allocation of budgetary support for horticulture R&D resulting in sound research and development infrastructure to meet the growing needs. Production of horticultural crops have increased manifold during the recent years and destined to double in another five years but there has not been matching progress in the development and adoption of post harvest technology resulting in huge post harvest losses. Hence, strategies are needed to ensure these aspects apart from minimizing post harvest losses and promotion of processing and value addition. The rapid globalization, market liberalization, urbanization and increased consumer awareness have created newer challenges to be managed by post harvest technologists. New opportunities have emerged with the opening of the trade, therefore, issues related to sanitary and phyto-sanitarymeasures would need to be appropriately addressed. A three-pronged strategy is needed to reduce post-harvest losses— (i) compress supply chain by linking producers and markets; vii (ii) promote processing of food commodities in production catchments to add value before beingmarketed; and (iii) develop small-scale processing refrigerated chambers or cold storages using conventional and non-conventional sources. And these would require multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder research for agri-commodities, especially post- harvesting Engineering, Horticulture, Dairy, Livestock and Fish. More focus would be given to primary and secondary levels of value-addition and processing. A need was felt for a book designed for students in Horticulture related courses that addresses all issues of horticultural crops pertaining to processing and post harvest technologies.
I. INTRODUCTION Horticultural crops include fruits, vegetables, flowers, plantation crops, spices, and medicinal and aromatic plants have emerged as a major economic activity in India. It contributes 30% GDP from 11.73 % of its arable land area. Horticulture crops cover over 23.4 million hectares of area, which is approximately 12.7% of the total gross cropped area of the country and contributes 18-20% of the gross value of India’s agricultural output (NHB, 2013). India is the world’s second largest fruit and vegetable producing country accounting for 77.7 million metric tonnes of fruit and 159.5m M tonnes of vegetables (NHB, 2013). Besides, about 5.66 million tonnes of loose flowers, spices, mushroom and aromatic plants are also produced. The country produces 41% of world mangoes, 23% banana, 24% cashew nut, 36% green peas, 10% onion and 30% cauliflower and accounts for 12% of world fruit and 13.25% of vegetable production (NHB, 2013). Owing to wide diversity of agro climatic conditions, almost all types of temperate (apple, peach, plum, apricot, cherries and nuts), subtropical (mango, guava, papaya, etc), tropical (banana, pineapple etc), arid fruit (ber and aonla), plantation crops (coconut, cashewnut and arecanut) and diverse variety of vegetables are grown in India. The export of fresh fruit and vegetables from India in 2006-07 was estimated at 9.84 Lakh tonnes valued at Rs 2411.70 crores. Mango, grapes, apple, onion, potato, green vegetables like okra, bitter gourd and green chillies were the major items of export. Similarly, India exported 5.97 Lakh tonnes of processed foods comprising of mango pulp, juices, concentrates, dried and processed vegetables, pickle and chutney, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages worth Rs 2818.1 crores (APEDA, 2012) (Table 1 to 3).
I. INTRODUCTION The fruits and vegetables we eat and flowers and ornamentals we enjoy are biological entities. They breath, produce heat, perspire, are easily damaged, get diseases and finally die. These carry on processes characteristics of all living things before or after harvest to perform the metabolic activities: 1. to maintain cellular organization 2. to transport metabolites around the tissue and 3. to maintain membrane permeability. The job of postharvest technologist is to understand life in fruits, vegetables and flowers and prolong their life as much as possible. The post harvest life of produce depends on the rate at which they use up their stored food reserves and their rate of water loss. The sugar and starches (carbohydrate derivatives) are stored in various parts of plants through a process known as photosynthesis occurring in growing plants and are used later to provide energy for further growth, development and to prolong post-harvest life. The process of photosynthesis in growing plants and respiration in harvested produce can be seen in Fig. 2.1. The released energy through process known as respiration occurs in plants before and after harvest. Thus, principal normal physiological processes leading to aging are respiration and transpiration.
1. MATURITY INDICES Maturity indices (right time of harvesting) are quality factors that give clues as to when a product should be harvested to allow marketing flexibility and ensure the attainment of minimum acceptable quality to the user. It also refers to the set of criteria used to determine the stage of maturity for harvesting the horticultural crops. Commodities harvested either pre-mature or too late are more susceptible to postharvest physiological disorders, diseases and have poor shelf life than harvested at right stage of maturity. The pickers/ handlers are trained in methods of identifying produce that is ready for harvest. However, optimum harvesting stages depends upon type of produce and their final use. Horticultural crops may be harvested at two main maturity levels i.e., physiological maturity and commercial or horticultural maturity. Therefore, the proper stage/maturity indices for harvesting of all horticultural crops should be identified for their implementation during harvesting. Horticultural maturity in relation to developmental stages of the plants is depicted in Fig 3.1. Maturity indices are different for different horticultural crops and are employed to: 1. Ensure sensory quality (flavour, colour, aroma, and texture) and nutritional quality: Harvesting horticultural produce too early (under-developed or immature produce) will result
