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Technologies for cultivation of crops are changing over the years. Adherence to the principles of conservation, high input-use efficiency and higher productivity with optimum inputs and the very idea of crop production as a business venture; all these are leading to increased adoption of high technological (high-tech) crop production practises.

Acid soils occupy a considerable area in the country. There are about 90 million ha. of acid soils (27.4 per cent of total geographical area) spread across several states. They are found to occur in the Himalayan region, the eastern and north-eastern plains, peninsular India and the coastal plains under varying environmental conditions of landscape, geology, climate and vegetation. Thirty one million hectare area show severe soil acidity problems (pH 5.5) and 59 million ha. have pH between 5.6 and 6.5 (Sharma and Sarkar, 2005). Laterites and various latosolic soils are the large groups among acid soils. The other groups are podzolic soils, brown forest soils, peaty soils etc., Distribution of acid soils in different states of India is given in (Table 1 and Figure 1). Acid soils usually have problems associated with aluminium, iron and manganese toxicity, low nutrients status, nutrients imbalance and multiple nutrient deficiencies.

In India, land is limited and shrinking whereas the human and animal populations are increasing. The land and man ratio has fallen rapidly in the past half century from 0.34 in 1950 to 0.14, and is projected to be 0.10 in 2025. Horticultural crops however, have shown substantial growth acceleration (Table 1).The area devoted to fruit production increased 50 per cent, while the vegetable growing area increased 20 per cent. Grape, an export crop, currently at 43,000 ha, increased by 70 per cent. The value of horticultural crops grew at an average of 7.5 percent during the 1990’s. High yield and quality in horticulture can only be ensured through rational blend of commercial fertilizers and organic nutrient sources.

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is the principal and one of the most important horticultural products of India. In spite of its immense popularity and commercial importance, information relating to nutrient deficiency/toxicity symptoms in cashew has not progressed much. Nutrient deficiency is common in cashew growing soils as most of the cashew plantations in India are established on degraded slopes with poor fertility, where soil and water erosion are common phenomena. Nutrient deficiency in cashew is influenced both by soil and climate.

Hydro-climatology is defined as the investigation of the impact of climate upon the waters of the earth. This topic includes hydrometeorology, the water processes of evaporation (surface and near surface), rainfall-runoff, and groundwater studies (Langbein, 1967; Wendland, 1998). Hydroclimatology provides a systematic foundation to assess how the climate system causes spatiotemporal changes in the hydrologic cycle with respect to global or local aspects. Variations in the relationship between the hydrologic cycle and the climate system underlie droughts, floods, and future impacts of global warming on available water resources. Both land and satellite based data and computer programming and modelling contribute to our knowledge of the spatiotemporal changes of physical processes shared by the hydrologic cycle and the climate system (Shelton, 2009).

Coconut is a traditional plantation crop of India and assumes the status of a high value commercial crop. In India, most of the acreage under coconut palm (90%) lies in the four southern states i.e., Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Kerala ranks first in area (53.76%) and production (45%) followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Coconut is mostly a crop of small farmers in India, the average size of a holding being 0.22 ha. More than 90% of the five million coconut holdings in the country are less than one ha in size. The income derived from such small holdings is not sufficient to sustain even the small families.

Water is a critical input for crop production. Its optimum availability is important in augmenting and sustaining crop productivity. Lack of adequate supply of water can limit crop yields ranging from 10 to 90% or even be subjected to mortality if moisture go below permanent wilting point. It is also observed that the moisture shortage during some critical crop growth stages would cause severe detrimental effect. This necessitates us to provide irrigation to crops at right quantity and frequency. In other words, irrigation schedule plays key role in optimizing or maximizing crop yield. Moreover, judicious use of irrigation water has potential to enhance the agricultural productivity which in turn would lead to food security. As water resources are getting diminished day by day, the application of water saving techniques would be needed for addressing the food security objectives of the nation.

Nearly 70 percent of the cultivated crops all over the world are cross-fertilized and depend on insects like honeybees for pollination. At present, several countries are making desperate efforts to achieve self–sufficiency in food production by physical expansion of the area under cultivation, production of better quality seeds and animals, bringing more waste lands under cultivation, use of fertilizers,pesticides and irrigation. However, in the past decade or so, food production has come to a point of stagnation for some cultivated crops. Emphasis in the future therefore, should be on full use of under used resources. In order to maximize horticultural production, pollinators can be used as an important resource or input as improved variety of seed, timely irrigation, doses of fertilizers and plant protection.

Presently, potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world’s third most important crop, after wheat and rice. Tubers of the potato plant have been used as a primary nutritional staple and a carbohydrate source in many diets and as the basis for a variety of processed products throughout the world. Owing to climate change, potato production is expected to fall in the coming decades, predictions asserting that global potato yields will decrease by 9–18% in most parts of the world. Availability of new varieties less sensitive to these environmental cues is thus crucial to overcome the negative effects of global warming. Of various developmental phases, tuberization is the most sensitive stage in potato limiting its climate associated geographical distribution and actual yield.  Hence, understanding the tuberization process becomes even more important in the face of changing global climate. The induction of tuber formation is a key developmental transition for the production of potatoes.  Understanding the regulation of tuber induction is essential to devise strategies to improve tuber yield and quality.

Flowering is the most important phenological event in the phyotogerontology, as it is the key factor contributing to fruit production and profitability to the orchardists. Under favourable growth conditions the timing and intensity of flowering greatly determine the quantum of production. However, several times there are very contrasting florigenic events where despite prolific flowering, resultant fruit set remains low leading to low yields. Therefore understanding of the various external and internal factors involved in flower induction in mango is crucial for developing suitable orchard management practices to achieve regular and high yield.

Vegetables are considered protective foods and play an important role in human nutrition. These help to combat malnutrition and also diversify diets with variety of colours. The compounds imparting various colors to the vegetables are important antioxidants that also help to combat degenerative diseases like cancer. Over the years, vegetable sector has made an appreciable progress in terms of production and productivity and emerged as the better option to diversify agriculture, generate employment and enhance farmers’ incomes. The worldwide production of vegetables has doubled over the past quarter century and the value of global trade in vegetables now exceeds that of cereals.

Crop productivity is largely affected by the several factors; however, biotic stress factor is one of the major concerns. Horticultural crop productivity is low in India as compared to other countries for many reasons including pest problems. Plant parasitic nematodes is one of the potential threat for cultivation of some important crops- root knot and reniform nematodes in vegetables; burrowing nematodes in banana, spices and plantation crops; citrus nematode in citrus; cyst nematodes in potato, foliar and lesion nematodes in flowers etc.

The research work carried out throughout citrus growing countries of the world including India showed utility of different rootstocks for citrus plants, which varies greatly with scion variety and agro-climatic condition. A wide range of citrus rootstocks are available, each having desirable attributes. The success of a rootstock is determined by its tolerance to prevailing conditions of soil, climate and diseases. Citrus plants are unusual in that many species and cultivars including the commercial rootstocks reproduce true to type from seed. Commercial citrus rootstocks are usually highly polyembryonic but there can be 1-40 zygotic seedlings in the seedbed.

The rootstocks are known to have a profound effect on the vigour, productivity, precocity, fruit quality and tree longevity of scion varieties grafted or budded onto them. They also influence the susceptibility of scion trees to various diseases and pests. It is well recognised that optimum performance of scion varieties depends on the proper selection of rootstocks for a given set of agro-climatic conditions. To achieve success in orcharding, always select a right type of rootstock for the particular fruit or variety. In addition, it is important to raise the stock seedlings in a proper manner so that there is good germination and the stock seedlings are ready for budding/grafting in the shortest possible time. Rootstock seeds of desired fruits and varieties must be ensured from reliable sources.

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) represented as ‘Food of Gods’ is considered as an important beverage crop next to Tea and Coffee. The economic produce of cocoa is the bean, when it is fermented and dried, become the source for chocolate. Cocoa is native to Amazon basin of South America and is domesticated and distributed to different regions by the natives Mayas, Aztecs and Pipil- Nicaraos (Wood and Lass, 1955; Young, 1994) who consumed it as an energy drink called ‘xocoatl’ by roasting and grinding cocoa beans. When Spanish conquered Mexico in 16th century they took cocoa to Europe which is christened as ‘chocolate’ the worlds’ favourite food. From then on cocoa spread to many other countries (Wood, 1991). According to World Cocoa Foundation, currently 40–50 million people depend on cocoa for their livelihood and the production is 3.97 mt in which Africa contributes 71%, Latin America 14% and Asia and Oceania 14% (Jean Marc Anga, 2013). Ivory Coast is the major producer followed by Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Brazil. In Asian continent, Indonesia and Malaysia are the leading producers (www.wcf.org.).

The Para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is the most important commercial source of natural rubber, a strategic raw material. Rubber is an indispensable commodity used in the manufacture of over 50,000 products worldwide. This crop has therefore emerged as a key plantation species in various countries. The global area under rubber  cultivation is about 9.6 million hectares producing 9.2 million tones annually (IRSG, 2014). Among the major natural rubber producing countries, India occupies 4th position in terms of production with 0.91 million tones and more significantly the first position in average productivity of 1823 kg/ha/year. The major rubber producing countries are Thailand, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Rubber is also commercially cultivated in Philippines, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote de Ivoire, Liberia, Brazil, Cambodia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Guatemala, Myanmar, Mexico, China, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Papua New Guinea.Increase in production and improving productivity of NR continues to be the subject of considerable research efforts, particularly in the context of the widening gap between demand and supply of natural rubber. Over one million small farmers  in India owning less than 0.5 ha. of land depend on rubber cultivation for a livelihood.

Transgenic plants are those plants, in which a foreign gene(s) has/have been introduced and stably integrated into the genome. The inserted gene sequence is known as Transgene. Almost three decades ago, in early 1983, the first cloning of the recombinant genes in tobacco signified the beginning of plant molecular biology in its own right. Since then the number of genes transferred and studied in plants has increased exponentially and the first transgenic crop (‘FlavrSavr’ tomato) was commercialized on May 18, 1994. However, the impact of transgenic crops was perceptible only after 1995 when transgenic maize, soybean and cotton were released for cultivation in USA.

Vedic literature indicates that the energy in the universe gets transmitted into the human body through star galaxies. The star galaxies of our universe are divided into 27 parts each signified by a particular star (nakshatra). Every human being is assigned to a particular star by virtue of his birth time.  Each star is associated with a tree. The tree associated with his star gives the universal energy to the human being. Thus astrology gives us a chance to identify the tree which is auspicious to us, being associated with our birth star. When one plants the tree associated with his birth star near his dwelling, it will bring good luck and prosperity to him.

Renewable energy sources, are the sources of power that quickly replenish and which can be used again and again. For this reason they are sometimes called energy resources. The main sources of renewable energy and their advantages and disadvantages are :

Solar
Energy from sunlight is captured in solar panels and converted into electricity.  Potentially it is an infinite source of energy supply, but the solar panels are costly.

Bonsai first appeared in China over a thousand years ago on a very basic scale, known as pun-sai, where it was the practice of growing single specimen trees in pots. These early specimens displayed sparse foliage and rugged gnarled trunks which often looked like animals, dragons and birds.

With Japan’s adoption of many cultural trademarks of China, bonsai was also introduced to Japan during the Kamakura period (1185-1333) by means of Zen Buddhism, which at that time was rapidly spreading around Asia. Once bonsai was introduced into Japan, the art was refined to an extent not yet approached in China. Over time, bonsai, which was confined to the Buddhist monks and their monasteries, were introduced as a symbol of prestige and honour. It became an important part of Japanese life by being displayed on specially designed shelves.  For the Japanese, bonsai represents a fusion of strong ancient beliefs with the Eastern philosophies of the harmony between man, the soul and nature.