eChapters

1. What is the main negative impact of physiological disorders on root crops?

a) Deterioration of quality and visual characteristics

 b) Nutritional imbalance

 c) Decrease in yield

 d) None of these

2. Forking is a common physiological disorder of which root crop?

a) Radish

c) Beetroot

b) Carrot

 d) Turnip

19.1 INTRODUCTION

Roselle is a perennial shrub but grown as an annual. In the seventeenth century, the vegetable types were introduced to India and the United States of America. It is locally known as Mesta or Meshta in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the important fibre crops, which stands next to jute in production. In India, mesta is grown in larger parts covering areas from Karnataka to Tripura including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Meghalaya. However, Andhra Pradesh has maximum area under mesta in the country. In many tropical regions, it is a popular vegetable, which is cultivated for its leaves, stems, seeds and calyces. Tender young leaves are eaten as a vegetable and the red calyces surrounding the fruit can be used to prepare non-alcoholic beverages and as colouring reagent for jelly, jam, and beverages. The stem is utilised for extraction of fibre. The plant stalks are used in making paper pulp, structural boards, as a blend for wood pulp and thatching huts. The leaves are a source of mucilage used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Culinary cultivars are many branched, bushy and generally 1-2 m tall.

19.2 CHOICE OF CULTIVARS

Roselle is cultivated as a vegetable as well as fibre crop. In the beginning the tender leaves, stems and calyces are consumed. In the later stage it is used for fibre. The details of cultivars developed by different institutes and State Agricultural Universities for various uses are given below

19.1 Introduction

Roselle is a perennial shrub but grown as an annual. In the seventeenth century, the vegetable types were introduced to India and the United States of America. It is locally known as Mesta or Meshta in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the important fibre crops, which stands next to jute in production. In India, mesta is grown in larger parts covering areas from Karnataka to Tripura including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Meghalaya. However, Andhra Pradesh has maximum area under mesta in the country. In many tropical regions, it is a popular vegetable, which is cultivated for its leaves, stems, seeds and calyces. Tender young leaves are eaten as a vegetable and the red calyces surrounding the fruit can be used to prepare non-alcoholic beverages and as colouring reagent for jelly, jam, and beverages. The stem is utilised for extraction of fibre. The plant stalks are used in making paper pulp, structural boards, as a blend for wood pulp and thatching huts. The leaves are a source of mucilage used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Culinary cultivars are many branched, bushy and generally 1-2 m tall.

Botanical Name: Hevea brasiliensis

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Chromosome No: 2n =36

Place of Origin: Amazon basin in Brazil

Common Name: Rubber tree, Rubber plant, Para rubber tree

11.1 Introduction

Rubber is a fast-growing tropical tree and mainly grown for the production of latex. In 1495, Columbus was the first person to report about latex. The latex was used for rub out pencil marks and this gave the product name as rubber. The latex is used for production of various rubber products. The most important application of latex rubber was initially accomplished in the 1880s when the rubber was used for making motor cars tyres. When rubber is heated with sulphur, it retains the physical properties.

1 The best age for transplanting of brinjal seedlings is: 

 a) 4-5 weeksold b) 1-2 weeksold

 c) 8-9 weeksold d) 10-12 weeksold

2 The recommended seed rate of tomato is: 

 a) 100-200g/ha   b) 1-1.2 kg/ha 

 c) 500-600g/ha   d) 33-4 kg/ha 

3 The best time for sowing tomato is: 

 a) September to October b) Mid-March to April 

 c )  Mid-December to January d) August to September  

The solanaceous group of vegetables (tomato, eggplant, chili and bell peppers) generally take up large amounts of nutrients. The amount of nutrients they take up depends on the quantity of fruit and dry matter they produce, which in turn is influenced by a number of genetic and environmental variables. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) known as Tamatar in Hindi is one of the most popular and widely grown vegetables in the world ranking second in importance to potato in many countries. Tomato is widely grown in almost all parts of India and is adapted to wide range of soil and climate conditions. Tomato is consumed either as raw or cooked and is also very important crop for processing in the form of soups, juice, ketchup, puree, paste and powder. Tomato adds variety of colours and flavour to food.

Tomato is very well known for its nutritive value. Attractive red colour is due to lycopene pigment, pink and yellow colours are due to presence of anthocyanin and carotene pigments. Tomato is rich source of ascorbic acid, which varies from 15-31 mg per 100 g of fresh weight. Tomato also provides minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and sodium. Tomato is also rich in medicinal value. The pulp and juice is digestible, promoter of gastric secretion and blood purifier. It is also considered to be intestinal antiseptic. It is one of the richest vegetables, which keeps our stomach and intestine in good condition.

18.1 INTRODUCTION

Sorrel is a perennial herb, which is found in grassland habitats throughout Europe from the northern Mediterranean coast to the north of Scandinavia and in parts of Central Asia. It is of two types such as Garden sorrel that is a native of Europe and south western Asia and French sorrel that is originated in the mountains of southern France and the southern and central regions of Europe and south-west Asia. The name sorrel is derived from the Germanic word, Sur and the old French word Surele, both meaning sour. It is primarily used as a culinary herb for its leaves, which are used in salads too. The leaf of this plant resembles that of spinach and have a lemony lettuce flavour and the plant is well known for strong acidity in Europe and the United States. Sorrel is a rich source of potassium, iron and vitamins A, B₁ and C. The flavour of sorrel leaves is mainly due to oxalic acid, which is harmless when consumed in small amount. Owing to high level of vitamin C content, it was rightly believed to protect against scurvy disease. It is a dioecious plant, that bears unisexual flowers, as the male and female flowers appear on different plants. When the plant flowers, they look very attractive and are often used as an ornamental plant.

18.2 CHOICE OF CULTIVARS

In India, it is not a common leafy vegetable and is grown on a limited scale, mostly in kitchen gardens. Even in Europe and other countries, different local strains are grown for both home gardening and commercial cultivation. Profusion is a cultivar, which mutated naturally in France and produces only leaves without forming seed, and hence, the plant always has fresh and ready to pick leaves.

18.1 Introduction

Sorrel is a perennial herb, which is found in grassland habitats throughout Europe from the northern Mediterranean coast to the north of Scandinavia and in parts of Central Asia. It is of two types such as Garden sorrel that is a native of Europe and south western Asia and French sorrel that is originated in the mountains of southern France and the southern and central regions of Europe and south-west Asia. The name sorrel is derived from the Germanic word, Sur and the old French word Surele, both meaning sour. It is primarily used as a culinary herb for its leaves, which are used in salads too. The leaf of this plant resembles that of spinach and have a lemony lettuce flavour and the plant is well known for strong acidity in Europe and the United States. Sorrel is a rich source of potassium, iron and vitamins A, B1 and C. The flavour of sorrel leaves is mainly due to oxalic acid, which is harmless when consumed in small amount. Owing to high level of vitamin C content, it was rightly believed to protect against scurvy disease. It is a dioecious plant, that bears unisexual flowers, as the male and female flowers appear on different plants. When the plant flowers, they look very attractive and are often used as an ornamental plant.

The products of the plants which are used as food adjuncts to add taste only is called

A. Spices                   B. Medicinal plants

C. Aromatic plants     D. Condiments

Importance

Ginger is a perennial herbaceous monocotyledon, usually grown as annual, and is known to human as spice as well as medicinal crop. The word Zingiber is thought to come from the Sanskrit word singabera meaning ‘shaped like a horn’. It probably got its name because the rhizomes look like deer’s antlers. It first appeared in the writings of Confucius in the 5^th century B.C.

The economic part is the underground rhizomes, which is pungent and aromatic. It is valued for its medicinal properties and is useful against gastritis, dyspepsia, cold and cough. It is widely used in food, beverages, confectionery, etc. Baby ginger or young ginger results from early harvesting and is a gourmet quality product with a tender, low-fiber texture and is mostly used for pickling. Rhizome contains proteins, fibre, starch, essential oil, Zingiberol, Glutamic acid, Aspartic acid, Glucose, Fructose, and Sucrose. Most ginger varieties have about 3-6% crude fibre, 1.5-3.0% volatile oil and 4-10% oleoresin. The major pungent principle in ginger oleoresin is gingerol. Among the gingerols 6-gingerol, 8gingerol and 10-gingerol are very important in contributing the pungency. Gingerol (Hydroxy methoxy phenyl decanone) on storage gets converted to another compound called shogaol. The age of ginger oleoresin can be assessed based on the shogaol content. Chemically, gingerol is a relative of capsaicin, the compound that gives chilli its spiciness. Cooking ginger transforms gingerol into zingerone, which is less pungent and has a spicy-sweet aroma.

Botanical Name: Camellia sinensis L.

Family: Theaceae

Chromosome No: 30

Place of Origin: China

Common Name: Tea

9.1 Introduction

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) of family Camelliaceae or Theaceae is the oldest and second most widely consumed beverage in the world following water. Tea is an evergreen plant that mainly grows in tropical and subtropical climates. India is world’s 2nd largest tea producer after China with production of 1.25 million tonnes in 2020. In India it is grown in an area of 6 lakh hectares, contributing one fourth of world total tea production annually. Interestingly, India is also the world’s largest consumer of the beverage and using nearly 30 percent of the world’s tea output. India stands third in terms of tea export after Kenya (including neighbouring African countries) and China. The total tea export was US$ 501.16 million in April 2020 to November 2020 and for November 2020 it was US$ 71.61 million.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Tomato is one of the most versatile vegetable with wide usage not only in Indian culinary but also in world cuisines. Despite botanically being a fruit, it is generally eaten and prepared like a vegetable. Tomato is producing a very good source of income to small and marginal farmers and provides nutrition to the growing population. Sometimes, it is called poor man’s orange in India and Love of Apple in England. Tomato is one of the most important “protective foods” because of its special nutritive value. The100 g of edible portion of tomato contains 94.1 g of water,2.5 g of total sugar, 1.0 g of protein, 0.3 g of fat, 4.0 g of carbohydrates, 0.6 g of fibre, vitamin A (1100 I.U), vitamin B (0.20 mg), vitamin C (23 mg), malic acid (150 mg), citric acid (390 mg), oxalic acid (3.5 mg), potassium (268 mg), and phosphorus (27 mg). Tomato is a rich source of minerals, vitamins and organic acid. Tomatoes are the major dietary source of the antioxidant lycopene, which has been linked to many health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. It is used for treating chronic dyspepsia, bronchitis, asthma and also used as a blood purifier. Tomato fruits contain 20-50 mg of lycopene/100 g fruit. Tomatine is a steroidal glycoalkaloid present in tomato. Tomatine content is higher in leaves and f lowers than fruits. Tomatine content is 300 mg/100 g in small hard tomato fruits whereas in large green tomato it is 150mg/100 g. There are various types of f lavouring compounds found in fruits, which enrich the taste;so, several processed items like paste, puree, syrup, juice, ketchup, drinks etc are prepared on large scale. Tomato fruit aroma is due to sulfonium. Tomato acidity is due to citric acid and pH of the tomato juice is 4.5.Tomato is very good appetizer and its soup is said to be a good remedy for patients suffering from constipation. Three f lesh colours are found in tomato, namely, red (lycopene pigment), yellow (carotenoid) and tangerine (prolycopene).Tomato seed oil (24%) is used for manufacture of margarine. About 33% of total tomato growing area is covered by F₁hybrids which is highest among the vegetables grown in India. A book entitled Tomato was written by Dr. G. Kallo in 1986.

1. Potato

Scientific name: Solanum tuberosum L.

Family: Solanaceae

Origin: South America

Chromosome No.: 2n = 4x = 48

Introduction

Potato is one of the four major food crops of the world and is also a very popular vegetable crop. It is extensively cultivated in China, Russian Federation, Ukarine, Poland, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, South America, India and USA. Potato was brought from Peru to Spain by the Spaniards in 1565 when it was widely grown in Spain and Italy. They were probably brought to England about 1586 by Sir Francis Drake. Potato was introduced in India in early 17^th century probably by the Portuguese. Now it is one of the principal cash crops of India.

Importance and use

• Potato is the fourth major food crops of the world after rice, wheat and maize.
• Being a major source of carbohydrate it is often used as a substitute for cereals.
• It is one of the major vegetable crops of the world and is grown in almost every country.
• In India, it is considered as a staple vegetable and used either alone or mixed with other vegetables.
• Potato is used as vegetable in various forms such as, boiled, mashed, baked, fried and cooked in sambar and different curries of vegetable, fish and meat.
• Potato is processed into different commercially used dehydrated, canned and fried products like, shredded potato, sliced potato, chips, flakes, French fries, finger chips, granules, disc, cubes, flour, etc.
• It is used for several industrial purposes such as production of starch, alcohol, dextrin, glucose, etc.
• Potato starch is a large grained starch and contains 25 % amylase and 73 % amylopectin and high phosphate content.

Potato

Potato, Solanum tuberosum L. under the family Solanaceae (Chromosome No. 2n = 4x = 48) is the most important non-grain food crop in the world, ranking 3rd in terms of total production with over 381 million tonnes per year in (FAOSTAT, 2017), after rice and wheat. It is grown in 150 countries spread across both temperate and tropical regions and at elevations from sea level to 4,000 m. It is extensively cultivated in China, Russian Federation, Ukarine, Poland, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, South America, India and USA. Potato was brought from Peru to Spain by the Spaniards in 1565 when it was widely grown in Spain and Italy. They were probably brought to England in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake. Potato was introduced in India in early 17^th century probably by the Portuguese. Now it is one of the principal cash crops of India.

The crop

The subsection Potato is distinguished from all other subsections within the genus Solanum by “true potatoes whose tubers are borne on underground stolons, which are true stems, not roots”. The series tuberosa is characterised by “imparipinnate or simple leaves, forked peduncle, rotate to pentagonal corolla and round berries”.

The species S.tuberosum is characterised by “pedicel articulation placed in the middle third, short calyx lobes arranged regularly, leaves often slightly arched, leaflets always ovate to lanceolate, about twice as long as broad, tubers with well marked dormancy period”

Potato is an annual herbaceous plant and growth habit varies between and within species. The plant has a rosette or semi-rosette habit. The stem is erect in the early stage but becomes spreading and prostrate later on. The leaves are compound and alternate, irregularly odd pinnate. The tuber is an enlarged portion of an underground stem or stolon. Tuber eyes are the buds from which next season’s growth will emerge. Eyes are concentrated near the apical end of the tuber, with fewer near the stolon or basal end. Eye number and distribution are characteristic of the variety.

Potato is mainly propagated vegetatively by means of tubers and sometimes by botanical seeds, i.e., true potato seeds. Potato has a terminal inflorescence consisting of 1-30 (but usually 7-15) flowers, depending on the cultivar. The five petals give the open flower a star shape. A flower also has a pistil that generally protrudes above a cluster of five large, bright yellow anthers. The corolla colour varies from white to complex range of blue, red and purple. Flowers are self-pollinated but also cross pollination take place by insect. Seeds are produced in the fruit which is botanically called berry. Potato fruits, stems and leaves contain glycoalkaloids, the toxic compounds, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine.

India ranks ___________ in area and production of vegetables in the world.

A. First           B. Second

C. Third         D. Fourth

2.1 Soil and Climate

Pomegranate grows well in sandy-loam and well-drained soils having a pH of 7.5. It can also be grown on light soils. Quality and colour development in light soils is good but poor in heavy soils. It tolerates salinity up to 9.00 EC/mm and sodicity 6.78 ESP. Even it can be grown well in slightly saline soils as it is considered a saline-tolerant plant (Patil and Waghmare 1983; Rao and Khandelwal 2001; Ram Asrey et al., 2002). Accumulation of salts, in excess of 0.5% of the soil mass causes dying off of growing roots. Interestingly, application of Paclobutrazol (250 ppm) was reported to reduce salinity damage (Saeed 2005). The presence of water-soluble salts like sulphates and chlorides and ex- changeable sodium negatively affect root formation.

Abstract

India is one among the major fruit producing countries of the world and offers opportunities of women empowerment through quality fruit production, planting material generation and production of value added products. There is a great opportunity to increase and improve the production of tropical, subtropical, and temperate fruits. Underutilized fruits also have a huge potential waiting to be exploited. This will only be possible with a concerted effort by researchers and growers, especially women to improve quality and increase production based on consumer demand and export potential. Women play significant role in fruit production activities. Unfortunately their access to knowledge, technology, finance, information, and training is minimal which hampers productivity of fruit crops. The mode of female participation in agricultural production varies with the land owning status of farm households. Their roles range from managers to landless labourers. In all farm production, women’s average contribution is estimated at 55 percent to 66 percent of the total labour with percentages much higher in certain regions. About 48 percent of India’s self-employed farmers are women. Thus, rural India is witnessing a process of transition which could be described as feminization of agriculture particularly fruit crop cultivation and their post harvest management. Women play an active role in various production and postproduction activities of horticultural crops. The number of women engaged in horticulture has increased continuously in the past two-three decades due to various factors such as migration of men to urban areas in search of non-farm income, increase in the demand of labour force in construction and other sectors. The data on the women involved in horticulture sector are scanty however the involvement of women in various operations of cultivation and post harvest handling and storage is very high because of entrepreneurial nature of horticulture. There is need to adopt collective and SHG approach to take women contributions to socio-economic significance. Thus horticulture, especially the pre-harvest and post harvest management of fruit crops have considerable employment avenues for women and make horticulture an effective subject of women empowerment.

Previous Year Questions

1. Write down the constraints of fruit processing industry in India (10M, CSE 2023)

2. Enlist & Explain the issues & challenges in the growth of food processing industry in India (10M, CSE 2022)

3. Give a detailed account of constraints in sustaining the food-grain production in India. (10M, IFoS 2020)

4. What are the major constraints of food production in India (10 mark, CSE 2020)

5. Describe the food production constraints in Indian agricultural system. (15M, IFoS-2018)

6. Indicate the major constraints in food procurement and distribution. (10M, CSE 2017)

7. Discuss the procurement and processing constraints of food grain. (15M, IFoS-2017)

Biofertilizer is still an unclear term. It can be easily found that biofertilizers are identified as plant extract, composted urban wastes, and various microbial mixtures with unidentified constituents, and chemical fertilizer formulations supplemented with organic compounds. Likewise, the scientific literature has a very open interpretation of the term biofertilizer representing everything from manures to plant extracts.  Quality control of biofertilizers involves several major aspects such as isolation and identification of various strains, screening of the pure isolated strains, fermentation and quality control and finished product.