eChapters

1.    List of Spices
    
2.    Biotechnological Interventions in Spices
    
3.    Micropropagation
    
4.    Protocols for in vitro Multiplication of Some Spices
    
5.    Factors Affecting Large Scale Propagation Systems
    
6.    Field Performance of Tissue Culture Plants
    
7.    Other Tissue Culture Techniques
    
8.    Secondary Metabolites Production
    
9.    in vitro Germplasm Conservation
    
10.    Somaclonal Variation
    
11.    Molecular Marker Studies
    
12.    Disease Diagnostics
    
13.    Genetic Engineering
    
14.    Identification of Adulterants
    
15.    Future Prospects
        
References

12.1    Shelf Life
    
12.2    Pre-Treatments Vs. Shelf Life/Storage (Hot Water, Fungicides, Coatings and other Chemicals)
    
12.3    Surface Coatings
    
12.4    1-MCP Gas Exposure
    
12.5    Use of Botanicals
    
12.6    Other Chemicals/Methods
    
12.7    Evaporative Cool Storage
    
12.8    Modified Atmosphere Storage (MAS)
    
12.9    Controlled Atmosphere Storage (CAS)
    
12.10    Vacuum Packaging
    
12.11    Hypobaric Storage
    
12.12    Irradiation
    
12.13    Chilling Injury (CI)

INTRODUCTION
 
Once a crop is harvested, it is almost impossible to improve its quality. Therefore, proper storage conditions—temperature and humidity—are needed to lengthen storage life and maintain quality once the crop has been cooled to the optimum storage temperature. In modern times, the storage of perishables has become more sophisticated because of the demand for a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables at all the times of the year and because of need to spread peaks of production over longer periods to maximize profit and reduce waste. But in our conditions, storage of fruits and vegetables is practiced to avoid the low prices during the glut season in anticipation that prices will increase during the lean period or off-season. Certain crops like potatoes and apples can be stored for long period whereas for the crops peach and plum, the storage period is very short. However, for both long-term as well as short-term storage, high level of technical know-how about the crop is necessary for successful storage. There are a few important factors, which need to be taken into account before storage of the produce.

INTRODUCTION

The modern cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is one of the most widely distributed soft fruits of the world due to its genotypic diversity, highly heterozygous nature and broad range of environmental adaptations. It is one of the most delicious and refreshing soft fruit. Its plant is cherished in gardens as well as in commercial fields for its beautiful red fruit that has tantalizing aroma. Being nutritionally rich, strawberry has now become an important table fruit of millions of people around the globe. Its fruit is different from other fruits as their seeds are produced on outside of the fruit. Strawberry is unique fruit crop, which gives quicker and very high return per unit area on the capital investment, as the crop is ready for harvesting within six months of planting.

The strawberry fruits are highly perishable in nature and need quick disposal after harvest thus it has remarkable scope for its cultivation near the towns, cities and processing units where the fruits can be utilized or processed immediately after harvest. Over the last few years, continuous progress has been made in strawberry cultivation due to the use of micropropagation technique for plant propagation, day neutral cultivar, protected cultivation for multiple crops in a year and low tunnels in open field, which are useful for exploiting the tremendous potential of this small fruit crop.

Abstract

Vegetable cultivation has been threatened due to limited availability of arable land and frequent vagaries of environment and incidence of soil borne pests and diseases. Development of stress tolerant or climate smart cultivars through conventional breeding methods or dependence upon agrochemicals for mitigation of pest and disease problems for vegetable crops have been practised since time immemorial. Salinity in coastal belts, high or low temperature injury, bacterial wilt in solanaceous vegetables, Fusarium wilt and nematode infestation in cucurbits are common of the many maladies which have caused tremendous loss in productivity and quality of vegetable crops throughout the globe. 

INTRODUCTION

The planning of new orchard is very important aspect of fruit glowing which needs special attention and care to make it more profitable venture. The climate and soil of particular area are the major chief natural factors in the orchard establishment. The proper combination of this governs the success of fruit growing
 
A. SUITABILTY OF CLIMATE FOR FRUIT PLANTS

Climate refers to an average condition of the atmosphere over a long period, whereas, the term weather refers to the current and temporary atmospheric conditions of an area. Climate is the principal factor for optimum vegetative and reproductive growth of plants. The success or failure of crop in a particular locality depends upon the prevailing climatic conditions. In our environment it is fundamental force which includes various components of climate like temperature, humidity, wind, light, rainfall, hail and frost. These factors should be taken care of for successful fruit production. All cultivated crops including fruit crops have certain natural threshold limits of the climatic parameters for their normal growth. The important climatic components which affect fruit crop production are given below:

Introduction

India is gifted with varied agro-climatic conditions for growing an array of vegetable crops to combat the present ill-balanced diet. The brinjal belongs to the family Solanaceous and to the genus Solanum, species melongena. The egg plant, Guinea squash are some synonyms to brinjal. It is a hardy crop and does best in worm and moist climate. The crop is generally grown twice or thrice in a year. The edible part, fruit is of high nutritive value and can well be compared with tomatoes. Insect pest constitute the major limiting factors in the successful production of brinjal. Pest comples of brinjal is very high and aphid (Aphis gossypii) causes heavy damage to the crop. Aphis gossypii (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a tiny insect or greenfly in the superfamily Aphidoidea in the order Hemiptera. It is a true bug and sucks sap from plants. It is a widely distributed pest of a variety of agricultural crops in the families Cucurbitaceae, Rutaceae and Malvaceae.

Abstract

Being a great nutrient rich fruit, Dragon fruit has fetched a worldwide attention already and started to emerge as an important cash crop in global market. But the fine tuning between the scheduling of supply and market demand is greatly influenced by postharvest management and storage techniques of the fruit as the fruit has a short storage life. In this review, effect of diversified storage and packaging techniques on the different post harvest quality of fruits viz. fruit firmness, skin colour, its nutritional quality and susceptibility to disease pest during storage is investigated. And it was seen that various alternative and innovative modern techniques such as introduction of  plastic film, plastic crate packaging, modified atmospheric storage, different chemical application and application of edible chitosan coating are proven as effective to extent the durability of storage that widen the room for transport and marketing. Finally it can be said that the advantage of growth in dragon fruit consumption and marketing can be more harnessed through understanding the missing links between harvest and post-harvest handlings and integrating the traditional and modern postharvest approaches.

Introduction

Canning is the general term applied to the process of packaging a food in a container and subjecting it to a thermal process for the purpose of extending its useful life. An optimal thermal process will destroy pathogenic (disease-causing) Bacteria, kill or control spoilage organism present and have mineral impact on the nutritional and physical quality of the food. Although we thing of canning in term of steel or possible aluminium cans, the principle apply equally well to a variety of food containers such as glass jar, plastic and foil laminated pouches, semi rigid plastic tray or bowls, as well as metal cans of any one of several shapes, including cylindrical, oval, oblong or rectangular. The concept of aseptic packaging (sterilizing the food and the container prior to filling and sealing) also follows the same principles.

INTRODUCTION

The avocado (Persea americana Mill) is the highly nutritive fruit. Its common names are alligator pear or butter fruit in English; Aguacate, Palta in Spanish and Avokado in Afrikaans. It is an evergreen sub-tropical fruit. 

NUTRITIVE AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

Avocado is the most nutritive among fruits. The pulp is rich in proteins and fat, but low in carbohydrates. Avocados have the highest energy value of 245 cal/100 g and reservoir of several vitamins and minerals. Avocado is rich in copper and iron, potassium and is associated with lower blood pressure as it is high in monounsaturated fat. It contains all amino acids. Another benefit is avocados shown to maintain good cholesterol while reducing bad cholesterol and triglyceride level.. Avocado is considered healthy for heart ,good for digestion and vision. It is a natural detoxification fruit and may help in preventing osteoporosis
Avocado is mainly used fresh, in sandwich filling or in salads. It can also be used in ice creams and milk shakes and the pulp may be preserved by freezing. The fat in avocado is similar to olive oil in composition and is widely used in the preparation of cosmetics.

INTRODUCTION

The ber or Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) in the most common fruit crop grown in arid and irrigated zones of Indian sub-continent. It is one of ancient fruits of India which is cultivated practically all over the country for its fresh consumption. Ber is a tropical as well as subtropical fruit and can be successfully cultivated even in the most marginal eco-system of tropics and subtropics. Ber is a hardy fruit tree and is best known for growing under adverse soil and climatic conditions. It can thrive well even in drought, water-logged and salinity conditions. It is common notion among the people that ber is a poor man’s fruit. It is one of the most nutritious fruit compared to other ones. The grafted varieties of ber fetch even higher price in the market than several other fruits. Hence, ber stands no longer the poor man’s fruit. Now, ber growing has received a great attention and preferred as a commercial fruit crop in North Indian states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh on account of its potential for higher yield and good economic return to the growers. Moreover, the tree has less water need in the summer months during the period of dormancy, thus considered an ideal fruit for cultivation in the arid and semi-arid regions of North India. Apart from ber, no other fruit trees grow wild so extensively in this region, thus it is becoming popular among the growers.

INTRODUCTION

Plant tissue culture is basically in vitro culturing of any type of explants such as leaf, root, bud and stem or even single cell except the seed or embryo on a suitable culture medium under controlled environmental conditions. Plant tissue culture employs the totipotency of plant cells to produce whole plant. The term totipotency was coined by German plant physiologist, Haberlandt (1902) who is known as father of tissue culture techniques.

Definition of Micropropagation

Micropropagation is one of the best and most successful examples of commercial application of tissue culture techniques. The concept of micropropagation was first presented to the scientific community in 1960 by Morel, who produced the virus-free cymbidium through meristem culture. It entails in vitro propagation of plants starting with very small plant parts (0.2-10mm) grown aseptically, followed by their establishment in soil under green house conditions. It is the art and science of plant multiplication in vitro. This technique has been standardized and commercialized for various fruits and vegetable crops.

4.1    Importance of Banana in International Trade
    
4.2    Major Exporting Countries
    
4.3    Major Importing Countries
    
4.4    World Market Structure for Fresh Bananas
    
4.5    Domestic Trade
    
4.6    Banana Trade Wars : A Glimpse
    
4.7    Fair Trade Bananas

In post-harvest management of horticultural crops, post-harvest treatments play an important role in maintaining the quality and enhancing the shelf life. There are number of treatments viz non-chemical, chemical and biological treatments which are being used commercially depending on the requirement of trade. Fresh fruits are living tissues subject to continuous change after harvest. Some changes are desirable from consumer point of view but most are not. Post-harvest changes in fresh fruit cannot be stopped, but these can be slowed down within certain limits to enhance the shelf life of fruits
 
1. Low Temperature Treatment

Pre-cooling: Pre-cooling refers to the rapid removal of field heat from freshly harvested fruits in order to slow ripening and reduce the deterioration prior to storage and transportation. The major effect of pre-cooling consists in reducing respiration rate, retarding the growth of decay organisms and reduces wilting and shrivelling, since transpiration and evaporation occur more slowly at low temperature. The harvesting of many perishable crops is done at evening or early morning to avoid excessive field heat.

1.    Botanical Background/Classification
    
2.    Nutritive and Medicinal Values of Fruits
    
3.    Genetic Resources
    
4.    Plant Propagation
    
5.    Design and Orchard Management
    
6.    Physiology of Fruit Trees
        
References

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most important tropical fruits of the world and is commonly known as the ‘King of fruits’ for its high quality fruits which are very popular among the Indians (Sharma et al., 2008). It is an oldest and extensively cultivated fruit crop in India having high socio-economic significance. India is the home of about more than 1000 mango varieties, which originated in the Indo-Burma region (Mukherjee, 1958). India is the largest producer of mango, grown in about 2.3 million hectares with an annual production of 15.02 million tonnes. However, its productivity is only 6.5 tonnes ha against 30 tonnes per ha in Israel. Improvement of productivity in mango continues to be the foremost issue in mango production (Sauco, 1993). Of late, all the mango importing countries are considering the India as a source of quality mangoes due to its varietal wealth and availability. Hence, it is imperative to improve the productivity and quality of Indian mangoes to meet the global need (Balamohan and Gopu, 2014).

Abstract

We studied the mathematic model of “predator-prey” and„ pest-parasite”. Under the circumstances when these two specious coexist in particular conditions. In that case the components of the system continuously change. We describe the system by two differential equations which conclude into numeral equation by integrators and variables. According these equations we calculate some numeral formulations essential to these changeable populations.
  
We produce the prevalence of predator-prey systems by using analytic and quantitatic methods for massive rage of data. This process as usual is described by the differential equation consisting assembling point. The constructed phase portrait which we need to solve the problem is found by Runge-Kuta method. So the article speaks about the conformity with a law which we receive by permanent change of parameters’ menaings and temporal changes of biological systems’ conditions.

When there is no positive steady state both prey and predator can become extinct. In one particular case both species become extinct regardless on the initial data. In the second, both species will die out only if initial prey/predator ratio is too low. Otherwise, only the predator goes extinct, while prey tends to carrying capacity.

Water is most essential thing to sustain life for plants, human and animals. In fact, land and water are the two important natural resources, which play an important role in horticulture production. Irrigation is the lifeline for any crop production. As Pomegranate is mostly grown under water scarce regions of India, so utilization of available water more effective and efficient irrigation system is need along micro-irrigation system offers the way of using water in a most judicious fashion for irrigation purpose. It is based on the elementary concept on irrigating root zone rather than entire land surface which results in higher water use efficiency and improved crop yield. This technique is now being used to mitigate water scare situation in the pomegranate growing regions of the country in enormous way.

16.1    Banana Alcohol
    
16.2    Banana Pseudostem Fibre and Fibre Reinforced Products
    
16.3    Banana Pseudostem Juice
    
16.4    Banana Starch
    
16.5    Banana Waste for Mushroom Production
    
16.6    Paper and Pulp from Banana Waste
    
16.7    Vermicompost and Vermiwash from Banana Waste
    
16.8    Animal Feed from Banana Waste
    
16.9    Banana Leaf

Introduction

Horticulture plays a significant role in Indian Agriculture. It contributes 30% GDP from 11.73 % of its arable land area. India is the second largest producer of both fruits and vegetables in the world (52.85 Mt and 108.20 Mt respectively). Being rich source of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and dietary fibres these constitute an important part of our daily diet. The dietary fibres have several direct and indirect advantages. Not only this, fruits and vegetables provide a variety in taste, interest and aesthetic appeal. Their significance in human life is being recognised increasingly in societies with the objective of minimizing the occurrence of the diseases related with an affluent life style.