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Commercial capers are the immature flower buds, which have been pickled in vinegar or preserved in granular salt; they are used raw or cooked as condiment in different recipes. Semi- mature fruits (caper berries) and young shoots with small leaves may also be use as a condiment in salads or as an appetizer before meal. Capers and caper plants, wild and/or cultivated, are used in almost all the area of Capparis subgenus Capparis, extending from West Africa to the Norfolk islands in the Pacific, and most of the species are of alimentary or medicinal interest (Rivera, Inocencio, Obón & Alcaraz, 2003).

Capparis is a term coined by Theophrastus (4th cent. BC) and validated by Dioscorides (1st cent. AD) (Êáððáñéò), although it seems not to have come into wide use until the spread of the Arab world.
 
Caper and its relatives in several European languages can be traced back to Classical Latin Capparis “caper”. Latin Capparis, in turn, was loaned from Greek kapparis [êáððáñéò], whose origin (as that of the plant) is unknown but probably West or Central Asia. Another theory links kapparis to the name of the island Cyprus (Kypros [Êáðñïò]), where capers grow abundantly.

The carambola, Averrhoa carambola L., is believed to have originated in Malaysia and the Molucca but it has been cultivated in southeast Asia for many centuries. It belongs to the family Oxalidaceae. The carambola, Averrhoa carambola L., is usually called balimbing, belimbing, or belimbing manis (“sweet belimbing”), to distinguish it from the bilimbi or belimbing asam, A. bilimbi L. In Ceylon and India, the carambola has the alternate names of kamaranga, kamruk, or other variants of the native kamrakh.

Cultivars/Varieties: Sweet and sour forms are recognized a cultivar in India. In countries like Australia, Japan, Taiwan and, USA named cultivars are grown.

Uses

Fruits are mainly used for dessert purpose. Slightly unripe fruits are used for jelly and pickle. Unripe fruit is also used for dying as it contains potassium oxalate. It is a popular substitute for tamarind in cooking. The acid types of carambola have been used to clean and polish metal, especially brass, as they dissolve tarnish and rust. The juice will also bleach rust stains from white cloth. Unripe fruits are used in place of a conventional mordant in dyeing. Carambola wood is white, becoming reddish with age; close-grained, medium-hard. It has been utilized for construction and furniture.

Carambola or starfruit is native to Indonesia. The fruit has ridges running down its sides (usually five) which in cross-section resembles a star, hence its also known as starfruit. It has a waxy, golden yellow to green coloured skin with a complicated flavour combination that includes plums, pineapples and lemons. Carambola consists of two main types of varieties viz.  sour and sweet. The sour types contain as much as 1 per cent acid and the sweet types have low acid (0.4 per cent) content with 5 per cent sugars.

Genus : Averrhoa 
Species : carambola L.
Family : Oxalidaceae
Chromosome No. : 2n= 22, 24

According to a Dutch traveller Linschoten (1598) has described carambola as a ‘fruit with eight distinct corners as big as a small apple, sour in taste, resembles an unripe plum. The Chinese and Hindus eat this fruit as vegetable when green and as a fruit (dessert) when ripe. Carambola is esteemed in the Orient and is wide spread in the tropics. The bilimbi is a close relative to Carambola and in every livelihood is native of Malayan region and is considered as the only cultivated species. The fruit is very acidic in taste, and in appearance resemble cucumber.

Carambola (Averrhoa carambola) is a fruit of warm tropical and sub- tropical areas of the world. The fruit is oblong with three to six longitudinal ribs, resulting in a star shaped cross section when cut. Usually they have five ribs which give rise to common name of ‘five corners’ or ‘star fruit’. The tree is medium-sized, attractive and evergreen growing to about 10m. The fruit has emerged as an interesting addition to the table fruit, not only as fresh fruit, but also for its juice, decorative uses and sherbet qualities.

Consumption of fruit and vegetables has dramatically increased globally during the past a few decades. These are living perishable biological entities which perform a number of metabolic functions and have a short life span. Once the fruit is harvested, respiration and transpiration continue, but only for as long as the fruit can draw on its own food reserves and moisture. It is this limited ability to continue vital metabolic functions which define fruit as perishable. It is also estimated that about 20% of all fruits and vegetables produced are lost each year due to spoilage. The process of the fruit spoilage is just the decomposition of the fruit itself. Once harvested, this begins to deteriorate until eventually it becomes unfit for consumption. This deterioration is known as decay and that leads to spoilage. Latter may be defined as “any sensory change (physical, visual, olfactory or flavour) which the consumer considers to be unacceptable. The gradual changes which cause deterioration and decay in fruits are due to certain organisms and chemicals present in the food and outside the food. Carbohydrates play a major role in the fruit spoilage process (Prasanna et al., 2007) by way of depolymerization leading to decreased molecular size with concomitant increase in the levels of ripening inducing specific enzymes, whose target differ from fruit to fruit. The major classes of cell wall polysaccharides that undergo modifications during ripening are pectins, cellulose, starch, and hemicelluloses (Hallet et al., 2005). The focus of this chapter is to provide information about carbohydrate metabolism during fruit spoilage.

Food is composed of three main constituents viz; carbohydrates, proteins and fats and their derivatives. In addition to these constituents, inorganic mineral elements and diverse organic compounds like vitamins, pigments, flavouring compounds, enzymes, and acids are also present. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vitamins are organic in nature. The percentage of water is large in certain foods. The variation in structure, texture, colour, flavour and nutritive value is because of the varying proportions and arrangements of these constituents.

Carbohydrates are important in foods as a major source of energy, to impart crucial textural properties, and as dietary fiber which influences physiological processes. Digestible carbohydrates, which are converted into monosaccharides, which are absorbed, provide metabolic energy. Carbohydrates account for more than 70% of the caloric value of the human diet. It is recommended that all persons should limit calories from fat to not more than 30% and that most of the carbohydrate calories should come from starch. Non-digestible polysaccharides (all other than starch) comprise the major portion of dietary fiber.

Global climate changing has been a focus for a long time in many fields, the increasing CO₂ concentration in atmosphere was considered as one main driving force for global warming. The increases in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere contributed to raise concerns over climate change enhanced the role of forests and plantations in the global carbon cycle are growing as a great issue. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of the main greenhouse gases because a huge volume of CO₂ is added to the atmosphere, when compare to all other greenhouse gases and made itself as a primary agent of global warming. It contributed 72 per cent of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gases, causing between 9-26 per cent of the greenhouse effect (Kiehl and Trenberth, 1997). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there has been an unprecedented warming trend during the 20th century. Scientists now have estimated that the average global surface temperature is likely to rise by 1.4 to 5.8°C by the end of the 21^st century (IPCC 2007).

The IPCC estimates that the level of carbon dioxide in today’s atmosphere is 31 per cent higher than it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution about 250 years ago. An atmospheric level of CO₂ has risen from 280 ppm at the pre-industrial to the present level of 375 ppm. Most of the increase has occurred in the second half of the 20^th century. The mitigation of climate change demands, determined commitment of scientists to develop strategies to effectively manage the issues of the changing climate through carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is ought to be a promising solution for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas.

Cardamom thrips: Sciothrips cardamomi: Thripidae

Thysanoptera

This thrips attacks other crops like amomum,  tea, colocasia, grapevine, castor, cotton, ginger and turmeric also. The thrips are minute greyish brown insects with fringed wings. They breed on unopened leaves, spindles, leaf sheath, flower bracts and floral tubes .

The young seedling stock and rooted cuttings as well as nursery plants require proper care and nourishment. The operations to be performed regularly in nurseries are as follows.

1. Shifting of plants: The nursery plants grown in the pots or polybags are to be shifted once in 2-3 months to avoid root penetration into the soil. If the taproot penetrates deep into the soil, the chances of mortality increases. Hence shifting of grafts and potted plants has to be done at the said intervals
2. Removal of rootstock sprouts: Once has to keep a constant watch on the sprouts arising on the rootstock, which are to be nipped off as and when, observed, to encourage rapid growth of scion shoots.
3. Irrigation: The young tender seedlings are exacting in their water requirement. Proper and judicious irrigation is an important indicator of a healthy nursery, which solves many problems in the nursery. There are many methods adopted in nurseries. However, it depends upon water availability, kind of nursery plants and its growth stage, etc. These methods are flow or flood irrigation, furrow irrigation, overhead irrigation through rose cans, automizers or sprinkler systems, etc.

Aphids: Myzus persicae : Aleyrodidae

Aphids are considered as the most serious pest of carnation. Both adults and nymphs suck sap from the leaves and debilitate the plants. They transmit carnation ring spot and carnation mosaic virus disease. They are thus more important as vectors. Regular monitoring for the incidence of the aphid and spot spray-ings of contact insecticides on the shoot tips can easily manage the pest.

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is popularly called the ‘Gold mine’ of wasteland. It’s presumed that cashew was originally introduced into India by Portuguese travelers within the sixteenth century mainly for checking erosion on the coast. Initially, it absolutely was considered as an acceptable crop for conservation, afforestation and wasteland development but gradually gained the commercial importance.

Area and Distribution

In India cashew is being grown in an area of 10.62 lakh hectares with total production of 8.17 lakh MT of raw nuts and unit area productivity of 753 kg/ha. India is that the largest producer of raw cashew contributing around 20 per cent of total production of the globe. The foremost distribution of cashew in India is within the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Orissa along the geographic region and a few extents within the states of state, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and North East states. The assembly and productivity of the cashew is highest within the states of Maharashtra. The best average productivity of the Maharashtra is about 1318 kg/ha followed by West Bengal and Kerala in country. India is that the major exporter of cashew Kernels and earns a large amount of overseas exchange to the tune of `5,871 crores each year. The country exports cashew kernel to quite sixty countries mainly to USA, UAE, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Japan. A complete of 1.19 lakh MT of cashew kernels was exported to those countries additionally to other byproducts like cashew shell liquids etc. (Anonymous, 2017–18). India is also the second largest exporter of shelled cashew (kernels) in the world and follows Vietnam.

The English name of cashewnut derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, Caju. It is native to the coastal areas of north-eastern Brazil. It was introduced in Goa by the Portuguese in the 16th century mainly to control soil erosion and to use in afforestation programmes but now it has become an important cash crop of Goa. The fruit of the cashew tree is an oval or pear-shaped accessory fruit known as ‘cashew apple’ sometimes called a pseudocarp or false fruit which develops from the receptacle of the cashew flower.  The cashew nut is a popular snack with a rich flavour that is often eaten on its own, lightly salted or sugared. Cashew nuts are also sold covered in chocolate. In Goa, the cashew apple is mashed and juice is extracted and kept for fermentation to prepare beverage called fenny. 

Genus : Anacardium 
Species : occidentale L.
Family : Anacardiaceae 
Chromosome No. : 2n =42

This delicious nut fruit of family Anacardiaceae is unique in number of ways firstly for fruits brilliant shades of colour (yellow to dark red-scarlet) characteristic aroma makes it one of the most enticing of tropical fruits. Secondly it multiplies and grows very fast and produces in abundance its attractive handsome fruits. Thirdly the cashew fruit is very peculiar for at the first look the swollen peduncle and disc (cashew apple) is taken to be the real fruit, a fact which is not true. The real fruit of commerce is the kidney shaped nut attached to the lower portion of the cashew apple. The English name cashew is adapted from Portuguese word ‘Caju’. India is one of the major cashew producer and exporter.

• Cashew kernel contains 47% fat, 21% protein and 22% carbohydrates.
• Cashew kernel does not have cholesterol.
• Collection of fallen nuts is known as Gllining.
• India is the largest producer as well exporter of raw cashew nut.
• The USA is the largest importer of cashew nut kernels in the world.
• Cashew is restricted to altitude below 700 m where the temperature does not fall below 20°C for prolong period.
• pH more than 8.0 is not suitable for its commercial cultivation.
• Pruning period: August-September
• Steam method is the most popular method of roasting.
• Best quality whole kernels kernels are obtained from drum roasting.
• Maximum recovery of oil is done using oil bath roasting.
• Inflorescence: Polygamomonocious
• Cashew nut is the III most important agriculture commodity exported from India.
• Broma dryer is a commonly used drier for drying of the kernel.
• The moisture content of the dried kernelranges between 2% to 4%.

The Tea mosquito bug : Helopeltis antonii : Miridae

The host range of this bug also includes tea, neem, moringa and guava. The attack can cause inflorescence blight, terminal drying of young shoots and heavy yield loss. The adult is a reddish brown bug with black head, red thorax, and black and white abdomen. The easiest identifying character for this pest is a pin like process on the scutellum mid dorsally on the thorax. It is reddish brown, erect and knobbed, and would seem as a pin inserted into the scutellum.

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale), is an evergreen tree in the family Anacardiaceae. It is grown for its edible fruits (nuts). Cashew originates from North-East Brazil (Salam and Peter, 2010). As a fast growing woody perennial, is characterized by spreading branches. Cashew trees can reach a height of 12 m and have an economic lifespan of 25 years. A Canopy of cashew develops irregular if not checked properly. In later stage, its canopy shape and size become difficult to manage (Nalini et al., 1999). Manipulation of canopy size and shape by means of pruning and training for its containment and better yield was not felt as a necessary orchard management technique for cashew. Majority of the older plantations are of seedling origin of non-descript material and have poor genetic potentiality. They have become senile. Such plantations can be rejuvenated provided they are managed properly and not very old (Gurupasand et al., 2012). If the plantations are of improved varieties having good genetic make-up such plantations can be rejuvenated by limb pruning or if they are genetically low yielders they need to be top-worked by beheading and grafting with better material for improving the yield performance.

Cashewnut, Anacardium occidentale is one of the important plantation crops grown for its delicious kernel. It is mostly grown in coastal belts of South-West and South-East India including the states like Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal and also in the non-traditional areas including inlands of central India and parts of Northeastern regions. It is an important cash crop and has attained the status of export-oriented commodity. In India alone around 200 insect pests have been reported on cashew causing damage during different stages of crop growth. Stem and root borer and Tea mosquito bugs, blossom webber and leafminer pests of economic importance, the details of which is given hereunder:

Stem and root borer, Plocaederus ferrugineus L. and P. obesus Gahan (Cerambycidae: Coleoptera)

It is a very serious pest of cashew in both east and west coasts of India. It is also recorded on sapota, drumstick and citrus trees. Among the two species, P. ferrugineus is the commonly occurring species. Eggs are pale white, ovoid and smooth measuring about 4.5 x 2.0mm. The grubs are stout, fleshy ivory yellow with dark brown head and wrinkled body without legs, and measures 75mm in length, when full grown. The adult of P. ferrugineus is a medium sized (2540mm) dark brown longicorn beetle

Cassava scale : Aonidomytilus albus: Diaspididae

White elongated scales appear in colonies on stems. Plants die in the field and under storage.  Stem becomes weak and dry, causing side branching to give bushy appearance.  Viability of planting material is reduced, resulting in poor establishment.

The low productivity of perennial fruits has been attributed to various factors, like small size of holdings, preponderance of old and senile trees and poor management of inputs such as water, nutrients and pesticides. Thickly-shaded mango orchards in Malihabad areas of Uttar Pradesh (Kalloo et al., 2005; Mishra, 2013), lanky as well as sick tall unproductive litchi orchards in Muzaffarpur and its adjoining areas in Bihar (Kumar, 2008), seedling orchards of guava and citrus fruits throughout the country, including disease-affected aonla and other perennial fruit plantations are commonly seen in large tracts in different parts of the country (Pandey et al., 2013; Singh 2007). In pomegranate, the old orchards become non- productive due to incidence of pests and diseases, and negligence (Hiwale, 2009).

The traditional trend of orcharding for most of the tropical and subtropical evergreen perennial fruit trees, in general, are regarded as not responsive to pruning. However, a number of observations made in recent decades have conclusively proved the effectiveness of this important operation in maintaining the sustained fruit yield and keeping the plant well within manageable limits. The efforts have been made to deal perennial fruits in quite details wherever deemed necessary. Climatic factors have been found to affect significantly on fruit bearing as a result of pruning treatments. Though, this aspect is one of the most misconceived and least understood when seen with shoot emergence and shoot physiology for perenation and phase change from vegetative to reproductive. Correct pruning may easily spell the difference between success and failure, yet many growers undertake infinite pains to get the best out of their trees but the neglect to give their consideration to important practice. It is obviously needless to mention here that their such efforts end in futility. For better understanding of principles and practices of pruning, it would be imperative to trace out its historical background. The present level of understanding about pruning has been developed through ages with the increased understanding of growth and developmental processes of fruit plants.