eChapters

All the above ground parts of the plant are affected. There is development of round and elongated spots surrounded by brownish red margin on the leafl ets. At later stage spots coalesce and entire leaf turns brown. On green pods, the lesions are usually circular with dark margin and pin head like dark dots representing the pycnidia in concentric circles.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus L. var. sativum D.C.) plant is the herbaceous, perennial plant and supposed to have descended from the wild chicory (wild succory, blue sailors) which is often seen along roadsides with its blue flowers. The leaves are used as salads in human diet and other different purposes. They were reported to be stomachic (Baumann 1982, Franke, 1981) and their juice was used against eye disease and poisoning. The infusion of chicory was believed to be good for the liver, kidney and stomach. Initially the wild plant was used but since approximately 300 B.C., the crop was cultivated for this purpose. Beverages, soups and sauces made of chicory were reported to be used in Italy and Belgium as early in 16^th century.

For the first time, the root of chicory was used as a substitute of coffee in 1690 in Holland followed by many other countries like Sweden, France, etc. During 1806 and 1813, the cultivation and use of roasted roots of chicory as coffee substitute spread over the whole European continent. In the 19^th century, the main centres of cultivation of chicory were North-East France, Belgium, England, Russia, Holland and Australia. Subsequently it was raised on large scale in Poland, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland and India. Presently over 20% of the World’s consumption takes place in Eastern Europe, especially in Poland (6%) followed by Russia, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Twelve percent is reported to be consumed in South Africa, 9% in India and 2% in the United States (Clark and Macrae, 1987).

It is a very important and commonly found disease of chili which observed in field as well as in storage. It is also known as anthracnose disease which is mostly seen in tropical and sub tropical regions.

Chilli thrips: Scirtothrips dorsalis, Thrips palmi: Thripidae

The adults of this insect are small brownish black with fringed wings. The nymphs are slender and yellowish straw coloured, later acquiring more brownish hue. They lacerate the tissues and feed on the exuding sap. Leaves become crinkled, curled upward and shed. The attack can be confused with chilli mosaic symptom.  In capsicum and chilli, they also feed beneath calyx of flowers and fruits causing flower/fruit drop and reduction in yield and market value of capsicum. Buds become brittle and drop down. Plants get stunted and bronzed. The fruits if at all formed are crinkled and small.

1. Anthracnose or Fruit Rot and Die Back
Diagnostic Symptoms
The disease occurs in two forms: the die back and the ripe -rot Die back symptoms
• Small, circular to irregular, brownish black scattered spots appear on leaves.
• Severely infected leaves defoliate.
• Infection of growing tips leads to necrosis of branches from tip backwards.
• Necrotic tissues appear grayish white with black dot like acervuli in the center.
• Shedding of flowers due to the infection at pedicel and tips of branches.
Fruit symptoms
• Ripe fruits are more liable for attack than the green ones.
• Small, circular, yellowish to pinkish sunken spots appear on fruits.

1. Introduction

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is a major vegetable and spice crop due to its high consumption, nutritional and cash value to farmers and consumers. It is cultivated almost in whole world as consume in the form of green and red ripe fruits. China is the world leader in chilli production followed by India, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Thailand, and Turkey. India is the second largest exporter in the world of dry chilli and its powder. Fruits of chilli are used as fresh salad, cooked vegetable, pickles, souces hot spices in powder form (Parey et al., 2013) and having many medicinal values (Nadkarni, 1927). Fresh green fruits of peppers and red peppers are the major source of vitamin A, C and antioxidant compounds, besides these also found minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, sodium, zinc and copper. 

Capsicum species are members of family Solanaceae, which include tomato, potato, tobacco and petunia.  Pepper, chile, chili, aji, paprika and capsicum are used interchangeably for plants in the genus Capsicum.  The word Capsicum is reserved for taxonomic discussion (Bosland, 1992). The indigenous people of Americas evolved pepper through breeding and domestication of Capsicum species. Global diversification was facilitated by age of exploration, and subsequent establishment of land races and farmers selections.  Classical genetic and cytogenetic exploitation of Capsicum species began in 1940s and continued throughout the century (Poulos, 1994). Data on crossability and hybrid sterility are developed to reinforce or revise views on the rank of morphologically distinguishable taxa, while studies on chromosomes and isozymes aided in understanding the relationships between domesticated and wild species and the course of evolution within the domesticated species.

India is today the second largest producer of fruit and vegetable after China with a total annual production of 281.75 million tons in 2017-18. Fruit and vegetables are essential components of the human diet and nutrition constitute. Fruit and vegetable are also element of diversification in agriculture for additional income generating resource and employment generation area. Although India is the largest producer of fruit in the world, the production per capita is only about 100 g per day. Huge losses to the extent of 20 to 40% of the total production are reported due to lack of adequate infrastructure and transportation facilities and higher the transportation cost. Thus the per capita availability of fruits is further reduced to 60 -80 g per day which is almost half the requirement for a balanced diet. The fruit production in India has recorded a growth rate of 3.9%, whereas the fruit processing sector has grown at about 20% per annum. However, the growth rates have been extensively higher for frozen fruits and vegetables (121%) and dehydrated fruits and vegetables (24%).

Fruit and vegetables are mostly seasonal crops but they are demanded by consumers throughout the year. They are very highly perishable in nature, which is difficult to preserve for the longer period of time under ambient storage conditions. The low temperature storage retarded the activity of various biological and biochemical agents of spoilage and provides longer shelf life to the fruit and vegetables The temperature is brought down by taking out the heat with the help of mechanical refrigeration, This system is based on a liquid absorbing heat as it change to a gas. The more common mechanical refrigeration system use a refrigerant such as (Ammonia, Freon etc.,) takes out the heat from the chamber/ store as it is expand. The spoilage agents are microorganism such as (e.g., bacteria, yeast and molds etc.) and larva. Optimum storage temperature for most products is one slightly above the freezing point of the product. Some fruit and vegetables are particularly sensitive to storage temperature are susceptible to called storage disease when stored at temperature below as or above the critical temperature e.g.,

Chrysomelid beetle : Aulacophora foveicollis : Chrysomelidae

Adults cut tender shoots and feed on leaves resulting in holes and loss of leaf. Grubs feed on roots and underground stems leading to yellowing,wilting and drying of attacked plants.

Leaf-and shoot folders: Hymenia recurvalis : Pyraustidae

Pycnarmon cribrata;Phostria piasusalis

Chironji or Charoli (Buchanania lanzan Spreng Family: Anacardiaceae) is an excellent tree of agro forestry and social forestry. In wasteland development and Dryland horticulture, it assumes great significance due to multifarious uses and capacity to withstand adverse climatic conditions. At present, it is growing under forest condition as an under exploited fruit and gives monitory reward to tribal community of country and seems to be a boon for them. It is a valuable species found in dry deciduous forest throughout the country excluding eastern Himalayan forests (Singh, 1982). Flesh of ripe fruit is very palatable and is largely eaten raw or roasted and oily kernels are the most important part and are used in preparation of sweet meats and puddings (Singh, 1982). Mesocarp of fruit is edible and cherished by children (Munde et al, 2003). Kernel is highly nutritious and rich in protein (18.00 %) and yields sweet oil, which can be used to substitute olive and almond oil. Kernel contains 33.50 % oil, 1.90 % of which is unsaponifiable. Saponifiable part contained 20.00 % of linoleic acid. Chironji oil is non-repellant and non-toxic and is suitable for human consumption (Banerjee and Jain, 1988). Hemawathy and Prabhakar (1988) reported that total kernel lipid extracted from chironji was 65.60 % of dry kernel and consisted of 90.40 % neutral lipids, 3.4 % glycolipids and 6.2 % phospholipids. Kernel can be used for preparation of sweets. It provides quality timber wood for various uses.

Introduction

Increasing production of cereal crops, oil seed crops, and horticultural crops is becoming more important than ever before owing to increasing population and changing food habits of the people. The modern tools of biotechnology are being exploited to the fullest throughout the world for developing transgenic crop plants with improved traits. Already about 20 countries in the world are growing transgenic crops, predominately with traits such herbicide tolerance and resistance to insect-pests. However, there is a constant fear of pollen flow from theses transgenics to the neighbouring non-transgenic fields or to their weedy or wild relatives. It has become a matter of great concern to all biotechnologists to develop alternative strategies to prevent the pollen flow.

The best alternative strategy available today to circumvent the nuclear- transformation associated bottlenecks in developing tenable crop transgenics is the chloroplast transformation technology. This technology allows introduction and insertion of foreign genes into the chloroplast genome, called plastome. Chloroplasts are the site for photosynthesis in plants mostly present in leaves. In general called plastids, they are also present in other parts of the plant. For example, chromoplasts in coloured leaves and fruits, amyloplasts in starch storing organs, leucoplats in roots, and etioplasts in dark-grown seedlings. The plastids arise from proplastids - the undifferentiated form of plastids present in most plant cells. Just like nucleus, these plastids (and also mitochondria) contain their own genetic material on the chloroplast genome.

Hybridization is a potent technique to create variability for selection and breaking yield barriers, evolve varieties having built in high potential. The selection of suitable parents for hybridization is one of the most important step in hybridization program. Selection of parents on the basis of phenotypic performance alone is not a sound procedure since phenotypically superior lines may yield poor recombinations in the segregating generations. It is therefore essential that parents are chosen on the basis of their genetic value. Some of the commonly utilized techniques for assessing the genetic value of a genotype are:

Chow-Chow [Sechium edule (Jacq.) Swartz] is used in many parts of Latin America, humid tropical regions of Central America and Southern Mexico. It is cultivated in South East Asia (India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillipines), Central and Western Africa, Central and South America (Brazil) and other tropical regions. (Dutta 1994). In India, local cultivars are commonly grown in coastal and low-hills (1000-2000m) of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamilnadu. In Tamil, it is called “Seeme Kattrikkai” (Bailey, 1947). It is an important part of dietary system of tribals of  North East Regions. It is found in kitchen gardens of every tribal. It is found in almost all states and regions but maximum variability is found in Sikkim, Mizoram and Meghalaya (Yadav et al., 2005). Its variable fruits and roots, are important elements in diet of people. Chow-Chow is widespread and is an important export crop for  Latin American countries, much still need to be learned  about this crop (Rafael Lira Saade,1996). Chow-Chow is a single seeded fruit of  Cucurbitaceous family (MacGillivray, 1953). It is a perennial rooted vine that bears edible fruits (Thompson and Kelly, 1957). In subtropical and tropical regions, it produces large edible tuberous roots. It thrives under moderate temperature in  tropical or semi-tropical environment, though it can also be successfully grown under high temperature near sea level. Chow-Chow is a herbaceous perennial creeper (Choudhury, 1967) and is a robust grower in warmer months of year and during  cold weather of July and August  plant dies back temporarily. It has a viviparous type of germination (Patnaik, 1967). S.edule is called chayote, probably from  Greek ‘Sekos’ to  fatten in a fold because it was fed to hogs ( Bailey, 1963).

Weaning foods

Introduction

Breast milk is natural and best for the growth and development of newborn babies. Although breast milk is adequate to provide an optimum nutrient till the age of six months but after that it is not sufficient to sustain optimum growth and fulfill their nutritional requirements. Various nutrients are required to supplement milk until child is ready to eat adult meal. This additional food along with the breast milk is referred as “complementary Food”. With adequate amount of complementary feeding breast-feeding continues up to two years of age and beyond so, referred as complementary feeding period.

Appropriate and adequate amount of complementary feeding helps in preventing malnutrition stunting and promoting growth. Introduction of this complementary food is called as weaning.

Weaning is the process of introducing adult food and beverage to the infant to support their growth and development. This is very crucial period in infant’s life. This is a period for diet transition as the nutrition requirements for growth and brain development is quite high. Introduction of various taste and texture promotes biting and chewing skills (Guthrie, 1975). Most six-month age children start eating semisolid foods. Weaning homogenized infant foods play a major role in the nutrition of infants (Martinez, 2004).As infants grow, their nutritional requirements also increase. To keep up this growing demand WHO recommends that infants start eating solid, semi-solid or soft foods at the age of 6 months to ensure sufficient nutrient intake.

1. Introduction

Chrysanthemum is commonly known as ‘Guldaoudi’, “Queen of the East”, “Glory of East” or “Autumn Queen”. It is one of the most beautiful and widely cultivated flowers that can be grown for its aesthetic value as well as for its commercial potential. The word chrysanthemum is derived from two Greek words, viz. “Chrysos” means gold and “Anthemon” means ‘flower’ i.e. golden flower. Chrysanthemum is the only crop that offers a great genetic diversity of flower colour, shape, forms, size, easy to propagate, growing habit, longer flowering duration and excellent vase life. Based on the shape of flower heads and floret arrangement of petals it can be used as pot plants for indoors and outdoors decoration as well as exhibition purpose; as cut flowers for flower arrangements, bouquets making and vase decoration; loose flower for making garlands, worshipping purpose and for bedding and garden decoration. Tall cultivars are suitable for background planting in borders and the dwarf and compact can be planted in front rows. 

Chrysomelid beetle : Aulacophora foveicollis : ChrysomelidaeAphids : Macrosiphoniella  sanborni; Myzus  persicae; Brachicaudus  helichrysi; Aphis  gossypi; Aphis fabae; Aulocorthum circumflexum: Aphid

Chrysanthemum   is infested by different species of aphids. Aphids are small, soft bodied insects and their colour varies with species. Both nymphs and adults cluster on the growing stem tips and under surface of leaves. As a result, the plants show loss of vigor, distortion of leaves and flowers, yellowing, premature leaf fall and stunted growth. The damaged plants bear only undersized buds and they remain unopened. Peak damage period is November-December. Secretion of honeydew by the aphids favor development of sooty mould which hinders photosynthesis and the plants become stunted. They are also vectors of virus diseases.

Cinnamon butterfly: Chilasa clytia clytia : Papilionidae

Larvae defoliate plants. The larvae are pests on many crop plants and weeds and are common in the plains. The larvae are jet black at hatching. They develop a series of broad white patches. The adult is a common butterfly rich velvety brown, and spotted with white dots. The hind wings have arrow shaped streaks and crescent shaped spots.

Introduction

Citrus is one of the most important fruit crops in the world. Citrus fruits are grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Some of the important countries where these fruits are grown include USA, Brazil, Spain, Israel, South Africa, Australia, China, India, Mexico and Morocco. Citriculture as a garden industry dates back to less than one hundred years. Indian citrus industry is the third fruit industry after mango and banana. The important groups of crops in citrus are sweet oranges, mandarins, limes, lemons, grapefruits and pummelo (Singh, 2001). Total world citrus production is about 115525.2 thousand tonnes, whereas in India, the production of citrus fruits is 8267.2 thousand tonnes (Anonymous 2012). The most important commercial Citrus species grown in India are the mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco), followed by sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) and acid lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle). The main cultivars in the mandarin group are the Nagpur mandarin, Coorg mandarin, Khasi mandarin, Hill mandarin and the Kinnow mandarin. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab are the major citrus producing states, while in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Bihar, the fruit is grown to a limited extent. In Rajasthan new plantation of citrus are coming up very well and the main cultivars are Nagpur and Kinnow mandarins.

1. Gummosis.
Diagnosic Symptoms
• First symptoms are dark staining of bark which progresses into the wood.
• Bark at the base is destroyed resulting in girdling and finally death of the tree.
• Bark in such parts dries, shrinks and cracks and shreds in lengthwise vertical strips.
• Later profuse exudation of gum from the bark of the trunk (characteristic symptom).
• The infection spreads both upward to the leaves and even fruits and downward to the roots causing fibrous root rot.
• The fibrous root rot destroys a major portion of the root system.
• However, the trunck and root infections may usually result in ultimate drying of the tree (Fig-1).
Etiology
Scientific Classification
Kingdom : Fungi
Division : Eumycota