eChapters

Arid regions lie under the category of wastelands which are not being used to their fullest potential therefore, it almost barren. Hot arid regions are sparsely populated with human and animal population and experiences various biotic exploitation of the already very poor resources base. The scarcity of water poses biggest hindrance in limits the crop productivity as climatic factor. Yet, nature has bestowed the arid region fruits with characteristic qualities. Some fruit crops can grow successfully in such type of regions. Among these crops, cardia most suitable crop for cultivation under such type of arid climate. Some regional names of cordia are Pidar, Ponugeri, Maruvilli, Geduri, Spistan, Bhakar, Borla, Kalo Bohori (Nepali) etc. It is growing not only all over Asia but also nearly whole of the globe especially in tropical environment. In Indian sub-continent, it is growing from east Myanmar to west Afghanistan. It is grown in arid region and having numerous utilities. It is found in a variety of the forest of Rajasthan to moist deciduous forests of the Western Ghats and Tidal forest of Myanmar. In Maharashtra, it grows in moist monsoon forests also. In Rajasthan, its commercial plantations are being done in Pali, Sirohi, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jalore districts.

Now, it is becoming popular as monoculture cultivation as well as under agroforestry system in arid region. It does not grow gregariously but is found growing singly in moist shady ravines and valleys. In areas with annual rainfall less than 500mm, it thrives along streams and depressions where moisture is available. The hot arid zone stretch 32 M ha or 0.32 million square kilometer long covering Rajasthan (62%), Gujrat (20%), Andra Pradesh (7%), Punjab (5%), Haryana (4%), Karnataka (3%) and Maharastra (0.4%). In these area fruits selection for cultivation must be cope up that their maximal growth period coincides with the period of water availability in the soil. Few of the xerophytes characteristics are: deeper root system, deciduous nature, reduced foliage, sunken of covered stomata, waxy coating or hairiness on leaf surface which minimize the evapotranspiration and makes plant adaptive to the hostile climate. These qualities are found in cordia plant which can grow in this area without any problem after management of some agro-techniques.

1). Stem Gall
Diagnostic Symptoms
• Symptom appears in the form of tumor-like swellings of leaf veins, leaf stalks, peduncles, stems as well as fruits.
• Infected veins show a swollen hanging appearance to the leaves.
• Initially the tumors are glossy which rupture later on and become rough. They are about 3 mm broad and up to 12.5 mm long.
• Badly affected plants may be killed.
• In the presence of excessive soil moisture, especially under shaded conditions, when the stem fails to harden and remain succulent, the tumors are numerous (Fig-1).
Etiology
Scientific Classification
Kingdom : Fungi
Division : Ascomycota
Class : Taphrinomycetes
Order : Taphrinales

Coriander aphid: Hyadaphis coriandri: Aphididae

Coriander aphids are yellow-green in color, dusted with grayish wax. They have short, dusky, slightly swollen, siphunculi (or cornicles). The Aphids form dense, damaging colonies on leaves, heads, and stems of their host plants.

In its native land, Florida, USA, the life cycle of the coriander aphid is similar to that of other host-alternating aphids. Overwintering eggs occur on other hosts.  A fundatrix (or stem mother) hatches from the egg in the spring. Her offspring are parthenogenetic, and the winged-females are spring migrants. They colonize summer host plants in the family Umbelliferae.

The disease appears as tumour like swelling or galls on leaf veins, leaf stalks, peduncles, stems and on fruits. The galls on the vein give a swollen and hanging appearance to the leaves. These are elongated, looks glossy in beginning but later rupture to become rough and corky. When stems remain succulent, numerous tumours may form on them. In severe case, the plant may kill prematurely.

Anthracnose
Diagnostic Symptoms
• Pathogen infects the seedlings and produces small reddish circular spots on the cotyledons and primary leaves.
• Lesions develop on the collar region, stem may be girdled, causing seedling to wilt and die.
• In mature plants, the fungus attacks the stem, leading to stem splitting and shredding of bark.
• Most common symptom is boll spotting. Small water soaked, circular, reddish brown depressed spots appear on the bolls.
• The lint is stained to yellow or brown, becomes a solid brittle mass of fiber.The infected bolls cease to grow and burst and dry up prematurely(Fig-2).
Etiology
Scientific Classification
Kingdom : Fungi
Division : Eumycota

The disease i s seen at all crop growing stages. The fi rst symptoms appear at the time of emergence of seedlings, when the cotyledons are attacked. They become yellow and turn brown followed by wilting and drying of the affected seedlings. In the fi eld, the wilting symptoms appear in patches. First of all, the older leaves become yellow, loose their turgidity, wilt, turn brown and droop.

ABSTRACT

Microbial contamination is perceived as the most serious threat faced by plant tissue culture research laboratories and commercial production units. A culture is often viewed as contaminated when obvious microbial growth incited by fungi, yeast or bacteria is noticed on the culture medium. On the other hand, there can be situations when microbes may be present in a covert or latent form with serious side effects on the cultures. The present investigations were taken up with the objectives of elucidating the cause of poor growth, lack of regeneration response or modification of rooting observed with visibly clean cultures of different horticultural crops. Apparently clean cultures of grape, banana, watermelon, eggplant, gerbera and chrysanthemum of recent origin or after long-term in vitro culturing were used in this study. Indexing the medium of such cultures using fungal/ yeast and bacteriological media brought out the covert association of one or more bacterial types with varying proportions of incidence in such cultures. Indexing of tissue revealed bacterial presence in different parts of in vitro plantlets. In some instances, bacteria showed endophytic colonization while being not detectable in the tissue culture medium subsequent to a disinfection or antibiotic treatment. Such bacterial association appeared to be the cause of in vitro decline observed with long-term micropropagated cultures, lack of reproducibility of tissue culture protocols, failure of in vitro rooting etc. besides being a threat to in vitro gene banks and germplasm exchange.

The cowpea aphid: Aphis craccivora: Aphididae

Hosts
 
Groundnut, red gram, peas, beans, safflower, lab-lab niger

Symptoms of damage
 
Both nymphs and adults cause the damage by sucking the plant sap from shoot tips, pods and leaves.  Infested pods become malformed and withered.  Severe infestation may result in complete drying of affected pods.  They also act as vector of virus diseases in pea. 

2.1 Introduction

Horticulture plays a pivotal role in global food production and is essential for ensuring food security and improving nutrition. However, the increasing pressure on agricultural resources, coupled with environmental challenges, necessitates the adoption of innovative technologies to enhance productivity and sustainability. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool in this regard, offering unprecedented capabilities in data analysis, pattern recognition, and decision-making. In horticulture, AI holds immense potential for revolutionizing crop and soil monitoring practices, enabling more efficient resource utilization and better management strategies.

2.2 Foundations of Ai in Crop and Soil Monitoring

Artificial Intelligence (AI) forms the backbone of modern crop monitoring techniques, enabling the processing of vast amounts of agricultural data and the extraction of actionable insights. This section provides an in-depth exploration of the fundamental principles of AI, machine learning, and deep learning, elucidating their applications in crop monitoring within horticulture.

2.1.1 Understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Definition and Scope: AI refers to the development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving.

Types of AI: AI can be categorized into two broad types: narrow AI, which is designed for specific tasks, and general AI, which exhibits human-like intelligence across a wide range of domains. In the context of crop monitoring, narrow AI applications are more prevalent, focusing on tasks such as image recognition, predictive modeling, and decision support.

Germplasm is the sum total of all the genes and their alleles present in a crop and its related species. Germplasm is also termed as genetic resources. It may be release as a variety, subjected to selection for developing a variety, and may be used as a parent in hybridization programme. They may be obtained from gene banks, center of diversity, gene sanctuary, farmer's field and seed companies.

Types of Germplasm

1. Land races

These are primitive varieties/cultivars. They are storehouse of genetic variability. Land races were first collected and studies by N.I.Vavilov in rice. They are the source of development of varieties in many valuable crops.

2. Obsolete varieties

The improved varieties of recent past are called as obsolete varieties. These varieties were breed by systematic breeding methods, were once commercially cultivated, but are no more grown. For example, wheat varieties K65, Ph591, many NP series etc.

Genetic resources deal with germplasm of a given species that provides the necessary genetic variation for the improvement of that species in terms of particular products, increased efficiency and higher levels of productivity. Genetic resources are, in this sense, the building blocks, fundamental not only to a crop improvement programme, but also for the very survival of the species in time and space (Swaminathan, 1983).

As agriculture is becoming more and more intensive and location-specific, plant breeding objectives are becoming more and more complex. Besides high yield, a modern variety is often expected to combine specific duration, nutritional attributes, adaptation to varying soil and water regimes, and resistance to ever-multiplying pests and diseases—to mention only a few of the character combinations. To meet these objectives, a wide range of germplasm must exist, and the plant breeder should have an easy access to the genetic resources.

The term ideotype was proposed by Donald in 1968. Ideotype is a biological model which is expected to perform in a predicted manner in a defined environment. A crop ideotype is a plant model that is expected to perform better in a particular environment. The concept of ideotype changes from crop to crop, climate to climate and the concepts and policies of the community concerned. Ideotype breeding is the development of a plant type, expected more quantity of grains, with ideal character. Plant characters are selected from an agronomic point of view.

5.1 Crop modelling

• Crop model

• “Schematic representation of the system’’i.e. a model as defined by De Wit 1970.

• Such a model can be based on statistics applied to a set of experimental data or on physical laws (Guyot, 1997).e.g. Irrigation is able to satisfy a crop’s water needs provided its management relies on the measurement or estimation of evapotranspiration. The manager can either invest in equipment to monitor changes in water content in the soil or fluxes of water into the plant or the atmosphere, or rely on a ‘‘schematic representation of the system’’, i.e. a model.

• In very simple terms we can define a crop model as “a well-thought out plan of activities to grow the desired crop to get maximum possible yields of high-quality produce with the given resources. It can be a mental or a written exercise (a “schematic representation of the system”) that a farmer or a farm manager prepares for a crop or for an individual crop”.

• In other words, we can also say that a model is “an attempt to describe a certain process or system through the use of a simplified representation, preferably a quantitative mathematical expression, that focuses on a relatively a few key variables that control the process or system”.

• It is clear that in finalizing a crop model we have to assume some mean or standard values (based on the past record, experience, expert judgment, etc.) of the variables which we may not be taking explicitly in our model.

Crop regulation in guava, flowering is more in summer season (Ambe bahar) due to the break of winter stress that leads to more fruit production in rainy season. But, in this season due to high temperature and rainfall during fruit maturation, the duration of maturation is reduced to 30 days that causes glut in the market, whereas winter season crop (Mrigbahar) is superior in quality which fetches comparatively higher price. Although, the production is surplus in rainy season (Rathore and Singh, 1974 and Singh et al., 2000), it offers poor quality due to insipid in taste and infestation of pest (Rawal and Ullasa, 1988) in comparison to winter season. On the contrary, in winter season quality fruits are produced with good quality and fetch high monetary returns (Singh et al., 2000). Guava fruit harvest peaks can deviate with prevailing weather conditions and cultural practices because flowers are produced on new growth. So, it is advisable to take only winter season crop every year. This requires crop regulation to obtain the most desirable crop, by the methods like withholding irrigation, thinning of flowers by chemically or manually, pruning, bending, root exposure, etc. The basic principle of crop regulation is to manipulates the natural flowering and fruiting of guava plant in desired season of the year that contribute to increased fruit yield, quality, profitability and sustainability of the environment by reducing the use of the frequency of the pesticides (Mahadevan and Kumar, 2014). The selection of bahar at a 

Crop Regulation

Staggering in pomegranate is practiced with a view to regulate crop load on the plant which will help in availability of the fruit for the long period helping the farmer fetching remunerative prices in the market. Also it will help in avoiding the glut in the market leading to distress sale. The relationship between source and sink can be regulated which helps in better fruit development. Pomegranate flowers and fruits through out the year if irrigation is provided to the plant. Taking of particular bahar leads to the glut in the market. This results in distress sale by the farmers. To avoid this staggering of pomegranate crop was attempted to find out and fruiting flowering during various months of the year so that maximum production with best quality fruits can be obtained.

Introduction
  
Horticultural production can be highly profitable, increase employment opportunities, and bring about increasing commercialization of the rural sector. Horticulture thus has a role to play in a world where 1.1 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty on less than US$1 a day and another 1.6 billion who live between one and two dollars per day (Von Braun et al., 2004). While in past, priority to achieving self sufficiency in food grain production in our country, over the years, horticulture has emerged as an indispensable part of agriculture, offering a wide range of choices to the farmers for crop diversification. It also provides ample opportunities for sustaining large number of agro-industries which generate substantial employment opportunities. The horticulture sector contributes around 28% of the GDP from about 13.08% of the area and 37 % of the total exports of agricultural commodities (Annon, 2007).

The types of crops and the practices used to grow them and the sequence in which they are grown altogether refers to cropping system. It comprises of all components required for the crop production and their relationships with the environment. Traditionally the cropping systems aim at maximizing the per unit area productivity, which can be done by growing improved high yielding varieties, by adequate and scientific crop management practices and by increasing cropping intensities with the help of different cropping patterns.

In today’s world cropping system should produce more, at the same time the practices should be ecologically and environmentally sustainable. There should be efficient utilization of land and water. It should be designed to conserve soil, soil moisture and improve soil resilience.

A cropping system refers to the type and sequence of crops grown and practices used for growing them. It is based on the available technologies of crop production. Cropping systems have been traditionally structured to maximize crop yields. Now, there is a strong need to design cropping systems, which take into consideration the emerging social, economic and ecological or environmental concerns for each ecosystem. The goal of a cropping system must be to conserve natural resources i.e. soil, water and sustain crop production. Conserving soil and water and maintaining longterm soil productivity depend largely on the management of cropping systems, which influence the magnitude of soil erosion and soil organic matter dynamics. Crop diversification is an important option in sustainable agricultural systems. Management of cropping systems implies management of tillage, crop residue, nutrients, pests, and practices for soil conservation. Difference between dry land and rainfed farming is as follows.

15.1 INTRODUCTION

Cropping system is defined as a cropping pattern followed on a farm and its interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises and production technology. In other words, cropping system refers to a combination of crops in time and space. When annual crops are considered, a cropping system usually means the combination of crops within a given year (Willey et al., 1989). This cropping system might provide insurance against crop failure by reducing disease (Fininsa and Yuen, 2002) and insect incidence (Gahukar, 1989) or against unstable market prices by planting two or more crops under intercropping and thus, reducing the risk of unexpected changeable prices. Intercropping in scientific way should be viewed from a theme of competition to one of collaboration with mutually beneficial relation with proper planning to get more return from limited natural resources. Legumes have been the common intercrops in any intercropping system owing to their short duration, N-fixing ability etc. Even though non-leguminous vegetables require longer duration than legumes and are non-N-fixers, they can also be suitable as intercrops because of their high profitability and higher yields.

Spikeborer : Helicoverpa armigera : Noctuidae

Larvae of this polyphagous moth feed on the spikelets, flowers and developing seeds. The young larvae bite holes into the spikelets and the grown up ones attack the mature spikes