eChapters

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.

Crossandra is an important tropical flowering crop valued for its attractive flowers and continuous production of loose blooms. It has particular importance in southern India, where flowers are widely used for garlands, hair decoration and religious purposes. This chapter covers the crop’s botanical characteristics, origin, distribution, genetics and commercially important varieties. It explains propagation, nursery management, climate and soil requirements, land preparation, planting, irrigation and nutrient management. Important cultural practices and plant growth management are discussed for obtaining regular flowering and good-quality blooms. The chapter also addresses insect pests, diseases, harvesting and postharvest management, including the correct method of flower collection. It provides a comprehensive production package for growers and students.

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

Diamond back moth: Plutella xylostella: Plutellidae
 
The adults of this moth are small, greyish brown having pale whitish narrow wings and with inner margins yellow. There are three pale whitish triangular markings on hind margins of each forewing. At rest, when both forewings come together, they form a dorsal median patch of three diamond shaped yellowish white spots that give them their name diamond back moth. Hind wings have a fringe of long hairs.

1. Alternaria leaf spot
Diagnostic Symptoms
• Spots are small, dark coloured.
• They enlarge, soon become circular & 1mm. in diameter.
• Under humid conditions groups of conidiophores will be formed in the spot.
• Spots develop concentric rings.
• Finally the spots coalesce leading to blighting of leaves.
• Pathogen is seed borne and cause shriveling of seeds and poor germination.
• Linear spots also appear on petioles, stems, pods & seeds (Fig.1).

Vegetable crops belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae are known as cucurbits. These include 950 species in over 90 genera, mainly distributed in the tropics and subtropics (Schaefer and Renner, 2011). Enormous diversity of cucurbit genetic resources has evolved in past centuries to cater the nutritional requirements of people in different geographical and climatic regions. A large number of cucurbitaceous vegetables coming from different centres of origin are cultivated worldwide (Table 1). However, these crops are challenged by several biotic and abiotic stresses. Cultivated varieties are constrained by market demands, the necessity for climatic adaptations, domestication bottlenecks, and in most cases, limited capacity for interspecific hybridization, creating narrow genetic bases for crop improvement. Genetic resources are the building block for any crop improvement programme and includes landraces, traditional varieties, wild, weedy and other related species constituting primary, secondary and tertiary gene pools. They are valuable sources of important genetic traits needed for developing resilient and climate smart crop varieties and therefore, important for food security. The success and pace of the development depends on the efficient use of plant genetic resources. Wild relatives are incredible genetic resources carrying several desirable attributes like nutritional quality, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses etc. Most of the crop wild relatives of cultivated crops across the world are not receiving adequate attention for their effective utilization in breeding programs. It is therefore, of utmost priority to protect them in the wild, through in-situ conservation, where they can continue to evolve and develop these useful adaptations. ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR) is the nodal agency for the management of national wealth of vegetable genetic resources speciallyworking for collections, characterization, identification and documentation of new germplasm. Besides, it also bears the responsibility for conservation of the germplasm for future through sustainable use. The Vegetable germplasm is being conserved both under in-situ and ex-situ genebanks. This chapter highlights the status of Cucurbit genetic resources and procedures to access the germplasm by various stakeholders for research use.
 

1) Downy Mildew
Diagnostic Symptoms
• Yellow, angular spots restricted by veins resembling mosaic mottling appear on upper surface of leaves .
• Corresponding lower surface of these spots shows a purplish downy xgrowth in moist weather.
• Spots turn necrotic with age.
• Diseased leaves become yellow and fall down .
• Diseased plants get stunted and die .
• Fruits produced may not mature and have a poor taste (Fig.-1).
Etiology
Scientific Classification
Kingdom : Fungi
Division : Eumycota

Fruit flies: Bactrocera cucurbitae:Tephritidae

This pest is more serious in bitter gourd, snake gourd and to a certain extent on ridge gourd. Other cucurbits are attacked to a lesser level. Damage by this pest causes losing the fruit quality, rotting and fruit drop. The adults lay many eggs inside the fruit sing their big ovipositor that hatch out into worm like apodous maggots. Feeding by the maggots on the pulp of fruits result in rotting, yellowing and fruit drop. The dropped fruits allow pupation by the maggots in the soil from where they emerge out as adults and start egg laying on fresh frits.

Cucurbits form an important and a big group of vegetable crops cultivated extensively in this country. This group consists of a wide range of vegetables, either used as salads (cucumber) or for cooking (all the gourds) or for pickling (cucumber) or as dessert fruits (muskmelon and watermelon) or candied or preserved (ash gourd). They are of tremendous economic importance as food plants.

2.1. Ash Gourd (Benincasa hispida)

Ash gourd (Benincasa hispida L.) belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. The winter melon, also called white gourd, ash gourd, or “fuzzy melon”, is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the only member of the genus Benincasa. This is a monotypic genus and the only cultivated species is Benincasa hispida (Thunb) Cogn, commonly known as ash gourd or petha. It has a Sanskrit equivalent ‘Kooshmanda’ indicating its antiquity in India.

Originally cultivated in Southeast Asia, the ash gourd is widely grown in China, India and other parts of East Asia. The immature melon has thick white flesh that is sweet when eaten. By maturity, the fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd, and providing a long shelf life. The ash gourd is known by many other names in India regional wise like komora (Assamese), pethakaddu (Hindi), boodagumbala (Kannada), Kumbalanga (Malayalam), Kohla (Marathi), neer poosanikai (Tamil) and Boodida gummadikaya (Telugu).

Uses

Ash gourd have enormous medicinal properties as it makes a valuable place as a popular natural cure of ailments in traditional medicinal practice. Being low in calories it is an ideal vegetable for diabetic patients and good for weight control. It also acts as a good detoxifying agent.

As per Ayurveda, ash gourd is used to treat epilepsy, asthma, lung diseases, urine retention, internal haemorrhage, and cough. It is said that the fruit juice is also effective in cases of mercury poisoning and snakebite. It could also treat mouth cancer, protecting teeth and gums when a mouth gargle of the juice is done regularly. It is also effective in bleeding of gums. Ash gourd is easily digestible and keeps the body cool. It is a natural blood purifier.

The Cucurbitaceae family consists of nearly 100 genera and over 750 species. Although most of them have Old World origin (Whitaker and Davis, 1962), many species originated in the New World and at least seven genera have origins in both hemispheres (Esquinas-Alcazar and Gulick, 1983). There is considerable genetic diversity within the family and the range of adaptation for cucurbit species includes tropical and subtropical regions, arid deserts and temperate locations. A few species are adaptable to production at elevations as high as 2000 m. The genetic diversity in cucurbits extends to both vegetative and reproductive characteristics. There is considerable range in the monoploid (x) chromosome number (Jeffrey, 1990) including 7 (Cucumis sativus), 11 (Citrullus spp., Momordica spp., Lagenaria spp., Sechium spp., and Trichosanthes spp.), 12 (Benincasa hispida, Coccinia spp., Cucumis spp. other than C. sativus, and Praecitrullus fistulosus), 13 (Luffa spp.), and 20 (Cucurbita spp.).
 
Archaeological evidence indicated that cucurbits were present in ancient and prehistoric cultures. Lagenaria was associated with man as early as 12,000 BC in Peru (Esquinas-Alcazar and Gulick, 1983). Archaeological expeditions in the Oaxaca region of Mexico have reported that Cucurbita pepo was associated with man as early as 8500 BC and cultivated by 4050 BC (Esquinas-Alcazar and Gulick, 1983). Written Chinese records describing the use of cultivated cucurbits have been found as early as 685 BC (Herklots, 1972).

1. Introduction

Medicinal plants play an important role in human life to combat various diseases. The rural folks and tribals in India even now depend largely on the surrounding plants/forests for their day-to-day needs. Majority of the medicinal and aromatic plants are still collected from wild for preparation of herbal drugs and perfumes/cosmetics. Rapid population growth and rising popularity of herbal drugs and natural essential oils have brought into focus the acute scarcity in availability of some of the plants due to indiscriminate and unregulated collection, habitat destruction through expanding agricultural lands, deforestation and urbanization. Fall in the supply of good quality, genuine raw material has resulted in price rise and deterioration in the quality of formulations. With growing demand and use of medicinal and aromatic plants, the important species have to be introduced into commercial agriculture.

The Indian annual turnover of herbal material has crossed Rs. 4000 crores mark, of which Rs. 300 to 400 crores worth is being the export market. The share of Indian trade in medicinal and aromatic plants is only 1.5 percent of the world market. India is one of the major exporters of crude drugs mainly to the developed countries like the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan, France, Switzerland, etc. The main crude drugs having good export opportunities are Aconite, Aloe, Dioscorea, Ephedra, Digitalis, Bach, Belladona, Cincona, Ergot, Isabgol, Opium, Vinca, Senna, Sarpagandha, etc. Of these senna leaves, isabgol husk/seed, and Cassia tora seeds are in maximum demand. China is the major producer of herbal plant material in the world. China earns US$ 5 billion per year from herbal trade besides meeting its domestic requirements. Though India has more potential of production of number of medicinal and aromatic plants than China, the contribution of India in the world market is very low because of the production of poor quality produce (Chadha and Gupta 2005).

1. Introduction

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) crop belongs to the family Apiaceae and having diploid chromosome number 2n =14. It is also known as Jeera in Hindi. This crop is originated from Mediterranean region. It is an erect or sub erect, glabrous annual herb which grows to a height of 30-50cm. The leaves are alternate, compound and green, the blade consists of three slender filiform leaflets. The inflorescence is a compound umbel with white or pinkish flowers (Verma et al., 2018a). The typical pleasant aroma of the seeds is due to their essential oil and the main constituent in essential oil is cuminaldehyde. It is mainly cultivated in arid and semi arid parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The total area is about 12 lakh hectare with the production of about 8.5 lakh tons and total export of cumin is worth of more than Rs. 4200 crore during 2020-21 (Fig. 1 & 2). 

1. Introduction

There are around six hundred major and minor crop species but only two percent are cultivated commercially meeting the food (calorie) requirements. The most commonly cultivated food plants are even smaller counting to merely 20 crops (Wilkes, 1984). The huge number of underutilized crops may serve as potential fruit crops to meet the nutritional requirements of poor farming households in lesser common farming and subsistence agriculture. The adoption of underutilized crops on a commercial scale may not be possible without crop improvement, standardized agronomic and fertilizer management technologies, pre- and post-harvesting techniques and marketing (Bag Mal et al., 1997).

In practice, flowers are collected from wild plantations. Recently kewda has emerged as one of the important commercial commodities. A systematic cultivation practice is essential to develop a successful plantation and to increase the productivity.

Planting

Kewda suckers or crowns are generally planted during June-July. i.e. in the beginning of the monsoon, when the soil is not too wet. Planting in wet soil delayd the root formation and reduces the success level. Just after the first shower of rain or during the summer shower close to monsoon, kewda is planted.

In a full grown plant, stilt roots originate at a few feet above the ground to render a support for the huge canopy of the plant. Each part of the stem is capable enough for development of root initials, but it is retarded once the stem became old and leafless. The root initials develop at the terminal portion, where more leaves cluster, but they do not grow. Hence, the stem cuttings collected from the flowering or non-flowering shoots bear the rudimentary roots and when planted, they establish quickly.

In practice, the cuttings are collected and scattered on the ground for two to three days. Before planting, a few leaves closed to the base of the cuttings are removed to expose the root development sites. The cuttings are planted in trenches of 45 cm depth horizontally or at an angle of 30^o. The new leaves appear on the growing points one month after planting.

Kewda plants are usually planted on the field bunds for fencing and subsequently used for collection of flowers. A 30 years old plant can produce a crown of 6-7 m, for which it is difficult to develop a commercial plantation in a close spacing. It has been observed in the natural plantations that the plants may be spaced at 8-10 m distance to achieve a full length of plantation life. It is, therefore, suggested by the authors to follow a paired row method of planting maintaining a spacing of 4 m between plants and rows of a paired row and 6 m between two paired rows; which provides all facilities for plant growth upto 10-12 years and then pruning of a few branches are required. Hence, a plant population of 500 plants in the field and 150-200 plants on field bunds are maintained in a land of one hectare.

1. INTRODUCTION

Medicinal plants constitute considerably a large component of natural vegetation. Several of these species are in great demand for domestic consumption as well as for commercial use by the herbal industry. About 800 species are estimated to be in trade with a turnover of Rs.4000 crores per year. This high demand by the herbal industry has put enormous pressure on the wild populations leading to destructive collection of the produce as maximum species of medicinal plants are wild.

A medicinal plant is as any plant which contains substances that can be used for therapeutic purposes or which are precursor for chemo- pharmaceutical synthesis. The medicinal plants are useful as a drug or therapeutic agent, having different medicinal values in form of active ingredient. Medicinal plants may therefore be defined as a group of plants that possess some special properties or virtues which make them important as drugs, therapeutic agents and for medicinal purposes.

Medicines from India are used by about 60 per cent of the world’s population. These are not only used for primary health care not just in rural areas in developing countries, but also in developed countries as well where modern medicines are predominantly used. While the traditional medicines are derived from medicinal plants, the herbal drugs are prepared from medicinal plants only. Use of plants as a source of medicine has been an ancient practice and is an important component of the health care system in India. There are about 45,000 medicinal plant species in India, with concentrated spots in the region of Eastern Himalayas, Western Himalayas, Western Ghats and Andaman & Nicobar Island. India is the largest producer of medicinal herbs and is called the botanical garden of the world. In rural India, 70 per cent of the population depends on the traditional type of medicine, the Ayurveda. Ayurveda and Kabiraji (herbal medicine) are two important forms of alternative medicine that is widely available in India. It is estimated that about 80,000 species of plants are utilized in some form or other by the different systems of Indian medicine. Many herbs and spices are used in Indian cooking, such as onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, clove, cardamom, cinnamom, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, ajowan (ajwain), anise, amchur, bay leaf, hing (asafoetida) etc. Ayurvedic medicine uses all of these either in diet or as a medicine.

4. 1. Origin and distribution

• Native to Egypt, Syria, Middle East and stretching east to India.

• In India, cumin is mainly cultivated in Western Indian states like Rajasthan and Gujarat.

4.2. Economic importance

• Important spice used in Indian kitchens for flavoring various food preparations.

• The flavor is due to chief constituent cuminol (Cuminaldehyde)

• Volatile oil is up to 2.5-3.5 %.

• Used in various ayurvedic medicines especially for the conditions like obesity, stomach pain and dyspesia.

• Many Latino, Vietnamese, United States and Thai foods recipes have cumin and many chilli recipe includes cumin.

• In India, cumin is a traditional ingredient not only curry, but also kormas, masalas, soups and other recipes.

• Used in some cheeses like Leyden cheese as well as some French breads.

English name : Cumin
Botanical name : Cuminum cyminum L.
Family : Apiaceae
Chromosome number : 2n = 14
Centre of origin : Egypt, Syria and Turkey
Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.), also known as Safaid jeera, is one of the oldest spices in history. It is derived from the mature fruit of a slender herb. Cumin seeds range from yellowish to greyish brown and emit an aromatic scent due to cuminol and aromatic alcohol, contributing to their distinct spicy and slightly bitter taste. These seeds are widely used as a condiment. The essential oil of cumin seeds contains various compounds, including a-pinene (14.3-19.7%), p-cymene (2.7-6.0%), terpinene (11.5-16.2%), cuminaldehyde (20-22.4%), p-menth-1,3-dien-7-al (11.1-13.5%), p-menth-1,4-dien-7-al (23.6-24.3%), cuminyl alcohol (2.7-72.2%), sabinene (3.38%), benzyl cinnamate (4.47%), and farnesol (2.98%). Cumin is an essential component of many spice blends and curry powders and is used to flavour soups, pastries, stews, sausages, pickles, cheese, and bakery products like bread and cakes. Cumin oil finds its place in soap making, perfumery, and flavouring alcoholic beverages such as liquors and cordials, with absolute oil being preferred for flavouring purposes. Cumin aldehyde is also utilized in perfumery.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The cumin (Cuminum cyminum Linn.) belonging to family Apiaceace is an important seed spice believed to be indigenous to northern Egypt, East Mediterranean region, Iran, Turkey  and India (Amin, 2003; Raghavan, 2007). It is popularly known as safed jeera and is one of the most common spices of daily use in the Indian sub-continent. Cumin is well known to ancient civilization. It is one of the oldest spices known since biblical times, valued mostly for their digestive properties and for flaovouring bread and other dishes during the periods of ceremonial fasting. As early as 5000 BC, Egyptians preserved the bodies of their kings by mummifying them with cumin, anise and marjoram.