eChapters

My first experience with Colocasia gigantea (Blume) Hook. f. (Araceae) was one of personal cultural food use. I recently came to Hawai‘i for my Ph.D. studies, and although I am Vietnamese, it was in Hawai‘i that I began experiencing many Vietnamese foods I never knew as a child growing up in the northeastern U.S. I thank the Vietnamese immigrants in Hawai‘i that became my aunties and uncles from whom I learned a great deal about my roots and the food of Vietnam. I listened to their stories and teachings while we ate together at holiday and community events, reflecting on my childhood, and considering the effects of globalization on the movement of people and plants, I have come to understand the extraordinary significance of that seemingly mundane first experience of eating C. gigantea. In this paper, I describe the botany, ethnobotany,  including a case study of C. gigantea usage in Hawai‘i and the implications for biocultural diversity, and examples for increased utilization of C. gigantea.

Defining-Commercial Plant Breeding

The term commercial plant breeding originates by putting prefix ‘commercial’ before ‘plant breeding’ and is used as an adjective to plant breeding which surely is a noun. Naturally, commercial plant breeding remains largely plant breeding with slight twist that commercial plant breeding aims at delivering commercial products to be delivered to the end users that is the farmers as per the need of the consumers/markets. Thus, the farmers plant those products (open-pollinated cultivars and hybrids) which are easily accepted by the consumers and which are easy to be handled by the traders as the products reach to the traders and then from traders to the retailers and ultimately to the consumers. Along with consumers’ acceptance, these kinds of products must meet certain level of yield, maturity and resistance/tolerance to diseases and pests. Accordingly, these are designed and bred by the commercial seed companies which operate as per demand of the markets. Private seed companies operate on a business model and generate their own revenue to keep the companies running and therefore these seed companies are bound to design and breed commercially viable products. Thus, all plant breeding activities which occur at the research farm and laboratory of private seed companies aimed at designing and delivering commercially viable products are called as commercial plant breeding activities. While designing such project and running the plant breeding activities at the research farm and laboratories of the private seed companies, the emphasis has to be on ‘how to do’ and ‘how quickly to do’ rather than ‘why to do’. ‘Why to do’ issue is not totally ignored and this gets due consideration while formulating the research project based on extensive deliberations between various departments, namely, R&D, Sales and Marketing, Product Development, and Seed Production.

The term commercial plant breeding is generally not in use in public sector research institutes and the agricultural universities and certainly not in class room teachings and discussions while teaching courses on plant breeding and related courses under the domain of plant breeding. There the focus is on theory in contrast to applications which form the backbone of commercial plant breeding as practiced by the commercial organizations such as private sector seed companies which have to earn revenue by selling the products to meet the operational expenditure of running the companies and also to earn profit to run the activities of the company on long term basis in a sustainable manner and to invest in R&D. Therefore, a working definition of commercial plant breeding could be as follows.

1. Introduction

Nursery raising is as old as agriculture and has many advantages compared to direct seeding in special situations like vegetable cultivation and other high value plants. There are several types of nurseries to cater different crop species like ornamental plants, fruit plants, forest plants and vegetables, although the fundamental concept of all these nurseries is the same. With the advent of drip system, soilless media and plasticulture the nursery system has also become more modern and automated. A nursery is a area or place for growing and looking after young seedlings/plants until they are ready for planting in the main field. 

The Government of India has established boards for important crops. The boards are statutory bodies which help in guiding the production and export. The main objectives for setting up the boards are -

To monitor and promote the export of primary items.

To empower the producers by providing trainings and close guidance.

To conduct research to improve the commodity, e.g. Central Coffee Research Institute, Coir Research Institute etc.

To advise the government on policy matters such as price fixing, fixing quota for export and signing trade agreements.

To promote the commodity by opening offices and outlets in India and abroad.

To showcase the commodity by participating in trade fairs and exhibitions.

1. FRUIT CROPS

1.1 Physiological Disorders

A wide variety of physiological disorders are found in apple fruit, but the susceptibility varies with variety, pre-harvest factors and post harvest conditions. Disorders can be considered in three categories:

1. Disorders that develop only on the tree: Most important is watercore in which intercellular air spaces in the core and cortical tissues become filled with liquid, Presence of watercore in fruit at harvest creates problems in certain varieties such as ‘Delicious’ because fruit with moderate or severe watercore can develop breakdown during storage.
2. Disorders that develop on the tree and during storage: Bitter pit is a disorder characterized by development of discrete pitting of the cortical flesh. Rapid cooling, CA storage and application of postharvest calcium drenches may be able to reduce its occurrence.
3. Disorders that develop during storage: Senescent breakdown disorders, chilling disorders and disorders associated with inappropriate atmospheres during storage are common disorders. The most common disorders associated with temperature and atmospheres are superficial scald, soft scald, low temperature breakdown, brown core, internal browning, low O2 injury, and high CO2 injury.

A

Abnormal seedling: Abnormal seedlings are those seedlings which do not show the capacity for continued development in to normal plants when grown in good quality soil under favourable conditions of water supply, temperature and light.

Abortion: Loss of reproductive structures (e.g. a flower or an ovule) during development or arrest of development of any organ so that it remains imperfect or fails to reach maturity.

Absolute humidity: The amount of water vapour present in a given volume of atmosphere, usually expressed in g water per kg dry air, or g water per cubic meter air.

ABSTRACT

The tissue culture derived black pepper plants of variety Panniyur 4 were compared with conventional propagules for its vegetative growth and field performance. The in vitro derived plants recorded better rooting, survival rate and shoot growth than the conventional propagules. More than 90% of the TC derived plants recovered after primary hardening and 99% recovered after secondary hardening, while it was only 70% in conventional propagules at both the hardening stages. The secondary roots developed in TC derived plants were observed to be far more superior in number and length. The initial growth rate in terms of plant height, number and size of leaves was much better in TC derived plants. The TC derived plants developed numerous bearing shoots - laterals - in the first year of growth and started bearing in the first year itself. The performance was superior to conventional propagules in which production of laterals and bearing begins much later. Thus the performance of TC derived plants was rated as superior to conventional propagules.

ABSTRACT

Protoplast isolation of Piper nigrum L.and Piper colubrinum Link. was attempted using axenic leaves at two different osmotic potentials viz. 0.60 and 0.65 molar (M) osmoticum. In Piper nigrum, highest protoplast yield (6.90 x 10⁴ protoplasts ml^-1) was observed in the enzyme combination 1.40 per cent cellulase and 0.310 per cent pectinase while in Piper colubrinum, highest protoplast yield (13.0 x 10⁴ protoplasts ml^-1) was observed in the enzyme combination 1.0 per cent cellulase and 0.217 per cent pectinase during 21 h of digestion. In both the species, 0.6 M osmoticum was found to be optimum to maintain the osmotic potential of the isolation solution. Filtration-centrifugation technique was found to be superior in purifying the protoplasts of Piper species compared to sucrose floatation method. Centrifugation at 1000 rpm for three minutes was found to be best in purifying Piper nigrum protoplasts. For purifying Piper colubrinum protoplasts, 600 rpm for three minutes was found optimum. The protocol developed for protoplast isolation in Piper species can be used for biotechnological means like somatic hybridization between the two and gene transfer to develop foot rot resistant black pepper lines.

The food plants of world are damaged by more than 10,000 species of insects, 30,000 species of weeds, 1,00,000 diseases (caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms and 1000 species of nematodes (Hall, 1995). The global losses due to various categories of pests vary with the crop, geographic location and weather. Total yield losses from different pests to all the crops have been estimated to be US$ 500 billion worldwide (Oerke et al., 1994). In India, the current losses due to insect pests in principal field crops have been estimated to be Rs. 6, 89,400 million (Dhaliwal et al., 2004). In addition, there is loss of Rs. 60,000 million due to insect pests during storage. Thus, total losses to major crops and food grains in storage caused by insect pests are estimated to be Rs. 750 billion annually (Dhaliwal and Arora, 2006). Among regions, losses in Asia and Africa almost reaches 50 percent whereas in Europe (28.2%), North America (31.2%) and Oceania (36.2%) are below average. Losses due to animal pests in Asia (18.7%) are almost double those in developed countries and losses from weed competition in Africa and Asia are approximately double than those in Europe (Oerke et al., 1994). To combat such heavy losses mostly chemical pesticides are used by the farmers but indiscriminate use of pesticides has led to severe ecological consequences like destruction of natural enemy fauna, effect on non target organisms, residues in consumable products including packed pure and mineral water and ultimately resistance to the pesticides, to which we solely rely. Insecticides are always required to suppress rapidly expanding insect pest populations. Strategies should be employed to increase efficiency and accelerate insect mortality by combining microbials with sub lethal doses of chemical insecticides and botanicals. Biointensive pest management (BIPM) is the recent trend in Indian farming and attracting the farmers for higher income to their produce. This has resulted due to increased awareness among the end users and concerns about the deteriorating ecological situations among the eco-campaigners.

Microbial pesticides consist of disease causing microorganisms, which are disseminated in the pest populations in large quantities in a manner similar to application of chemical pesticides. It includes bacteria, viruses, fungi, nematodes and some protozoans. Pathogens may exert controlling effect by means of their invasive properties, toxins, enzymes and other substances (Lewis, 2006). The use of microbial insecticide has been proved to be a viable alternative to chemical insecticides, especially in management of forest insect pests. The combination of particular active ingredients and their ability of replication in host populations in the fields define the major differences between microbial insecticides and chemical insecticides. These differences have practical implications for their use in insect pest management programmes.

Composites defined as advanced generation populations maintained by random mating in the material constituted through mixing of equal quantity of seeds of crosses showing less inbreeding depression in F2 over F1. The components of composites inbreds, open-pollinated populations, locally available open-pollinated cultivars, hybrids, advanced generation lines, improved populations. Mixing the seeds of several phenotypically outstanding lines produces a composite variety and encouraging open pollination to produce crosses in all combinations among, the mixed lines. The lines used to produce a composite variety are rarely or not tested for combining ability with each other like as done in case of synthetics where the combining ability of the component lines is invariably tested for GCA. Composite are commercial varieties and are maintained by open - pollination in isolation. While mixing the seeds of various genotypes, care should be taken that the component lines are similar in maturity height, seed size, colour, etc. so that the composite maintained through random mating in isolation manifests a reasonable degree of phenotypic uniformity. The variety is maintained by open pollination. Farmers can use their own seed for 3 to 4 years.

1. INTRODUCTION

Juices and pulps are produced from a wide variety of fruits and vegetables around the world, while some medicinal plants and herbs are also used for preparation of extract of beneficial bioactive compounds. These juices and extracts contain very high proportions (upto 75-90%) of water. Due to their seasonal nature, these products can not be produced round the year in various parts of the world. Preservation, storage, transportation and marketing of single strength juices, pulps and extracts is not at all economical due to the presence of large quantities of water. Under these circumstances, the technology of concentration offers many advantages.

In chemistry, concentration, as a state, may be defined as “the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture” and can be mathematically explained in four types i.e. mass concentration, volume concentration, molar concentration and number concentration. Generally, the term concentration can be applied to any mixture (solid or liquid) but most frequently it refers to the presence of solutes in solvents. Mass concentration is defined as mass/volume (m/V) of mixture and represented in kg/m³, volume concentration as volume of a constituent divided by the volume of all constituents of the mixture (v/V) and represented in m³/m³, molar concentration as moles of a constituent divided by the volume of all constituents of the mixture (n/V) and represented in mol/m³, while, number concentration is defined as the number of entities of a constituent in a mixture divided by the volume of the mixture (N/V) represented in 1/m³.

In food technology or fruit juice industry in particular, concentration refers to a process of separation of water (or any other solvent) from the solids of the pulp, juice, extract by making use of any of the three basic methods i.e. evaporation, freezing and membrane technology. Pulps, juices and extracts are the basic material used for preparation of various types of processed products. But due to their bulk and presence of large quantities of water they are difficult to store and transport. Concentration of juices, not only provides microbial stability, but also reduces the costs of packaging, transportation and storage by reducing the bulk of the material. Concentrated juice, contains far less water than normal, or “not-from-concentrate” forms of juice.

Plant genetic resources represent both the basis for agricultural development and a reservoir of genetic adaptability that acts as a buffer against environmental changes. The erosion of these resources threatens world food security. From an agricultural utilitarian standpoint, plant genetic resources can be considered limited and perishable natural resources. PGR forms a distinct group and include all plant species, which contribute to people livelihoods by providing food, medicine, feed for domestic animals, fibres, clothing, shelter, energy and other uses and are subject to cultivation by man as well as the wild relatives of these species. Genetic diversity simply means all the variety of genes that exist in a particular variety or species. They provide the raw material (genes) which, when used and combined in the right way, produce new and better plant varieties, and are an irreplaceable source of such characteristics as resistance to disease, local adaptation, and productivity. Plant genetic resources are now, and will continue to be in the future, of inestimable value independently of whether scientists use them by means of conventional plant breeding or modern genetic engineering. These genes are dispersed throughout local cultivars and natural plant populations that have been selected over thousands of years by farmers and nature for their characteristics of adaptation, resistance and/or productivity. The road to a continuous increase in the production and quality of food lies through the protection and efficient utilization of plant genetic resources; this requires their conservation, evaluation, documentation and exchange.

Introduction

National Gene Banks are now entering into an era of increased activity and responsibility, particularly for managing their own indigenous germplasm activities extending from collection to actual use of the genetic variation in crop improvement programmes. However, these tasks must be achieved with limited resources in best possible time frame. The core collection offers a potential opportunity to meet these challenges. Recognising that the sheer size of a germplasm collection could deter its use, Frankel (1984) proposed that it could be pruned to a ‘core collection’, which would represent, “with minimum repetitiveness, the genetic diversity of a crop species and its relatives”. The core collection consist of a limited set of accessions derived from a germplasm collection, chosen to represent the genetic spectrum in the whole collection, and including as much as possible of its genetic diversity (Brown, 1995). The remaining accessions would not necessarily be discarded but would be managed as a ‘reserve collection’. The proposal, the rationale, purposes and general principles of core collections have been critically examined (Brown, 1989 a and b). As to the size of a core collection, sampling theory of selective neutral alleles in finite populations indicate that about 10 % drawn randomly from the whole collection was relatively efficient in retaining its allelic variation (about 70 % retained). The core collection concept has attracted considerable discussion and debate in the past and has met criticism in many areas. Most of these concerns appear to arise from misuse or misunderstanding of the core approach and a number of core collections have been established during the past decade.

Food waste and loss is an enormous issue worldwide. The FAO states that ‘Hunger is still one of the most urgent development challenges, yet the world is producing more than enough food’, but a vast amount of what is produced gets lost on its way from the field to the consumer. According to the FAO, about 30% of cereals, 20% of dairy products, 35% of fish and seafood, 45% of fruits and vegetables, 20% of meat, 20% of oilseed and pulses and 45% of roots and tubers are lost or wasted. Postharvest food loss is defined as measurable qualitative and quantitative food loss along the supply chain, starting at the time of harvest till its consumption or other end uses. Food losses can either be the result of a direct quantitative loss, for example, during the process of harvest or transport or arise indirectly due to losses in crop quality such as undesired sprouting or water loss. Postharvest food loss consists of many factors, which have not changed much in the last 40 years and so postharvest food loss in general has not changed much. Figure 1 illustrates the main reasons for food loss along the supply chain and is based on ‘The food pipeline’ published by Bourne in 1977. Food loss is highest during storage due to pathogens (insects, bacteria and moulds), environmental conditions (e.g. rain, humidity, heat and frost), sprouting and quality loss (rancidity, water loss and saccharification) or animals (rodents and birds). Recently published data for Switzerland have shown that about 53%-55% of the initial fresh potato production and 41%-46% of the initial processing potato production are lost mostly due to pathogen infection, saccharification, water loss of tubers and early sprouting during storage (Buchholz et al, 2018).

Drought is one of the most frequent and widely spread stress factors that limit the production of vegetables in the world. Nearly every piece of cultivated land including those in the irrigated areas could be subjected to drought. However, the frequency, duration, severity, timing and extent of drought vary greatly from region to region.

The stress caused by deficit water in the living plant system, which is capable of inducing a potential injury, is called drought stress. Drought can also be defined as scarcity of water for plants and can be due to soil, atmospheric and physiological factors. In our conditions, the great damage to the production of vegetables is brought about by soil drought, which occurs when rapidly available water is spent from zone of the active rhizosphere. That particular moment represents the beginning of drought and as the water reserves in the soil become closer to the lower limit of optimum moisture, the drought becomes more intensive. Under such conditions, plants survive on the limited water available in the active rhizosphere and deeper soil layers, and this water is used to maintain essential life processes at the expense of crop yield.

The lack of precipitation causes drought; the area of cultivable soil in our country under irrigation is very small and so is the possibility to diminish the negative consequences of occasional shortage of precipitation. Aiming to reduce damage caused by drought, a huge number of research-experiments on drought, especially on tolerance has been conducted worldwide. Here, the attempts have been made to review the work done on drought tolerance by national and international centers.

Abstract

Dual inoculation of Rhizobium + VAM coupled with recommended NPK doses was found to produce the highest bean pod (6.38, 6.40 qha-1) and straw (35.11,35.35 qha-1) dry matter production and resulted in higher macro and micronutrient contents in bean leaves which were to the tune of 4.05, 4.06%N,0.44, 0.49 %P, 2.65, 2.66 %K, 2.65, 2.67%Ca, 64.67, 64.59 ppm Zn, 242, 242.2 ppm Fe, and 36, 36.33 ppm Mn. Under this treatment increase in bean pod and straw dry matter production during the years 2002 and 2003 was to the tune of 130, 131 and 81, 83 per cent, respectively over control.

Arecanut is an important traditional plantation crop of India and South-Eastern Asia. Also known as “betel nut”, the kernel is obtained from its fruit. It is mostly used by the people as masticatory and is an essential requisite during several religious, social and cultural functions of India. Arecanut has been widely used in East Africa, South-East Asia, and the Pacific Ocean islands, providing economic security for millions of people and for many sole means of livelihood in the Indian sub-continent. Arecanut is commercially cultivated in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Its current world production is 17.96 lakh tonnes from 12.26 lakh ha (FAO STAT, 2020).

Biodiversity is a matter of concern to everyone as most of the economic sectors depends on it e.g. agriculture depends on it for wild genetic resources and biological control, human health depends on nature for many pharmaceuticals, industry requires raw materials which come from the nature, tourism increasingly base its attraction on natural amenities linked to biodiversity, water resources require intact vegetation to protect watershed and prevent siltation, disaster prevention needs natural vegetation to help people to respond to drought and the lists goes on and on (Mc Neely, 2004). Each of these sectors needs to be reminded of its reliance on biodiversity and provided with opportunity to invest in insuring the continued survival of the biological basis of their prosperity. Thus biodiversity has emerged as an integral aspect of human life and hence undoubtedly one of the keystone of sustainable development. Biodiversity in arid lands are under severe threats due to habitat destruction (Manuder and Clubbe, 2002), invasion of species (O’Kennen et al., 1999) dilution of customary conservation practices, climate change (Given, 1994; WCMC, 1992), increasing human population, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, grazing pressure etc.

India is floristically extremely rich with about 33 per cent of its botanical wealth (over 15,000 species of higher plants) being endemic. There are about 141 endemic genera distributed over 47 families (Nayar, 1980) the 4,900 endemic species, a large number are localised in the Himalayas (about 2,532 species), compared with the peninsular tract (1,788 species), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (185 species). Indian region is a major centre of domestication and diversity of crop plants (Zeven and de Wet, 1982; Arora, 1991). About 33 per cent of the cultivated plant species have theirorigin in this region (Damania, 2002). The Indian sub continent is a centre of domestication and diversification of several economically useful wild plant species comprising about 3,000 plants of edible value, 4,000 species having known reputed medicinal value, 700 plants of traditional and social significance, 500 fibre-yielding species, 400 fodder plants, 40 plants having insectivorous uses, 300 gum and dye yielding plants and 100 aromatic and essential oil-yielding species (Arora, 1991).

Biofertilizers can directly or indirectly influence the growth of plant. The direct influence can be through production of phytohormones or making the nutrients available to plants. The indirect effect can be through management of plant pathogens through biological control. Therefore, the purposeful introduction of biofertilizer inoculants to plant microbiome represents an environmentally sound option that holds a prominent position in order to reduce the dependency on agrochemicals (Adesemoye and Kloepper, 2009; Abhilash et al., 2016; Aloo, et al., 2019).

Microbes in soil can rarely exists as single cells and survive near the plant root canopy or in bulk soils or endophytes or even on plant surfaces (Lorito, 2006). The soil microflora occurs as complex members of microbiota (Hacquard, 2015). Microbial consortia (MC) are unique mixture of organisms which respond to the environment stress and adapt to stresses due to internal beneficial interactions among the microbial community. Ecosystem’s physiological functions by microflora is carried out by more than one microbial species with the functional diversity and succession among different microbial components. The microbial balance among the different microflora of a MC will consist of a continuous shift between actively growing cells and non-dividing cells of the microbial consortia. It has been reported that different microbial populations “talk” to each other by “quorum sensing” mechanism in a given environment by exchanging specific chemical signals (Thompson, 2015). Natural microbial consortia holds many specific properties like stability, functional diversity and perform complex functions. The natural consortia have generated an interest in manpulating synthetic consortia for the benefit of application (Minty, et al., 2013).

It has been well established that the biofertilizers are beneficial to plants and are cost-effective inputs for sustainable production system. However, there are some constraints with respect to its production, which are presented below:

10.1 Production constraints

10.1.1 Raw material

Eventhough there are large number of biofertilizer formulations, only few are considered as good carrier materials for biofertilizers such as peat and lignite. Moreover, its availability in India is limited and the quality is lacking for these carrier materials. Hence, a cost effective and locally available material with increased shelf-life is the need of the hour.

10.1.2 Specificity and availability of strains

As the microbial strains used as biofertilizers are specific to soil and agro-ecological conditions, availability of specific strains for the specific host and soil edaphic factors are inadequate.

The basic feature of the Pre-British India was a village, which was economically a water-tight compartment fulfilling the three basic functions of economy, i.e., production, distribution and consumption, within the village community without outside world dependence, except the salt and kerosene. Every village was a self-sufficient unit with dependence on agriculture carried out by community people of different castes having the occupational specialization with interdependence, viz. jajmani system and alike.

Developments in the means of communications and the opening of Suez Canal in 1869 introduced fundamental and far-reaching changes in the social system and economic life of Indians by transforming self-sufficient village economy to new modes and means based on competition, market and price mechanism. This change was deliberated by Britishers for meeting the requirement of raw material and the diversification to tea, jute and indigo took place. Cotton also got importance but agriculture did not find place for vegetables. Famines were very common and crop production depended on monsoon rains to the large extent. Britishers developed cotton, jute and mineral trade for their vested interests.

Britishers emphasized the development of railways for better mobility of their troops, commercial crop produce and minerals but the Report of Famine Commission 1901 bitterly criticized the Government for the step-motherly treatment given to irrigation facilities as compared to railways. The irrigation policy of the Government in 19th century was determined purely from concerns for adequate returns on investment and profit was of Rs. 81 lakhs after paying 4% interest on amount invested on irrigation development in 1896-97. Irrigation Commission was established and a sum of Rs. 42 crore was spent on irrigation by 1911. By 1930, about 30 million acres were brought under canal irrigation, which was far larger than the irrigated area in any other country of the world. Even in the USA, the area under canal irrigation was two-third that of India. Vegetables cultivation did not find place in Indian agriculture and also in diet of villagers. Their cultivation remained restricted to the periphery of the urban centres for meeting the demand of upper class elites only.

Protected cultivation is an innovative farming approach that involves either naturally ventilated or customized temperature-controlled structures, designed to suit regional weather patterns and the specific needs of cultivated plants. Primarily utilized for vegetables and floriculture, these protected structures create a controlled environment that shields crops from unpredictable climate fluctuations.
This technology grants farmers precise control over crucial factors such as temperature, humidity, light intensity, disease prevention, fertigation, and irrigation, catering to the unique requirements of each crop. Consequently, the practice empowers farmers to enhance profits and achieve a year-round harvest.
GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION
Greenhouse construction entails the strategic design and assembly of a structure that offers a controlled environment for optimal plant growth. The framework is typically built using materials such as aluminum, steel, or treated wood, while the covering may consist of polyethylene film, polycarbonate sheets, or glass—each selected for its durability and light-transmitting properties.
Critical aspects of greenhouse construction include selecting an appropriate site, proper orientation for maximum sunlight exposure, establishing a stable foundation, and ensuring efficient framing and cladding. The overall objective is to enhance light penetration, maintain suitable temperature and humidity levels, and ensure adequate ventilation to support healthy and productive crop development.

Fruits are living commodities which continue to respire and transpire even after harvest. The storage life of fresh fruits is indirectly proportional to the rate of their respiration which in turn depends on the atmospheric gas composition in which they are stored. Normal air contains about 20.9% oxygen (O2), 78.0% Nitrogen (N₂) and 0.03% carbondioxide (CO₂). Lower levels of O₂ and higher levels of CO₂ in the storage environment result in reduced rate of respiration, delayed ripening and increased storage life. The reduction in O₂ concentration and increase in CO₂ concentration in the storage room with precise control and maintenance of these gases throughout the storage period is generally referred as controlled atmosphere (CA) storage.

CA storage is generally used for long term storage or long distance transportation of fruits in combination with low temperature storage. The use of CA storage for extending the post harvest life of fruits has increased steadily worldwide during the past 60 years. This trend is expected to continue with the advancement of technologies in attaining and maintaining CA during transport, storage and marketing of fresh fruits.

9.1 INTRODUCTION

When a new individual arises from a somatic cell without formation of a seed, it is called vegetative propagation. Vegetative propagation occurs naturally (i.e., natural vegetative propagation) in many crops, and profitably exploited in horticulture using either conventional or biotechnological artificial techniques. We shall discuss conventional artificial vegetative propagation in this chapter including cuttings, grafting, budding, layering, suckering, etc. They have been widely used for commercial propagation of fruit trees and ornamental shrubs.

Cooling systems play a vital role in cold chain logistics, serving as essential components that regulate temperature for storage, processing, and transportation. An efficient cooling system ensures that food and other perishable products remain fresh for extended periods, even before they begin their journey. Various cold chain products require specific temperature settings to maintain their quality and integrity until they reach their final destination.
For instance, tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapples must be stored at a consistent temperature between 12°C and 14°C. If the temperature exceeds this range, the fruits may ripen prematurely, compromising their quality. Likewise, food items like milk, vegetables, and other perishable fruits should be cooled within the range of 2°C to 4°C. This temperature effectively eliminates harmful pathogens and prevents bacterial growth, preserving the freshness of the produce.
For businesses dealing with frozen food, seafood, or ice cream, a more advanced cooling system is necessary—one that can maintain temperatures as low as -30°C. Such systems are essential to prevent thawing and spoilage, ensuring that frozen goods remain in optimal condition throughout their transportation and storage.

Botany:Coriandrum sativum belonging to the family Umbelliferae. It is an annual soft shrub that attains a height of 1 to 3 feet. Leaves are in basal cluster varies from 3 to 15 cm in length and are oblong to ovate in shape. Leaflets are 1 to 2 centimeter in length and are ovate to round. Flower is of white color which can vary from light purple to creamish in color. These appear in umbles. Fruit is roundish in shape bearing color that varies from yellow to brown. It is tripped and gets divided in to two then crushed with fingers. The plant flowers and fruits in late winters.

Land Requirement: Land to be used for seed production of coriander should be free from volunteer plants

Varieties: CO 1, CO 2, CO 3, CO (CR) 4, GAU 1, UD 1, UD 2, UD 20 and UD 21

Soil: Well drained black cotton soil and red loamy soil. For rainfed cultivation soil should be clay in nature and the pH should be 6 – 8.Coriander performs well at a temperature range of 20 – 25 °C.

Climate: Cool and comparatively dry, frost free climate

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.

12.1 Introduction

It is important to note that growing crops in a greenhouse requires a significant f inancial and administrative commitment. In order to ensure profitability, firms need to consider both cash flow and profitability. An enterprise budget can help address profitability potential by itemizing costs incurred across a typical production cycle. On the other hand, a cash flow budget is used to analyze the cash inflows and outflows of the enterprise over a fixed period of time.

Problem: Cost of cultivation depending upon the seed and time. More yields can be obtained during right time of sowing, but net profit is very less due to the glut in the market. We can get more return from early or late sown crop during both the season due to the high cost in the market.

There are different types of greenhouses, the low cost and high cost or low technology or high technology greenhouses. The cost of greenhouse and expenditure on crop production under these greenhouses would vary according to technology to be used and the crop is to be produced. The cost would vary from place to place with location of greenhouse. For each type of greenhouse its cost would vary according to geo-climate, the production practices and input expenditure/availability. The cost of construction of greenhouse in 2019 hence varies from Rupees 500 to 6000 per square meter.

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.

Botanical description

Cowpea belong to genus Vigna and species unguiculata (L) Walp (Syn V. sinensis Savi) of the family Leguminosae sub family Fabacae.

Floral biology

The flowers of cowpea are hermaphrodite. Self-pollination is effected though with some cross-pollination.

Climate and Soil

Cowpea is a warm season crop, and therefore it can be grown both in spring and in rainy seasons in the plains of India. It cannot tolerate cold weather, heavy rainfall and water logging.

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. 

Southern pea / black eyed pea are the other names associate with cowpea. It is grown for vegetable and also as pulse crop and varieties are specific for use.

Classification of Cowpea
1.    Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. Cv. Sesquipedalis: yard long bean or asparagus bean: Possess long pods and used as vegetable. 
2.    Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. Cv. Cylindrica: dual purpose, i.e. vegetable and pulse 
3.    Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp cv. Radiata: Pulse type.
 
More emphasis is given for pulse types for crop improvement. Less attention is given to vegetable types. Pole and bush types are available in vegetable type. Cowpea improvement is from vine to bushy habit with low fiber content and low glucosides and increased protein content.
Origin and Distribution: Cowpea is in cultivation from ancient times in the tropics of old world. Country of origin is uncertain. In India, it has been known from the vedic times. Vavilov (1939) considered India as the primary centre of origin. But it is now generally agreed that Africa is centre of origin since wild forms are found in Africa and in Asia wild forms are absent (Smartt, 1990). Faris (1965) concluded that, cowpea arose from domestication of wild form Vigna unguiculata ssp dekindtiana in West Africa. But domestication is actually happened in Ethiopia and dissemination was West wards Africa, East ward across the Indian Ocean. It has spread from Africa to Asia and Europe through Egypt. Introduced to West Indies in 16th century by Spaniards and was taken to USA around 1700. Now cowpea is widely distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics.

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.

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

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).

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus var. sativus L., 2x = 2n = 14, normally monoecious, cross-pollinated) is a member of the economically important family Cucurbitaceae which includes squash/pumpkin (Cucurbita ssp.), watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai], melon (Cucumis melo L.) and gourds. After tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and watermelon, cucumber and melon are cultivated more widely than any other vegetable species globally accounting for about 2.5 million ha and producing 43 million tons giving a productivity of over 17 tons/ha under field and greenhouse culture. Production of cucumber is the second largest of all cucurbits, where China, Iran, Russia, Turkey and the United States represent about 75% of the world production.

During 2017-18, India produced 1.25 million tons of cucumber from 0.08 million ha (80, 000) area resulting into a productivity of close to 16 tons/ha (MAFW, 2018). Top ten cucumber producing states in India in the same period are Haryana (17000 ha), MP (9500 ha), Karnataka (8300 ha), Assam (6900 ha), Maharashtra (4500 ha), Andhra Pradesh (4400 ha), Bihar (3900 ha), Punjab (3600 ha), Kerala (3400 ha) and UP (3300 ha).

Cucumber, both slicing and pickling types, is one of the most popular vegetable crops of the family Cucurbitaceae. Like other cucurbitaceous crops, the cucumber also requires a warm season for commercial cultivation and has little or no tolerance to frost. Temperatures above 20°C are optimal for cucumber growth and development. Currently, its cultivars are generally classified as either pickling or slicing types, each with its own set of quality attributes. Pickling types typically have more prominent warts (tubercles) and lighter-coloured skin. They are harvested more frequently at the immature stage, when their length and diameter (LD) ratios are lower. The LD ratio for pickles typically falls within the range of 2.8 to 3.2. On the other hand, slicing cucumbers are harvested and commonly sold in lengths ranging from 12 to 25 cm, with diameters ranging from 1.5 to nearly 7.5 cm. Most slicing cucumbers have cylindrical-shaped fruit with blocky or slightly rounded ends that taper slightly from the stem to the blossom end. Generally, slicers have an LD ratio greater than 4.0, a smooth surface, and thicker skin compared to pickling types. This difference is accentuated because slicers are harvested at later stages of maturity than pickling cucumbers.

Cucumber, Cucumis sativus under the family Cucurbitaceae (Chromosome No: 2n = 2× =14) is grown throughout the world for consumption of fresh and tender fruits as slicing cucumber, and for pickles as pickling cucumber. Slicing cucumbers are usually larger and have thicker skins, while pickling cucumbers are usually smaller and have thinner skins. The flesh of cucumbers is rich vitamin C, and folic acid, fibre and a range of minerals including magnesium, molybdenum and potassium.
Origin, domestication and adaptation in India
The genus Cucumis, which includes cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and melon (Cucumis melo), has numerous wild African species, and it has therefore been assumed that
melon originated in Africa. For cucumber, this seemed less likely because wild cucumbers exist in India and a closely related species, Cucumis hystrix is available in the Eastern Himalayas. Using DNA sequences from plastid and nuclear markers for some 100 Cucumis accessions from Africa, Australia, and Asia, Sebastian et al (2010) concluded that melon and cucumber are of Asian origin and have numerous previously overlooked species-level relatives in Australia and around the Indian Ocean.