eChapters

1. Introduction

The status of mechanization in India is at a very low level for horticultural crops. The farmers usually go behind the use of traditional methods for different farm operations (Fig 1) and practices for cultivation of horticultural crops, their handling, storage, and processing. This results in less yields, high cost of cultivation and high crop losses from harvesting till processing. The use of different available hand tools, machinery and hi-tech technologies in the production and processing of the crops will lead to increased yields and decrease in losses to a great extent (Mandhar, 1999).

Introduction
Spices have been considered significant in the culinary art from time immemorial. India, “The Homeland of Spices” is one among the largest producers, consumers and exporters of spices as well as spice products. Spices comprise different plant components such as floral parts or fruits or berries or seeds or rhizomes or roots or leaves or kernel or aril or bark or bulbs. The recorded history of the use of spices dates back to 5000 years or so from the Egyptian or at the most from the Indus valley civilization. Spices are used for flavouring, seasoning and imparting aroma in various cuisines. Besides these inherent qualities, some of them are known to be fungistatic, antimicrobial or antibiotic. They are also processed into numerous ‘value added’ products such as oleoresins, essential oils, curry powder etc. Black pepper, cardamom and turmeric are the major spice crops and its production and marketing are the main economy stays of lakhs of people of the country. Billions of rupees are involved in domestic trading and foreign export. Therefore, it is highly imperative for farmers to adopt the advanced practices to sustain spices productivity. Even, additional income could be generated from the intercropping of spices from the interspaces in mango orchards (Shukla and Adak, 2020). Thus the present chapter included all aspects of production to protection and value addition for  the benefits of growers.

Lipids are a class of compounds that are defined by how they are isolated, rather than by their composition. Lipids are molecules that can be extracted from plants and animals by low polarity solvents such as ether, chloroform, or even acetone. They are not appreciably soluble in water. Fats and the fatty acids from which they are made belong to this group as do oils, waxes and steroids. Hydrolyzable lipids are those that contain a functional group that will react with water. The functional group is usually an ester and the list of compounds includes neutral fats, waxes, phospholipids, and glycolipids. Non- hydrolyzable lipids lack such functional groups and include steroids and fat-soluble vitamins (e.g. A, D, E, and K).

Fats and oils are composed of triacylglycerols. These are compounds prepared by the union of glycerol (1,2, 3-tri- hydroxypropane) and 3 fatty acids to form a triester. Fats and oils belong to a group of biological substances called lipids. Lipids are biological chemicals that do not dissolve in water. They serve a variety of functions in organisms, such as regulatory messengers (hormones), structural components of membranes, and as energy storehouses. Fats and oils generally function in the latter capacity. Fats differ from oils only in that they are solid at room temperature, while oils are liquid. Fats and oils share a common molecular structure. The fats and oils contain three ester functional groups. Fats and oils are esters of the tri- alcohol, glycerol (or glycerine). Therefore, fats and oils are commonly called triglycerides, although a more accurate name is triacylglycerols. Triglyceride molecules contain mostly carbon and hydrogen atoms, with only six oxygen atoms per molecule. This means that fats and oils are highly reduced (un-oxidized). Oils are particularly common in seeds, where the stored energy helps seedlings during germination, until they can exploit solar energy through photosynthesis. Fatty acids contain an even number of carbon atoms, from 4 to 36, bonded in an unbranched chain. Most of the bonds between carbon atoms are single bonds. If all of these bonds are single bonds, the fatty acid is said to be saturated, because the number of atoms attached to each carbon atom is the maximum of four. If some of the bonds between carbon atoms are double bonds, then the fatty acid is unsaturated. When there is only one double bond, it is usually between the 9th and 10th carbon atom in the chain, where the carbon atom attached to the oxygen atoms is counted as the first carbon atom. If there is a second double bond, it usually occurs between the 12th and 13th carbon atoms, while a third is usually between the 15th and 16th.

Thrips : Thrips flavus : Thripidae

Infestation of thrips is generally during hot months with high night humidity.  The attack by thrips leads to discolouration, bronzing and drying of affected leaves.

Semilooper : Thysanoplusia orichalcea  : Noctuidae

Bluish green or grey coloured eggs are laid singly on lower surface of leaves.  Larvae feed voraciously on leaves and defoliate plants.

Botany:Fenugreek is a leguminous plant, belonging to the Papilionaceae family. Fenugreek is an annual herbaceous plant between 20 and 50cm high. (sometimes up to 100cm.). Its stem is erect, branched, grooved and with little pubescence. The leaves are compound, petiolate, oblong leaflets formed by three kills reminding those of alfalfa. White or yellow flowers , isolated or arranged in pairs. Fenugreek fruits are narrow and elongated pods. They contain 10 to 20 seeds, tiny yellow, quadrangular, with a groove in the central part dividing them into two unequal lobes.

Land Requirements: Land to be used for seed production of Kasuri methi and methi shall be free from volunteer plants.

Varieties: Co 1, Pusa Early Bunching, Lam selection 1, Rajendra Kranti, Kissar Sonali, RMT1and CO 2.

Soil: A rich well drained loamy soil is best suited.

Climate: Cool and comparatively dry, frost free climate. It requires a warm climate with mild temperatures for a good seed production (between 8 and 27°C).It grows well in full sun. Sow it in places sheltered from the wind. Resistant to frost and temperatures down to -5°C. However, low temperatures during planting causes not all seeds to germinate.

Season: June - July and October - November.

Fermentation was known to mankind from time immemorial. But, development of biochemical principles of  fermentation  was originated by  Lavoisier in France in 1789 by way of analysing chemical composition of  sugar and its fermentation products such as ethanol, carbon dioxide and  acetic acid. Many products are produced by fermentation process. In fermentation, controlled action of selected microorganisms is used to alter  texture of foods, preserve foods by production of acids or alcohol or to produce fine flavours and aromas which increase value of raw materials.

1. INTRODUCTION

Fermentation is an age old technology. It has been used by man since antiquity. It has been employed to produce a number of fermented products such as wine, beer, curd, vinegar, pickles and several others. Fermentation was discovered quite early and by chance but the underlying principles were discovered very late. Primarly fermentation was used as a method of shelf-life extension of the produce in the time of glut production, though the final product had modified sensory qualities. Thus, fermentation and drying were the main methods of preservation. With the discovery of new methods of preservation, fermentation as a method of preservation has gone into background and as technique of flavour development and product with modified sensory quality came into practice. In this chapter, fermentation as a method of preservation has been described.

Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions.

Introduction

India is the second most populous country in the world. The per capita cultivable land resource is shrinking day by day. To meet the food, fibre, fuel, fodder, and other needs of the growing population, the productivity of agricultural land has necessarily to be increased. It requires increased use of agricultural inputs like quality seeds, fertilizers, water, agro-chemicals, etc. in such a manner that do not create any environmental problems.

Plant needs different chemical elements to grow and thrive. The most important chemical elements include (i) carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which are basic life building blocks and are available in plenty from air and water (ii) nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are the macro nutrients and affect the plant growth significantly (iii) sulfur, calcium, and magnesium as secondary nutrients and (iv) boron, chloride, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc as micronutrients in very small quantities.

14.1 INTRODUCTION

India is conferred with a varied agro-climatic condition which are highly favourable for growing a large number of horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, root tubers, ornamental, aromatic plants, medicinal herbs, spices and plantation crops like coconut, areca nut, cashew and cocoa (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GOI, 2008). India is next only to China in area and production of vegetables and occupies prime position in the production of caulif lower, second in onion and third in cabbage in the world. After achieving food security, it is being increasingly felt that India needs to achieve nutritional security for betterment of its population. In achieving nutritional security fruits and vegetables play an important role (Ganeshmurthy et al.2011). Although we have achieved good production levels of fruits and vegetables, the present production of fruits and vegetables may not be enough to meet out the demand. To feed the ever-increasing population in a sustainable way a tremendous effort will have to be made to increase the production of fruits and vegetables both horizontally and vertically through a rational and balanced use of production inputs, specially the mineral fertilizers. Soil fertility is a key factor for successful crop production, and it is a measure of capacity of soil to supply plant nutrients. The importance of soil fertility and fertilizer management is being increasingly recognized in all countries recently to meet the demand for food and other agricultural raw materials. Intensive use of fertilizer, intensive cropping with high yielding cultivars have increased the food production and reduced the food shortage, but it has also brought in numerous problems of soil fertility, soil and water pollution. On the other hand, fast depletion of nutrients due to over exploitation, a wide-spread deficiency of N, P, K and S coupled with micro-nutrients deficiencies especially Zn and boron has been noticed in many soils. Further deforestation, shifting cultivation, burning of trees, bushes, grasses and cow dung, soil erosion, soil degradation, nutrient losses, excessive fertilizer application, leaching losses etc., have aggravated the depletion of soil fertility status. It is being realized that the future of Indian agriculture is closely related to scientific management of soil fertility along with judicious and efficient use of fertilizers. Soil fertility and nutrient management is one of the important factors that have a direct impact on crop yield and quality. Soil test reports help in determining soil organic matter, pH, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, and levels of important macronutrients (phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium) and micronutrients (boron, zinc, etc.). These reports also help estimating lime or sulphur application rates to increase or reduce soil pH, respectively. Maintaining a soil pH between 6.0 and 7.0 is recommended for most crop rotations that include vegetable crops.

Fertilizer is a substance of natural or synthetic origin, applied to soils or to plant tissues (usually leaves) for the supply of one or more nutrients essential to the plant. It is classified in two types, inorganic fertilizers and organic fertilizers. Both the fertilizers play major role to the crops if they are properly and appropriately applied. To obtain maximum benefits, it is important to apply fertilizers at an appropriate time, amount and in a precise manner. The method of fertilizer application should be selected appropriately taking into consideration the age and stage of crop plants, their root extensibility, type of orchard management, kind and amount of fertilizers to be applied. The fertilizers should be given over the area of crop plants, where their active roots are spread. In fruit trees, fertilizer should be given in restricted area i.e. in the surrounding area of about 1 to 1.5 m away from the trunk of the trees in active root zone.

When to apply the fertilizers?

Majority of the crops require nutrients at different stages like growth & development, flowering and fruit setting time. In fruit crops, stages like new flushes emergence, floral buds differentiation and fruit development require more nutrients. Time of application of fertilizers may also vary depending on types of fertilizers, need of the crops, soil and climate.

Many materials can be applied to the soil as source of plant nutrients but the term fertilizer is often used to refer to relatively soluble nutrient sources with a high analysis or concentration. Commercially available fertilizers supply essential elements in a variety of chemical forms but many are relatively simple inorganic salts. Advantages of commercial fertilizers are their high water solubility, immediate availability to the plants, high concentration and low price per unit of nutrient, and the uniformity and accuracy with which specific amounts of available nutrients can be applied. Since they are relatively homogeneous compounds of fixed and known composition, it is fairly easy to calculate precise application rates and attain relatively consistent performance. This is in contrast to organic nutrient sources, which are a much greater challenge to manage because of their variable composition, variable nutrient availability and patterns of nutrient release that are greatly affected by temperature, moisture and other conditions that alter biological activity.

The solubility of commercial fertilizers can sometimes be a problem since soluble nutrients may move out of farm fields when applied in excess or large rains occur soon after fertilizer application. Soluble nutrients can be lost by leaching on well-drained soils and through tile outlets or in runoff on poorly drained soils. Denitrification can cause large losses of nitrate-N from water-saturated soils in wet springs.

Increasing soil cation exchange capacity by increasing organic matter reduces the movement and loss of some nutrients, although not nitrate-N (an anion). Management practices that synchronize nutrient availability with crop demand and uptake also minimize losses. Both application timing and the amount of fertilizer applied are important. Splitting fertilizer application into several small applications rather than a single large one is especially important to limit nitrogen leaching on well-drained sandy soils. Split nitrogen applications can also reduce nitrogen losses in runoff or from denitrification on poorly drained soils. Excess nutrient applications can be eliminated or at least significantly reduced by soil testing on a regular basis, setting realistic yield goals and fertilizing accordingly, accounting for all nutrient sources such as legumes, manure and other amendments and using plant analysis as a monitoring tool for the fertilizer program.

Potato plays a vital role in food security for ever increasing world population (Thiele et al., 2010; Scott and Sourez, 2011; Scott and Sourez, 2012). It is highly capital and labour intensive crop (Kushwah and Singh, 2011). Presently, India is the second largest potato producer in the world. India is producing about 45-48 million tonnes of potato annually from about 2 million hectare of area. However, India would require 125 million metric tonnes of potato from 3.6 million hectare area in 2050 (Vision, 2050). The stagnating growth rates of cereals’ productivity, large scale diversion of food grains to feed & bio-fuel and expected steep rise in per capita consumption of pulses, edible oil, fruits, vegetables, milk, sugar and non-vegetarian food in the regime of steadily rising population is bound to put pressure on existing cultivable land. Since, cultivable land is expected to remain more or less constant in the next 40 years, the role of crops like potato having higher production potential per unit land and time will become imperative. In this context potato crop has very high probability of making crucial contribution to the future national food security agenda. The perceived changes in Indian socio-economics in the medium and long term are expected to enhance per capita food consumption of fresh potatoes.

Fertilizer and nutrient recommendations for different crops are mostly region specific and very general in nature which results into a blanket application of fertilizer leading to its poor efficacy and wastage of costly resources as well as of environmental pollution. In addition, this has caused severe imbalance of nutrients in soil. The spatial variability of available nutrients properly mapped along with other relevant parameters will help to develop site specific nutrient management practices with increased productivity and profitability apart from checking nutrient imbalance and environmental pollution.

ABSTRACT

Lack of high yielding varieties, variation among progenies through seedling propagation and transmission of viral diseases through sucker propagation together contribute to the decline in productivity of large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb). To increase the productivity of this crop, planting material raised through tissue culture techniques from few selections having higher productivity was considered. From the study, it was revealed that TC plants were superior to conventionally propagated plants due to vigorous growth during juvenile phase, precocity in the yield and higher productivity compared to that of open pollinated seedlings.

1. UNIT OF CERTIFICATION

The entire area planted under seed production programme by an individual constitutes an unit, provided;

1. All the seed production programme is to produce seed of one category and one variety.
2. Area does not exceed 10 hectares and scattered fields constituting one unit (10 ha) should not be separated by more than 50 metres distance (Table 1).
3. The crop of the entire area is more or less of the same growth stage. The seed crop is grown as sole crop and it is not heavily and uniformly lodged.

1. INTRODUCTION

Vegetables differ widely from field crops in their requirements for land preparation and cultural practices because of their differences in their morphologies, growth habit, and socio-economic values. In preparing land for vegetable production, ecological location, mode of cropping, season, crop disposition and the type of vegetables to be grown are taken into consideration.

Clearing: It is often necessary to remove the vegetation cover when a piece of land is to be used for vegetable production. The land clearing methods may involve removing the remains of previous crops and undergrowth, cutting back the woody shrubs and trees and burning them.

Levelling: When the site has been cleared, uneven land may have to be leveled. This facilitates the process of ploughing, harrowing ridging and layout of the site.

Land preparation and layout depend on

Fig (Ficus carica  Linn.)  also called ‘Anjeer’ is a nutritive and delicious fruit. Its tree is native to western Asia. It is rich in calories (269), protein, and calcium (higher than milk), iron and fibre content. The small deciduous plants of fig are grown in different parts of the country. Fig has been cultivated since ancient period (4000 BC.) and well known through out the world. It is originated in Middle East and naturalized in many parts of the world. Fig tree plantations cover 426,244 ha. area in the world with an overall yield 1070676million tones. The largest fig growing countries are Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Greece and Algeria (Pasqual and Ferreira, 2007). It is also grown in some parts of Australia, California, New- Zealand and Argentina.

Stem-borer: Batocera rufomaculata, B. rubus, Olenecamptus bilobus:Cerambycidae

These are large dark brown adult beetles that lay eggs in loose bark.  Grubs bore into the trunk and make tunnels in branches and main trunks.  This causes drying and wilting of the branches. Adults of O. bilobus are pale whitish with long serrate antenna.
 
When bark is suspected to have the grubs, try mechanical removal of them. Paste the tree trunk with mud paste containing insecticides like chlorpyriphos or carbaryl. In endemic areas, spray the bark with Carbaryl 4gm /l, Malathion one ml/l, or Chlorpyriphos 2.5ml/l

The common fig, (Ficus carica L.) is a fruit of warm temperate zone. It is one of the oldest fruits known to man and is mentioned by well known Greek writers Homer and Plato. Mention about this fruit is in the earliest chapter of Bible. Figs belong to family Moraceae, which include many tropical fruits and ornamental species. The fruit is known botanically as ‘syconium’ in which the flowers are borne on the inner walls of a hollow receptacle. It is one of the most salt and drought tolerant amongst fruit trees. Fig is a moderate sized deciduous tree in subtropics but performs as evergreen in tropics. Branches are irregular, shoots develop at base of trunk, leaves are very broad, ovate and long stalked. Fruits mostly long stalked, pear shaped with a velvety or glabrous skin, yellow, brown, purplish or black in colour. 

1. Blast
Pyricularia grisea
Diagnostic Symptoms
• Crop is susceptible to the disease during all stages of its growth, from seedling to grain formation stage.
• In young seedlings, lesions are generally of spindle shaped, however lesions of different sizes may also be observed.
• In the beginning the spots have yellowish margin and grayish centre. Later, the centres become whitish grey and disintegrate.
• Lesions are isolated in the beginning and afterwards they may soon coalesce. The distal portion of the leaves beyond the lesions may hang and drop off.
• In older plants, the disease appears on leaf blades with typical spindle shaped spots.
• Under congenial conditions, such spots enlarge, coalesce and form bigger lesions.
• Lesions are like those on the seedlings and are about 0.3-0.5 cm in breadth and 1-2 cm in length. Apices of the infected leaves beyond the lesions hang down and sometimes break.
• Stem infection causes blackening of the nodal region, penetrating into the tissues.