eChapters

‘Hydroponics’ technique was first developed on commercial scale as early as in 1930 by

A. De. Condole             B. J.D. Hooker

C. W.F. Greicke            D. Hugo De Vries

Introduction

Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, also known as taro, belongs to the family Arecaceae. Taro is believed to have originated in Southern or South-East Asia, and to have been dispersed to Oceania through the Island of New Guinea to many centuries ago but cultivated in Asia for more than 10,000 years. Taro is considered as an important vegetable grown throughout India. Taro is herbaceous perennial plants with a large corm on or just below the ground surface and can be grown in the ground or in large containers. They can be grown in almost any temperate zone as long as the summer is warm.

Taro root contains very significant amount of dietary fibre and carbohydrates, as well as high levels of vitamin A, C, E, B6 and folate, as well as magnesium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, manganese and copper. Thogh negligible, the plant is also known to provide some protein in our diet. As Taro is a great source of fibre and other nutrients, it offers a variety of potential health benefits, including improved blood sugar management, gut and heart health.

Globally, taro is grown in an area of 1.6 m ha producing 11.66 mt with an average productivity of 7.25 t ha^-1 (FAO, 2009). The plant can be grown in wide range of climatic condition but during growth period taro is prone to attack by at least twenty- three (23) pathogens, of which, only a few causes serious reduction in the potential yield of the crop. Some of the mentionable diseases that commonly occurs and causes yield loss of the plants are as follows:

Plant pathogens are known to cause yield reduction of almost 20 per cent in the principal food and cash crops worldwide (Oorke et al., 1994). These losses may be more severe when highly susceptible cultivars are widely grown in a particular region of the globe. The increased world’s population is posing a major global challenge to provide sufficient quatity of food with high quality fruits and vegetables. Nearly, 570 million US $ is now spent annually on research and development by the leading 15 agricultural Companies to combat with the important diseases of major food, fruits and vegetable crops. There are more than 150 active ingredients registered as fungicides worldwide (Mc Dougal, 1996). In the present era of intensive agriculture, fungicides play an important role in our fight against plant diseases and reduce the losses in yield and quality of farm produce. The global fungicide sale has been estimated to be $ 6.0 billion US. The cereal and vine industries of the Western European have become largest fungicide market followed by North America. However, the fungicide use is not intensive in Asia and the new world.

This article presents the historical development of fungicides, mode of their action, development of resistance to fungicides, fungicidal residue and chemical control of various diseases of horticultural and plantation crops.

India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world. Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi recommends intake of 125g leaf vegetables, 100g roots and 75g other vegetables/ day / adult for a balanced diet. Green leaf vegetables occupy an important place among the food crops as these provide adequate amounts of many vitamins and minerals for humans. Besides this, leaf vegetables are easy to grow and readily fit in any cropping system owing to its short duration. They are rich sources of carotene, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, folic acid and minerals like calcium, iron and phosphorus (Ramdasmurthy and Mohanram, 1984).
 
In nature, there are many greens of promising nutritive value, which can nourish the ever increasing human population. In spite of their nutritional importance, in India, leaf vegetable production is limited to kitchen gardens and market gardens due to various reasons. Although they can be raised comparatively at lower management costs even on poor marginal lands, they have remained underutilized due to lack of awareness and popularization of technologies for utilization.

7.1 Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the imitation of human intellect in machines designed to emulate human activities and cognitive functions. These machines are designed to accomplish tasks that normally require human intellect, such as learning, problem solving, perception, and decision-making (Zhang et al., 2022). Horticultural crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and ornamental plants, are of paramount importance in global agriculture, as they contribute significantly to food security, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, the cultivation of these crops poses numerous challenges for growers, such as fluctuating market demand, insufficient resources, unpredictable climate conditions, and the constant threat of pests and diseases (Nowak & Grant, 2018). In recent years, the agricultural sector has experienced a significant shift owing to advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies (Liakos et al., 2018). AI has emerged as a powerful tool for the cultivation of horticultural crops, providing solutions for boosting productivity, sustainability, and efficiency (Shrivastava & Kumar, 2021). By utilizing AI, horticulturists can overcome the traditional challenges associated with crop management, resource allocation, and environmental sustainability, paving the way for a more resilient and productive agricultural sector (Garg et al., 2019). The integration of AI into horticultural crop production encompasses a diverse range of applications, including precision agriculture, crop monitoring and management, predictive analytics, automated harvesting, and genetic improvement (Golhani et al., 2018). These applications leverage machine learning algorithms, remote sensing technologies, and data analytics to analyze vast amounts of agricultural data ranging from soil composition and weather patterns to crop health and market trends (Araus& Cairns, 2014). Through intelligent data-driven insights, AI enables farmers to make informed decisions in real-time, optimize resource utilization, minimize waste, and maximize yields (Kamilaris et al., 2017). This technological convergence offers promising prospects for food production, enabling stakeholders to explore new avenues for growth, resilience, and sustainability in horticultural crop cultivation (Mohanty et al., 2016).

The soil fertility is depleting in the current scenario of gap between nutrient removal from soil and supplies. Moreover, increase in the fertilizer prices has become unaffordable to small and marginal farmers. There is also a growing concern about the environmental hazards and its threat to sustainable crop production. Indiscriminate use of synthetic fertilizers for intensive crop production has resulted in large quantity of nutrient (particularly P) accumulation in soils which has resulted in generating a dead soil. In this context, the long term use of biofertilizers are considered to be economical, eco-friendly, more efficient, productive and accessible to marginal and small farmers over chemical fertilizers (Subba Rao, 2001). Biofertilizers mainly consists of specific living cells which supplies nutrients to plants through their root system. Microbes in these fertilizers provide nutrients to the plants by nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, phosphate mobilization, and promotion of beneficial rhizobacteria (Bhat et al., 2010). Biofertilizer application improves the supply of nutrients, organic carbon, accumulation of soil enzymes, productivity, soil fertility index, economy of farmers, and maintenance of sustainability in natural soil ecosystem and horticultural crops. The production of efficient and sustainable biofertilizers for crop plants needs to be undertaken to make the biofertilizers popular and efficient. The important and specific research in future may be focused on the following aspects.

The world’s population is increasing exponentially. Projected totals for the year 2050 vary but it is acknowledged that access to sufficient quality and quantity of food, water and living space and other natural resources will be limiting factors for the human population. The environmental impact of this huge population and its everyday activities will be significant and possibly irreversible. There is urgency therefore, in addressing issues of sustainable food production, water and land use for the coming decades. Endemic hunger (due to carbohydrate-protein malnutrition), hidden hunger (induced by deficiencies of vitamins and minerals) and transient hunger (caused by natural calamities such as drought, flood, earthquake, tsunami etc.) can be overcome only by integrated strategy with sustainable and equitable use of agricultural biodiversity.

Greenhouse technology development has made good progress in India during the last two decades, and steps necessary for promoting greenhouse cultivation of flower and vegetable crops have been started. Energy-efficient greenhouse cultivation continues to be an area of active research and development, and this is sought to be achieved through precision equipment and protocols. While the gap between the demand and supply of most horticultural crops remains wide and the country plans to double the production of horticultural crops by 2012, the protected cultivation technology holds the key to meet the targets. It clearly emerges that greenhouse technology has multipurpose application for sustainable development of a hilly zone. During harsh winter which otherwise threatens the survival of human beings in these remote hilly areas, popularization and further improvements in greenhouse management could provide a sign of relief in solitude of white snow cover.

Introduction

Food crops like fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, herbs and sprouts, mushrooms and algae, flowers and seaweeds are all part of horticulture, which is also the study and practice of producing non-food crops like grass and decorative trees and plants. Growing plants is known as horticulture in Latin. For several reasons, horticulture is very significant: 

1. Crop Diversity and Nutrient Density: Horticulture is an essential part of the food production system since it produces so many different kinds of fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

2. A large number of people throughout the globe rely on this industry for their livelihood, since it is a significant part of agriculture. The commercial value of horticultural goods is typically rather significant.

Gangana(Grewia tenax) is a deciduous tropical shrub widely distributed in arid and semi-arid region. In western Rajasthan, the natural habitat of this shrub is buried pediments, hills and pediplains (Bhandari, 1971). It does best on deep sandy loam, and can grow in very shallow, skeletal, gravelly or clay soils. It has been reported that the species grow abundantly (density = 678 individuals per ha.) in hilly waste lands of Kailana, Jodhpur. Sharma (1997) reported that its efficient root system can penetrate into minute rock crevices. It is extremely drought hardy and can withstand high temperature in hot arid climate. It tolerates frost well but plant growth is slow in arid region. Mostly fruits for sale in the local markets are collected from wild stands. It is underutilized species (Gebauer et al., 2007), the major limitations to the development as a horticultural crop is the lack of detailed information, particularly the genotype, physiology and ecology (Gebauer et al., 2007). Due to its drought hardy and dense root system, it seems promising species in arid region. It has good fodder value for small ruminants. It is naturally grown in range lands, orans, and hilly track of Aravalli. It is untapped plant species and its potential should be exploited.

Abstract

A considerable difference of gap has been observed between the generated technology and the technology available with the farmers. In order to find the possible causes or low production, a comprehensive bench mark survey of four Panchayats of Kandaghat block namely Sirinagar, Mahi, Kawarag and Bisha involving 500 farm families was done using PRA technique to ascertain the extent and gap in the generated technology and the technology adopted by the farmers. All the important components of the technology were assessed and the gap in adoption as well as the approximate cost of the gaps was estimated. In tomato and capsicum, it was observed that the farmers prepared their fields well, transplanted at the right time, performed the required intercultural operations and harvested the fruits at proper time. They however, did not treat the seed and the seed bed, applied sub-optimal/excess doses of fertilizes and adopted excessive plant protection measures against pests and diseases. In case of Cauliflower, the farmers used the recommended variety, prepared their fields well, transplanted at optimum time, adopted all cultural operations from time to time but they did not pay attention for protecting the crop against pest and diseases.They also applied ample quantity of fertilizers but did not follow proper spacing. If the farmers adopt the recommended practices, they are likely to gain around Rs 62,688/ha in tomato, Rs.55,563/ha in capsicum and Rs.54,188/ha in cauliflower.

Purpose-Planting of foliage and flowering trees, shrubs, climbers, annuals, perennials and lawn in a piece of land by adopting certain principles is termed as garden design. The objective of a garden layout by adopting a design to provide recreation, enjoyment and education to the society. Natural flora, religion, topography of land and climatic had played a major role in the development of garden designs. Basically there are two garden designs. In one the plantation of shrubs, trees, climbers etc. and lawns is done by adopting a geometrical design and maintaining bilateral balance whereas, in the other one the plantation is done by taking in account the topography and terrin of land, containing open lawns and cluster of trees. The former is called formal are artificial garden while the later is called as informal or landscape garden.

Garden Walls : A garden lover will never like to block the view of his garden by putting a wall along its periphery. A garden as it is enjoyed from inside should also be visible from outside.

• Low brick or concrete or stone wall of say 60-90 cm height and to put over it some grills.
• Alternatively walls from 1.8-5.0 m may also be erected depending upon the size of garden.
• One may grow creepers such as Ficus repens over the wall.

Flower Beds: The most essential criterion of a flower beds is display the flowers in the best way possible. It may be born in mind that flowers look best when massed in a bed. The flower beds are of special importance under condition of the plains of India since they can be kept planted throughout the year unlike those in England or other parts of Europe where nothing can be grown in the open between November-March. Annuals and herbaceous, perennial flowers, flowering plants are grown in flower beds to provide massing effect of different colours borders is continuous beds of more length than width containing plant of one kind only.

Garden pea, Pisum sativum var. hortense under the family Fabaceae (Leguminosae) having chromosome No. 2n = 2x = 14 is an all-time favourite vegetable in the world. As a cool season crop, it is extensively grown in early spring season in temperate zone and winter season in the tropics and subtropics. The immature/green peas are used as fresh vegetable as well as frozen or canned. Green peas are quite nutritious and contain high amount of protein and a fair amount of vitamin C, zinc, fibre and antioxidants. Diet containing green pea may improve the functionality of the gut.
Origin, domestication and adaptation in India
Discovery of the carbonized pea seed remains indicated that the smooth-seeded field pea was cultivated in the Near East and Europe as early as 7000 B. C. The earliest archaeological finds of peas come from Neolithic Syria, Turkey and Jordan. In Egypt, evidence of peas dates from ca. 4800–4400 BC. The wild pea was restricted to the Mediterranean basin and the Near East. Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tazikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan), Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Mediterranean basin are the primary centres of origin of pea with the near-east (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordon) as the secondary centre of origin. In another view, Pisum is
considered to have been originated in Ethiopia and from where it spread during prehistoric times to Mediterranean region, Central Europe, the Near East and subsequently to rest of the world. The wild progenitor of Pisum sativum is unknown.

A number of tools, implements and machineries are used in cultivation of horticultural crops to make every operation easy and efficient. There are a number of operations involved in cultivation of horticultural crops, like making of nursery, propagation of plant material, field ploughing, breaking of clods, levelling, making bunds, sowing and planting, plant protection, training, pruning, harvesting, lawn mowing etc. All these operations are physically taxing and cannot be carried out efficiently without proper tools, implements and machineries. Following are some important tools -

1. Bill hook: To cut and remove big sized unwanted branches of trees.

2. Buckets and plastic pots: used in the orchard for spraying, transport water, carry harvested produce etc.

3. Budding and grafting knife: The budding and grafting operations in propagation of many horticultural plants are carried out using budding and grafting knife.

4. Country plough: Used in field preparation for ploughing the soil, incorporation of organic manures into the soil at the time of last ploughing, summer ploughing in conserving of soil moisture.

5. Crow bar: Used to loosen the soil, digging and deepening the pits and channels.

6. Dibbler: Used to make holes and sow the seeds in the nursery as well as in the main field.

7. Digging fork: It is of a great use in harvesting the tuber crops without damaging the produce.

7.1 INTRODUCTION

Gardening is a practice of growing different kinds of horticultural crops in a particular land area as a part of horticulture either for consumption or sale, export, beautification etc. Basing on the crops grown, gardens are named accordingly, e.g., for raising vegetables, it is vegetable gardens; for fruit crops, it is orchard; for plantation crops, it is estate plantation; for ornamental plants, it is gardening and landscape etc. The history of gardening is not new. In ancient time kings, emperors, rulers, sages were establishing different types of gardens for different purposes.

Chromatography was first employed by Ramsay (1905) to separate mixtures of gases and vapours. The first scientist to recognize chromatography as an efficient method of separation was the Russian botanist Tswett (1906), who demonstrated that, when a plant extract was carried by petroleum ether through a column consisting of a glass tube packed with calcium carbonate powder, a number of dyes were separated, as shown in Figure 1. He named this analysis method “Chromatographie” after “chroma” and “graphos”, which are Greek words meaning “color” and “to draw,” respectively.

Quantitative traits are governed by many genes or polygenes genes with small individual effects. They are often described by their gene action rather than by the number of genes by which they are governed. There are four types of gene action: additive, dominance, epistasis, and overdominance. Because gene effects do not always fall into clear-cut categories, and it should be pointed out that gene action is conceptually the same for major genes as well as minor genes, the essential difference being that the action of a minor gene is small and significantly influenced by the environment. A general way of distinguishing between these types of gene action based on interaction among alleles is as follows:

ABSTRACT

The coastal ecosystem happens to be one of the most productive ecosystems. This ecosystem has been under different kinds of threats such as climate change and consequent rise in sea level, increase in population and depletion of natural resources. All this has given rise to an increase in the level of abiotic stresses such as salinity, alkalinity, and drought affecting the agricultural productivity in the coastal region. Salinization is posing an increasing problem in coastal and agricultural areas reducing plant productivity and yield. Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses decreasing the plant productivity.

Salinity is a significant factor limiting agricultural productivity and affecting about 9x 10⁸ hectares worldwide. Poor quality of water for irrigation and current unsustainable irrigation practices has significantly resulted in salinization and other forms of soil damage. About one third of all irrigated land is affected by salt due to secondary salinization. It is estimated that 50% of all arable land will be salinized by the year 2050. The problem of secondary salinization is also becoming more serious as it represents loss of highly productive lands. Added to this is the problem of coastal salinity where intrusion of seawater into arable land due to erosion of coastal habitat has rendered it unsuitable for cultivation. Salt-affected soils (~11 million ha in South and Southeast Asia) are found along coastlines or in inland areas where evaporation is greater than precipitation.

4.1. Multiple Choice Questions

1. GoI has indicated ??? crop will be introduced without evaluating biosafety and socioeconomic desirability.
   1. GM
   2. Organic
   3. Rabi
   4. Kharif
2. ??? is AGRI UDAAN.
   1. Food and agribusiness initiative
   2. Food and agribusiness accelerator
   3. Food and agribusiness incubator
   4. Both b and c
   5. All the above
3. Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare launched --------------------------------------?? quality mark logo at New Delhi.
   1. National Dairy Development Board
   2. National Dairy Development Authority
   3. National Dairy Development Authority
   4. National Dairy Development Programme
4. --------------------------------------?? state is leading in the production of litchi.
   1. Bihar