About this eBook

PREFACE India is endowed with diverse agro-climatic conditions ranging from temperate to humid and from sea level to snow line. Varied agro-climatic conditions is one of the greatest assets of Indian Agriculture which offers unique opportunities to grow nearly more than 175 vegetable crops around the year in one part of the country or the other. However, we have not been able to fully harness this vast natural opportunities so far, primarily due to lack of sufficient production technologies and unavailability of well trained human resources. In the recent past, due emphasis has been given by Government, both Central as well as State for all-round development of Horticulture The Golden Revolution, more specifically for vegetable cultivation. Vegetable crops play a very vital role in providing food and nutritional security to specifically to Indians, as most of them are vegetarian in nature. Among the dietary, the vegetables are designated as Protective Food because they provide adequate quantities of protein, minerals, vitamins and above all dietary fiber roughage in the diet. Although, our country, India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world, next only to China, but the productivity is very low as compared to other countries in the world. Further, poor availability of vegetables nearly less than 200g day head against ICMR s recommended dietary allowances of 300g day head for Indian adults. In order to provide adequate vegetables to Indian people, to increase the production and productivity of vegetables in India, there is an urgent need for development of a suitable literature in the form of a book dealing with recent technologies on various aspects of important Tropical Sub-Tropical Vegetable Crops. This book, Production Technology of Tropical Sub Tropical Vegetable Crops is aimed at Horticulture graduates, Agriculture graduates, Extension specialists, Research workers, Faculties and others seeking information on important Tropical Sub-Tropical vegetable production. Strenuous efforts have been made to compile the information literatures from various sources including published literature, research papers, books,
personal communication etc. to make it useful for the readers. We sincerely acknowledge the contribution of authors and publisher whose publication are used while preparing this manuscript. Special efforts have been made to prepare the manuscripts as per the Fourth Deans Committee Recommendation of ICAR, New Delhi for B.Sc. Horticulture students. The book is written in a very simple language and easy to understand style, which we hopeful to fulfill the requirements of our dear undergraduate students. Though every effort has been made by us to ensure correctness of the contents of the book, some errors due to our