Recent advances in diagnosis and management of diseases of vegetable crops in India

Abstract

Vegetables play a vital role in providing nutritional security to human health as they are rich source of essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other growth-promoting phytochemicals. Shifting from a non-vegetarian diet to vegetarian diet, global recognition of importance of the vegetables for human health, and their medicinal and nutritional value have contributed to a steady upward trend in vegetable production. The total vegetable production of India during 2005–2006 was 113.5 million tons and made a quantum leap in vegetable production, securing second position in the world. China is ranked first in the world and approximately produces 302 million tons of vegetables. The average productivity of our country has increased from 10.5 t/ha in 1991–1992 to 15.8 t/ha in 2005–2006. In spite of these achievements, the productivity per unit area of vegetable crops is much lower as compared to developed countries because of different reasons, the most important being the prevalence of diseases. The cultivation practices in vegetable crops are entirely different from other food crops, in terms of their short duration, dense crop canopy, high nutrient and water requirement, intensive weed management, indeterminate fruiting behavior, delicate nature of the crop, frequent harvesting, and maximum insect problem, which make vegetable crops more prone to disease infection right from seed sowing till the post-harvest marketing and processing.