Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation

(Diseases and Management of Crops under Protected Cultivation)
Production of Quality Planting Material under Protected Environment
Introduction
C.P. Singh
Department of Horticulture, G.B.P.U.A.& T., Pantnagar-263 145 (UK)
Healthy and good quality planting material is the foundation of successful fruit industry in
the country. In view of increasing cost of labor and inputs, farming has become less remunerative.
Today, farmer is in search of new alternatives, especially when several incentives under
Horticulture Mission and export promotion are provided by the Government. Fruit plants yield
much higher than ordinary field crops and are certainly far more remunerative. It is a healthy sign
that farmers are now keen to plant more area under orchards.
It is now well established that there is a need to increase area under fruit crops, in order to
step up production of fruits. In India, more than 4409 fruit nurseries including 1575 under
government sector 2834 under private sector, are functioning, which have annual target of
producing 1387 million fruit plants. In view of growing importance of fruit crops, the demand for
quality planting material has increased manifold throughout the country in the recent past.
However, the greatest bottleneck in the expansion of area under fruits is the non-availability of
genuine and quality planting material in adequate quantity from reliable government nurseries.
More often than not, the farmers have to get the fruit plants from unreliable sources and this
practice is causing great harm to the fruit industry of the country. Some of the fruit growers, with
adequate means and resources, can easily establish their own fruit nurseries with certification from
a recognized government agency. Setting up of a fruit nursery is a long term venture and needs lot
of planning and expertise. Mistakes committed initially on any aspect like selection of soil, raising
of right kind of cultivars/varieties, plant protection measure, etc., reduce the financial returns
greatly form the investment, besides wastage of time and energy. So, careful planning is needed
before setting up a nursery. The plan should show allocation of plots/area to different components
of the nursery such as mother plants of different fruits/cultivars, rootstocks, roads/paths, water
channels, drainage system, buildings/other structures, etc. Provision of certain basic pre-requisites
is a must for raising a fruit nursery on modern lines.
The vegetative propagation of fruit crops makes them vulnerable to transmission of several
diseases and pests through the planting material. Thus, importance of testing of material in the
process of its preparation at various stages needs due attention. The targets of the enhancing fruit
production in the coming years will be achieved only through production and distribution of healthy,
genuine and high quality planting material of commercial/improved varieties of fruit crops in
sufficient quantities. The maintenance of purity is easy in vegetatively propagated fruit crops as
compared to seed propagated ones, still it requires a close monitoring at different stages in the
nursery to avoid mixing with other varieties. Similarly, adequate measures are taken in the
preparation of plant material to produce disease and pest free plant material.
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