Not Available

Not AvailableOf late, grafting has emerged as an effective tool in successful vegetables production, though it is in practice for centuries in woody perennial crops, by exploiting its potentials primarily to tackle the issues prevailing under intensive vegetables production system such as soil pests/ pathogens. However, recent researches have demonstrated that the adverse effects of certain abiotic stresses (moisture stress, thermal stress, salinity, alkalinity, heavy metals) on shoots of commercial improved cultivars could also be effectively minimized by grafting them onto suitable hardy rootstock genotypes. Using grafted transplants in fruiting vegetables (tomato, brinjal, pepper, cucumber, muskmelon and watermelon) has become common practice in many parts of the world, with being more popular in East Asia and Western world (Europe, U.S. and Middle East) for both greenhouse as well as open field vegetables cultivation. However, in India is still in infancy stage, despite being a number of environmental factors cause significant losses in vegetable production. Particularly, arid and semi-arid regions, where vegetables production suffer from limited water availability, prevalence of salinity in soil and water, and toxic elements in contaminated soils and sewage irrigating water, etc. Hence, there is immense potential to increase the vegetables production under such constraint conditions by exploiting the benefit of grafting. In fact, grafting enables joining the attributes of two dissimilar plants into one, which means the inherent resistance of resistant/ hardy rootstock (for drought, salinity etc.) could be provided to the susceptible commercial scion cultivar by way of grafting. Moreover, despite several adversity arid and semi-arid regions hold good wealth in terms of biodiversity of vegetables species, especially in cucurbitaceous species. Many lines collected from this regions are documented for specific traits including for drought and salinity stress and fruit quality (sweetness and shelf life), besides various diseases. These need to be exploited as potential rootstock materials to improve the commercial one through grafting.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableAlike in other areas, greenhouse cultivation is getting special impetus in arid regions owing to providing favourable micro-climate, besides protecting crops from various external crop limiting factors which causes considerable losses to productivity. Cultivar selection is among the most critical aspect for successful greenhouse cultivation. In order to select appropriate cultivar for peculiar arid conditions, the performance of twenty indeterminate tomato hybrids were evaluated under greenhouse condition at Jodhpur during September to April, 2016–17. The performance of hybrids was assessed for their growth, yield and quality characteristics. Results obtained from the study reveal that the performance of tomato hybrids differ significantly for different growth and yield parameters among them. Shoot (leaf + stem) biomass production showed wide variation among the hybrids, ranging from 162g (IA05) to 225.7g (Avtar) per plant. Fruit yield also varied widely (2.36 kg to 4.94 kg plant−1). Hybrid Myla (4.94 kg) was found superior in per plant fruit yield, followed by TR4343 (4.71kg) and TR4266 (4.65kg). Significant differences were also observed for fruit quality attributes such as pericarp thickness, total soluble solids, pH and EC in different hybrids. The character association analyses show that the yield per plant had significant positive correlation with average fruit weight (0.72), fruit diameter (0.50) and pericarp thickness (0.45). The highest fruit number was found in TR4266 (68.4), which had statistically similar per plant fruit yield with Myla. Whereas, the highest average fruit weight (166.8g), though lowest fruit number (40.3) was recorded in TR4293. The high mean values of the yield associated parameters in high-yielding hybrids Myla, TR4343, TR4266, TR4293 corroborates their production potential under greenhouse in arid regions.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableNot AvailableNot Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableAlike in other areas, greenhouse cultivation is getting special impetus in arid regions owing to providing favourable micro-climate, besides protecting crops from various external crop limiting factors which causes considerable losses to productivity. Cultivar selection is among the most critical aspect for successful greenhouse cultivation. In order to select appropriate cultivar for peculiar arid conditions, the performance of twenty indeterminate tomato hybrids were evaluated under greenhouse condition at Jodhpur during September to April, 2016-17. The performance of hybrids was assessed for their growth, yield and quality characteristics. Results obtained from the study reveal that the performance of tomato hybrids differ significantly for different growth and yield parameters among them. Shoot (leaf + stem) biomass production showed wide variation among the hybrids, ranging from 162g (IA05) to 225.7g (Avtar) per plant. Fruit yield also varied widely (2.36 kg to 4.94 kg plant-1). Hybrid Myla (4.94 kg) was found superior in per plant fruit yield, followed by TR4343 (4.71kg) and TR4266 (4.65kg). Significant differences were also observed for fruit quality attributes such as pericarp thickness, total soluble solids, pH and EC in different hybrids. The character association analyses show that the yield per plant had significant positive correlation with average fruit weight (0.72), fruit diameter (0.50) and pericarp thickness (0.45). The highest fruit number was found in TR4266 (68.4), which had statistically similar per plant fruit yield with Myla. Whereas, the highest average fruit weight (166.8g), though lowest fruit number (40.3) was recorded in TR4293. The high mean values of the yield associated parameters in high-yielding hybrids Myla, TR4343, TR4266, TR4293 corroborates their production potential under geenhouse in arid regions.Not Availabl

Improved technologies of vegetable production in arid region

A training manual comprised of edited chapters of training organizedNot Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableClimatic vagaries of arid zones make cultivation of annual crops risky and unsustainable. Horticultural sector proved beyond doubt its potentiality for gainful economy in such fragile ecosystems. Immense opportunity existed in arid zone for quality production of some of the most water economizing horticultural crops. In recent years arid and semi-arid regions witnessed a greater shift from traditional to commercial horticulture with constant government support and technical input of research and development institutions. Technologies developed on ber, pomegranate, date palm and other arid fruits by Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan showed significant impact on development of dry regions at national level. However, after near plateau for some time, horticultural scene in arid region was brightened up with introduction of newer options viz. commercial tissue culture techniques in date palm and pomegranate, protected cultivation of high value crops and new varieties and technologies in region's adapted species. However, expanding the scale of horticultural production is often hindered by lack of market access, technological awareness and abiotic stressesNot Availabl

Influence of different protected cultivation structures on performance of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in Indian hot arid region

The performance of gynoecious cucumber (cv. Terminator) was evaluated under three protected structures viz., naturally ventilated polyhouse (NVP), insect proof net house (INH) and shade net house (SNH) at Jodhpur, Rajasthan in hot arid region of India. The photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) inside these structures during cropping period ranged from 154-842 μmol m-2 s-1 which was much lower than the outside. Among structures, air temperature was 1.2°C and 0.7°C lower while relative humidity (RH) was 17 and 4 per cent higher in NVP and SNH respectively as compared to INH. Relatively low air as well as soil temperature, coupled with high RH and optimal radiation in NVP led to better plant growth and physiological activity which resulted in 42 and 142per cent higher yield than INH and SNH, respectively. Hence, it can be recommended that NVP is the best low-tech protected structure which modifies the microclimate favouring successful cultivation of greenhouse cucumber in Indian hot arid regions

Not Available

Technology package for successful protected cultivation of vegetables and especially cucumber in stressful environmentsGrafting vegetable plant is relatively a new approach to confront various issues related to their growth in challenging environments. It can help manipulate plant’s ability by integration of traits imparting tolerance to stresses with those of commercial genotypes within a short time to enable their successful cultivation under growth-limiting environments. For the past several years, a team at CAZRI has been striving its efforts towards the development of a sustainable strategy to deliver plants that could grow successfully under suboptimal conditions of arid regions by deploying a package of technology in a select group of vegetables. A success story of the same is presented wherein, it has been demonstrated that the use of grafted seedlings of suitable graft combinations will change the perception of farmers towards greenhouse cultivation in the challenging environments of (semi)arid regions.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableAim: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the performance (based on growth, yield, quality, and nutrient acquisition) of commercial greenhouse cucumber (Cucumis sativus) grafted onto different locally available species as rootstocks during winter. Methodology: The performance of cucumber cv. Infinity as scion was tested onto selected genotypes of three species of genus Cucurbita (pumpkin, squash and figleaf gourd), one each of Lagenaria (bottle gourd) and Cucumis (muskmelon) used as rootstocks. Plant growth, fruit yield and quality characteristics, and nutrient acquisition efficiency of rootstocks studied under prevailing sub-optimal temperatures during winter inside unheated greenhouse. Results: The highest fruit yield was obtained in intergeneric cucumber grafting onto figleaf gourd followed by bottle gourd rootstocks, with increase in total yield of 30 and 10%, respectively over non-grafted cucumber. Fruit dry matter content in muskmelon grafted plants and titratable acidity in figleaf gourd and muskmelon grafted plants were also increased. Interpretation: The improved performance of cucumber onto the cucurbit rootstocks, especially figleaf gourd was related to the increased root dry mass, root/shoot ratio and rootstock-stem thickness. This was also associated with the enhanced leaf nutrient status provided by vigorous root system of figleaf gourd rootstock under prevailing sub-optimal temperature.Not Availabl