Pest Management in Dryland Horticultural Crops

Sustainable livelihood security of resource poor farmers is the top priority for the nation today. However, there is wide gap in productivity of various horticultural commodities among different eco-regions, dryland horticulture can play significant role particularly in arid and semi arid regions. Dryland horticultural crops are becoming popular for nutritional and health security point of view as they are excellent sources of minerals, vitamins, protein, antioxidants and photochemical. Among the dryland horticultural crops like ber (Ziziphus mauritiana), date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), lasora (Cordia myxa), aonla (Emblica officinalis), bael (Aegle marmelos), jamun (Syzygium cumini), pomegranate (Punica granatum), khejri (Prosopis cineraria) and cucurbits are the major crops which can be grown easily in arid and semi-arid eco-system of the country. Arid and semi-arid region are marked by abiotic limitations such as high temperature, high potential evapo-transpiration, low erratic rainfall, low soil fertility, poor quality of ground water, etc., which lead to poor crop growth and yield. Apart from the climatic limitations, the biotic factors like insect-pests are also one of the limiting factors for crop production in hot arid ecosystem. In this book, several such interventions are given inform of various chapters which will be of immense use improving the productivity and profitability of arid and semi arid horticultural commodities through pests management. In this endeavour, useful information has been generated on identification, damage symptoms and management of the pests in different horticultural crops at various research institutions and SAUs of the country. Earnest efforts have therefore, been made to compile information on identification, damage symptoms and management of pests in a systematic manner, grouped in different chapters and presented in the form of a book entitled “Pests Management in Dryland Horticultural Crops”. Correct identification of the pest, their damage and management is the prerequisites for effective control measures. This publication contains excellent colored photographs depicting salient identification characteristics of pest, their damage on plants under natural condition and management in field conditions so as to update the knowledge of extension agencies and farmers.