Tropical Vegetable Production

This volume consists of two parts. Part 1 comprises 6 chapters concerning the principles and practice of tropical vegetable production (including site, topography, soils and water; site management, seeds and types of cultivars; support for farmers; crop preparation and management; reducing pre- and postharvest losses and marketing surpluses). In Part 2, the crops have been mainly dealt with according to their taxonomy as botanical families, either as single or groups of families per chapter. These include: Alliaceae; Cruciferae [Brassicaceae]; Cucurbitaceae; Solanaceae; Leguminosae; leafy vegetables; Araceae, Convolvulaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Euphorbiaceae; Andean tubers and roots and crops of the Lamiaceae and Apiaceae; and Gramineae [Poaceae] and Cyperaceae. Examples of the indigenous species which can be regarded as important sources of edible vegetative materials which are not dealt with in the main text have been listed in Appendix 1. Contact details of the main international research stations are provided in Appendix 2. This book has been written with the hope and purpose that it will be used by technical, college and university students during their studies of horticulture, crop production and agriculture; it is also for students on other allied courses and agriculturists who find themselves needing more vegetable-orientated information in the course of their professional activities. It is aimed to assist in the production of extension, advisory and research staff and officers who will be the core of trainers, advisors, researchers and extension workers in tropical and subtropical countries.

General principles;cultivation of market vegetables.

Looks at tropical vegetable gardens with a view to improving their production. This book includes a summary of climatic factors, effects of climate, tropical soil types, diseases, pests, weeds, improvement of seeds and plants, tropical leaf vegetables and leguminous food crops.

CONTENTS: Fats & Oils; Vegetable Crops; Sweet Corn; Onion; Leek, Garlic & Asparagus; Rhubarb, Beet & Swiss Chard; Spinach, Cabbage & Cauliflower; Rabi, Turnip & Rutabaga; Horse-Radish & Strawberry; Effect of Tropical Vegetation on Seeds.

It is an edited book with chapters written by multi-disciplinary specialists in their specific subject areas. It covers development of IPM components and packaging them for individual vegetable crops specifically targeted to tropical countries. Scientific background for IPM components or tactics will be included. There will be case studies of IPM packages developed and implemented in different countries. The concept of IPM has been in existence for the past six decades; however, a practical holistic program has not been developed and implemented for vegetable crops, in the developing countries. Currently the IPM adoption rate in the tropics is minimal and there is a need for implementation of IPM technologies that are environmentally safe, economical, and socially acceptable. We believe that adoption and implementation of IPM provided in this book will lead to significant reduction in crop losses and mitigate adverse impacts of pesticide use in the tropics. This book is an outcome 20 years of research, development and implementation of the IPM CRSP, a project supported by USAID and administered by Virginia Tech in several developing countries along the tropical belt in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. ​