Sustainable Horticultural Systems: Issues, Technology and Innovation

400 Pages·2014·14.04 MB·English

by  Dilip Nandwani (eds.)

Sustainable Development and Biodiversity
Volume 2
Series Editor
Kishan Gopal Ramawat
M.L. Sukhadia University Botany Department, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
This book series provides complete, comprehensive and broad subject based re-
views about existing biodiversity of different habitats and conservation strategies
in the framework of different technologies, ecosystem diversity, and genetic di-
versity. The ways by which these resources are used with sustainable management
and replenishment are also dealt with. The topics of interest include but are not
restricted only to sustainable development of various ecosystems and conservation
of hotspots, traditional methods and role of local people, threatened and endangered
species, global climate change and effect on biodiversity, invasive species, impact
of various activities on biodiversity, biodiversity conservation in sustaining liveli-
hoods and reducing poverty, and technologies available and required. The books in
this series will be useful to botanists, environmentalists, marine biologists, policy
makers, conservationists, and NGOs working for environment protection.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11920
Dilip Nandwani
Editor
Sustainable Horticultural
Systems
Issues, Technology and Innovation
1 3
Editor
Dilip Nandwani
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Tennessee State University
Nashville
Tennessee
USA

ISSN 2352-474X ISSN 2352-4758 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-06903-6 ISBN 978-3-319-06904-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-06904-3
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947972
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To My Mother
Foreword
The Sustainable Horticultural Systems: Issues, Technology and Innovation book
is a useful and diverse source of information on sustainable horticultural crop pro-
duction on a global scale. Several of the authors are from a range of agricultural
disciplines and from various countries, including developing countries from the
tropics, which is a region highly impacted by climate change and natural disasters.
Climate change poses many challenges to agricultural and horticultural production
worldwide, such as the reductions in yields and quality of fruits and vegetables, in-
creased irrigation water utilization, and increased incidences of weeds, insects, and
plant diseases. Sustainable agriculture practices are resilient and becoming increas-
ingly important due to pressing needs to protect the air, soils, and water; improve
socio-economic conditions of farmers, farmworkers, and rural communities; and to
provide healthy, safe, and nutritious horticultural products to a rapidly increasing
world population. I am certain this book will contribute to the developing of more
sustainable world horticultural production systems.
University of Georgia Juan Carlos Díaz-Pérez, PhD
Dept. of Horticulture Professor
Sustainable/organic vegetable production
vii
Preface
Sustainable horticulture is gaining increasing attention in the field of agriculture
as demand for the food production rises to the world community. Sustainable hor-
ticultural systems are based on ecological principles to farm, optimizes pest and
disease management approaches through environmentally friendly and renewable
strategies in production agriculture. It is a discipline that addresses current issues
such as food security, water pollution, soil health, pest control, and biodiversity
depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on inte-
grated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, entomology,
ecology, chemistry and food sciences. Sustainable horticulture interprets methods
and processes in the farming system to the global level. For that, horticulturists use
the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of a whole
system to address scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect, sustainable
horticulture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the
classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable horticul-
ture treats problem sources.
Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-devel-
oping, sustainable horticulture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book
gathers review articles that analyse current horticultural issues and knowledge and
propose solutions. This book is the most up-to-date and comprehensive review of
our knowledge on the use of innovative technologies and issues in sustainable hor-
ticultural systems with case studies from various regions of the world. It contains
sixteen reviews written by leading international scientists from various countries.
The reviews consider the production, management and issues in fruits and vegetable
systems. The book has following sections:
• Section A: Sustainable Horticultural Systems
• Biodiversity in Sustainable Horticultural Systems
• Breeding and Improvement in Sustainable Horticultural Systems
The book is primarily designed for use by the undergraduates and post graduates
studying horticulture, sustainable crop production, crop protection, agricultural sci-
ences, plant pathology, and plant sciences. Horticulturists, vegetable specialists,
plant and agricultural research scientists, crop protection, and in academia, will find
ix
x Preface
much of great use in this book. Libraries in all universities and research establish-
ments where agricultural and horticultural sciences are studied and taught should
have multiple copies of this valuable book on their shelves. Editor wishes to thank
all the contributors and staff of Springer for their cooperation in the completion
of this book. Valuable suggestions and encouragement received from Prof. K.G.
Ramawat is highly appreciated. Lastly, this journey would not have been possible
without the support of my family, G. K. Nandwani (father), Varsha (wife), Gayatri
(daughter) and Rahul (son).
Dr. Dilip Nandwani
March, 2014
Contents
Part I Section A: Sustainable Horticultural Systems
Sustainable Vegetable Production: Caribbean Perspective ......................... 3
Velta Napoleon-Fanis and Dilip Nandwani
Horticulture Based Production Systems in Indian Arid Regions ................ 19
D. C. Bhandari, P. R. Meghwal and S. Lodha
Principles and Practices of Sustainable Vegetable
Production Systems .......................................................................................... 51
Ajay Nair, Dana Jokela and Jennifer Tillman
A Small-Scale Integrated Farm System in a Tropical Insular
Environment of Guam: A Case Study ............................................................ 79
Mari Marutani and John Brown
Impacts of Vulnerabilities and Climate Change on Sustainable
Agriculture for Caribbean Small Island Developing States (CSIDS) ......... 95
Rohanie Maharaj and Dimple Singh-Ackbarali
Part II Section B: Biodiversity in Sustainable Horticultural Systems
Agroforestry in the Caribbean, Traditional Systems, both
Sustainable and Biodiverse ............................................................................. 129
Michael Morgan and Thomas W. Zimmerman
Role of Horticulture in Biodiversity Conservation ....................................... 143
Ashwani Kumar
Avocado History, Biodiversity and Production ............................................. 157
Tomas Ayala Silva and Noris Ledesma
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