1. GROUP- IV National Conference on agriculture for Kharif Campaign -2015 Strategies for availability of vegetables during rainy season State Group Leader: S.P. Joshi, Director Horticulture UP

2. Growth of vegetable sector  Horticulture (263 million t) surpassed food grain production  Vegetables contribute more than 60 % to horticultural production  Enhancement in area (3 fold), productivity (3 fold), production (9 fold) and per capita availability (2.6 fold) BS

3. ISSUES Low Productivity. Shortage of Quality seeds/Planting Material. Insufficient irrigation facility in late summer. Lack of Protected Structures. High cost of hybrid seeds. Support for open vegetable cultivation. Low allocation under RKVY for Horticulture sector. Insufficient post harvest management infrastructure. Inadequate market linkages. Limited credit support for vegetable crops Allocation of budget should be proportionate

4. ISSUESSTRATEGIES Low Productivity Adoption of hybrid varieties and improved technologies including INM, IPM and protected cultivation. ICAR/SAUs should focus on high yielding resistant cultivars /hybrids Shortage of Quality seeds/Planting Material. Development of seed production chain involving ICAR/SAUs and the State department. Centre for excellence should be utilized in the respective States Insufficient irrigation facility in late summer. Promotion of micro irrigation systems Lack of Protected Structures. Popularization of protected cultivation of vegetables as per MIDH guidelines Crop specific fertigation schedules required to be worked out High cost of hybrid seeds. Schematic support for assistance on purchase of hybrid seeds under different schemes needs to be promoted Support for open vegetable cultivation. Provision may be made under MIDH to take up open hybrid vegetable cultivation

5. ISSUESSTRATEGIES Low allocation under RKVY for Horticulture sector. Need to allocate more funds available in the States under RKVY as per the contribution of horticulture crops under Agriculture SDP. Insufficient post harvest management infrastructure. Promotion of pack houses, integrated pack houses with facilities of sorting, grading, washing, drying and weighing pre-cooling units, mobile pre-cooling units refrigerated transport vehicles, primary processing units, low energy cool chambers, low cost onion storage etc. to be promoted under MIDH and other schemes based on the requirements. Inadequate market linkages. Promotion of FIGs, FPOs in concentrated vegetable producing areas promotion of farmer markets linkages with processing units Limited credit support for vegetable crops Kisan credit cards for vegetable growers may be taken up o priority at State level. Credit facilities for protected infrastructure also needs to be prioritized Allocation of budget should be proportionate Allocation criteria may be decided by DAC so that all states get proportionate allocation

6. Flooding tolerance in grafted tomato 6 Days Flooding GRAFTING OF VEGETABLE SEEDLINGS Watermelon on C.maxima root stock Tomato on Brinjal root stock

7. Bower system: 37.4 t/ha Field: 23-25 t/ha Bower system for growing cucurbits and high density planting Wherever possible cucurbits should be grown on bower system to improve yield and quality Reduce planting distance increase productivity

8.  Nursery raising medium: like peat moss, cocopit, perlite etc. are very costly and not easily available to farmers.  Vermicompost (75%) + Rice husk (25%) proved best and on par with cocopeat and FYM (75%) +Rice husk (25%). Healthy seedling is single most important ingredient for successful vegetable production  Should be free from pests & diseases.  Right age of seedlings. Arka Microbial Consortium improves seedling vigour and can be used for organic production BS

9. VegetableWater saving practice% water saving Tomato Drip irrigation and black polythene mulch40 Alternate furrow irrigation and black polythene mulch 33 OkraIrrigation interval and pea straw mulch20 Irrigation Methods and Mulch improve water use efficiency and water productivity www.iivr.org.in BS

10. Integrated Nutrient Management  Balanced use of nutrients  Leaf and soil test based fertilizer recommendations  Use of amendments and micronutrients  Understanding nutrient dynamics www.iivr.org.in BS

11.  Installation of used water bottle baited with cue lure (as MAT) saturated wood blocks (ethanol: cuelure: carbaryl in a ratio 8:1:2) @ 25 traps/ha prior to flower initiation.  Bait spray containing malathion 20 ml + 20 litres water + 500g molasses sprayed randomly on 250 plants/ha.  Use of repellent (NSKE 4%) enhanced trapping and luring in bait spots. Mean fruit fly catches much higher in traps installed with MAT+BAT-Repellent plots compared to that of in MAT+BAT treated plot  Application of neem as a repellent increased the catch in para- pheromone traps and enhanced the luring ability of para- pheromone by 52%..  Fine tuning of this module with addition of NSKE spray and increased diameter of bottle trap (9cm) along with use of dichlorovos 1% increased the adult trapping/killing in lure Impact  This technology helps to suppress further population build-up of insect with almost no probability of insecticide residue in and or/on the fruits.  This technology decreases fruit damage by 71.1% in cucurbits. Overall cost of pesticide application is decreased more than 10 times.  Benefit is in terms of pesticide free cucurbits, safety to human health and improving quality of environment. IPM technology for Fruit fly in Cucurbits www.iivr.org.in BS

12. Tomato under rain-shelter during kharif season at IIHR, Bangalore: 83 t/ha in 110 days Growing vegetables under rain shelters

13. THANKS