Editor-in-Chief:
Dr. Mohammed Wasim Siddiqui Assistant Professor-cum- Scientist
Bihar Agricultural University | www.bausabour.ac.in
Department of Food Science and Post-Harvest Technology
Sabour | Bhagalpur | Bihar | P. O. Box 813210 | INDIA
Contacts: (91) 9835502897
Email: wasim_serene@yahoo.com | wasim@appleacademicpress.com


The horticulture sector is considered as the most dynamic and sustainable segment of agriculture all over the world. It covers pre- and postharvest management of a wide spectrum of crops, including fruits and nuts, vegetables (including potatoes), flowering and aromatic plants, tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, plantation crops, edible bamboos etc. Shifting food pattern in wake of increasing income and health awareness of the populace has transformed horticulture into a vibrant commercial venture for the farming community all over the world.

It is a well-established fact that horticulture is one of the best options for improving the productivity of land, ensuring nutritional security for mankind and for sustaining the livelihood of the farming community worldwide. The world’s populace is projected to be 9 billion by the year 2030, and the largest increase will be confined to the developing countries, where chronic food shortages and malnutrition already persist. This projected increase of population will certainly reduce the per capita availability of natural resources and may hinder the equilibrium and sustainability of agricultural systems due to overexploitation of natural resources, which will ultimately lead to more poverty, starvation, malnutrition, and higher food prices. The judicious utilization of natural resources is thus needed and must be addressed immediately.

Climate change is emerging as a major threat to the agriculture throughout the world as well. Surface temperatures of the earth have risen significantly over the past century, and the impact is most significant on agriculture. The rise in temperature enhances the rate of respiration, reduces cropping periods, advances ripening, and hastens crop maturity, which adversely affects crop productivity. Several climatic extremes such as droughts, floods, tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation events, hot extremes, and heat waves cause a negative impact on agriculture and are mainly caused and triggered by climate change.

In order to optimize the use of resources, hi-tech interventions like precision farming, which comprises temporal and spatial management of resources in horticulture, is essentially required. Infusion of technology for an efficient utilization of resources is intended for deriving higher crop productivity per unit of inputs. This would be possible only through deployment of modern hi-tech applications and precision farming methods. For improvement in crop production and returns to farmers, these technologies have to be widely spread and adopted. Considering the above-mentioned challenges of horticulturist and their expected role in ensuring food and nutritional security to mankind, a compilation of hi-tech cultivation techniques and postharvest management of horticultural crops is needed.

This new book series, Innovations In Horticultural Science, is designed to address the need for advance knowledge for horticulture researchers and students. Moreover, the major advancements and developments in this subject area to be covered in this series would be beneficial to mankind.

The probable coverage of the series would be as follows.
1. Importance of horticultural crops for livelihood
2. Dynamics in sustainable horticulture production
3. Precision horticulture for sustainability
4. Protected horticulture for sustainability
5. Classification of fruit, vegetables, flowers, and other horticultural crops
6. Nursery and orchard management
7. Propagation of horticultural crops
8. Rootstocks in fruit and vegetable production
9. Growth and development of horticultural crops
10. Horticultural plant physiology
11. Role of plant growth regulator in horticultural production
12. Nutrient and irrigation management
13. Fertigation in fruit and vegetables crops
14. High-density planting of fruit crops
15. Training and pruning of plants
16. Pollination management in horticultural crops
17. Organic crop production
18. Pest management dynamics for sustainable horticulture
19. Physiological disorders and their management
20. Biotic and abiotic stress management of fruit crops
21. Postharvest management of horticultural crops
22. Marketing strategies for horticultural crops
23. Climate change and sustainable horticulture
24. Molecular markers in horticultural science
25. Conventional and modern breeding approaches for quality improvement
26. Mushroom, bamboo, spices, medicinal, and plantation crop production