Agricultural and Biological Research

Organic farming technologies for horticultural crops

B D Sharma, R. Bhargava, Bankey Lal* and Ravi Kumar

In India, about 62 per cent of cropped area is rain fed, where there is little or no use of fertilizers and other agro-chemical due to poor resources with small holding farmers. Thus promotion of organic farming in India is advocated initially in the arid and semi-arid areas of the country in some selected crops. In horticulture, it is easier to manage fruit crops organically than vegetable and flower crops due to perennial growth habit. The arid horticultural crops which are considered high valued health food and being easily grown organically for years are the best suited for organic cultivation e.g., custard apple, fig, jamun, tamarind, pomegranate, aonla, sapota, guava, citrus, ber, khejri, moringa etc. Vegetables are rich and cheap source of vitamins and mineral which act as a protective food in daily diet and they are also consumed raw as a salad and are major source of fibre in diet, however, vegetable crops are vulnerable to disease and pests, therefore they need chemical sprays to protect from them. Similarly, for getting optimum yield, they need chemical fertilizers. Thus in commercial vegetable production with the increase in chemical inputs, the risk of degradation of environment and residue problems has increased. Therefore, it is needed to grow vegetables organically. The concept of organic farming is to demonstrate the effectiveness of low cost agriculture, thereby increasing the net income from successive crops and not only texture and structure of soil but the quality of agricultural output. The major principles of organic farming are to use the organic manures to maintain soil fertility of soil, use of bio-fertilizers, use of bio-control agents for controlling pests and diseases, use of resistant varieties, better soil management practices like solarization, mulching, cover cropping, intercropping, crop rotations and use of pheromones. Therefore, efforts are made in this communication to focus on the research work done on these aspects in fruit and vegetable crops in India. For getting success in the organic farming, let us strive to pool all our indigenous knowledge on safe horticulture practices and evolve new organic farming technologies for which concentrated efforts are needed from the scientists, planners, personnel’s involved in the development of horticulture, extension agencies and the farmers themselves.