Raju Gawade

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the oldest fruit crops known to mankind. Banana is being an exhaustive crop; it is paramount to maintain high degree of soil fertility to ensure high yield. Adoption of modern techniques like fertigation is needed to be emphasised to increase water use efficiency and fertilizer use efficiency. Fertigation is the most effective way to supply water and nutrients to plants which not only saves water and fertilizer but increases yield and quality. Adoption of fertigation in banana results in saving of fertilizer up to 25-30 percent and water saving up to 40 percent and significant increase in yield and quality of banana. Fertigation also minimizes the pollution of ground water by preventing losses through run off and Leaching. Thus, beyond doubt fertigation technology is a potential tool to easily double the productivity of banana from the present level in India which will not only bring prosperity to the farming community but also fulfil the fruit demand of the country in the near future. With going this book many ideas and problems are discussed to help out the students and research workers.

Dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.) is a perennial climbing cactus that belongs to the family cactaceae and known by various names like kamlam or Strawberry pear. Sunburn injuries are strongly related to heat stress encountered by many (80-95%) dragon fruit producers across India. Sunburn not only reduces photosynthetic efficiency of plants but also enhances chances of disease incidence and ultimately renders poor fruit quality. Shade nets are commonly employed in crop production to protect crops from solar radiations thus improves crop health and fruit quality. To control sunburn, different kinds of dragon fruit species (H. undatus and H. polyrhizus) should be grown under shade nets with varying degrees of shading. It generates a partially controlled environment by reducing the amount of light and effective temperature reaching crops placed beneath it during the day. To maximise plant output and produce the greatest possible microclimate, the ideal shade colour and degree of shade factor must be chosen. Therefore, standardization of shade net colour and shade percentage is essential for different genotypes grown in our country in general and region in particular.