Division of Crop Production

Arid ecosystem is marked by adverse climatic and edaphic situations such as high temperature, high wind velocity, high evapo-transpiration, low humidity, low and erratic rainfall, low soil fertility, fast deep percolation, sacking of underground water which drastically affect the cultivation of horticultural crops in this region, resulted in to low productivity to ameliorate the adverse effect of climatic and edaphic situation of the region. There is need to develop appropriate technologies. In view of this the division will address issues such as propagation, planting system, canopy management, plant architecture engineering, crop diversifications, organic cultivation, soil fertigation and water management.

Work on basic and applied research on integrated disease and pest, nematode and viruses management of commercial arid and semi arid fruit and vegetable crops, constraints analysis, transfer, impact assessment and refinement of technology, capacity building of the farmers and developmental agencies will be carried out.

Objectives :

• To develop agrotechniqes for production of arid horticultural crops.
• To develop value added products from arid horticultural produce.
• To develop technologies for water and nutrients managements in arid and semi arid horticultural crops.
• To develop IDM and IPM including biocontrol measures for major diseases and pests of arid and semi arid crops.
• To undertake market intelligence studies in arid- semiarid fruit and vegetable crops
• To develop human resource for production aspects of arid and semi arid fruit and vegetable crops. .