Description

ABOUT THE BOOK

Underutilized vegetable crops have a long history of local consumption, and local people are aware of their nutritional and medicinal attributes. However, cultivation is done mainly by poor farming communities which derive their sustenance and livelihood from such plants in specialized geographical regions. They have immense potential for contribution to particular pocket’s of food production because they are well adapted to existing and adverse environmental conditions and possess resistance towards pests and diseases. The BSMA committee of ICAR has provided a broad outline of underutilized vegetables. It has been placed in the vegetable science syllabus to complete the course requirement for the award of a Master degree in the discipline of Vegetable Science.

Underutilized vegetables have not yet received adequate attention from researchers for their genetic improvement, standardizing of production, and protection protocols. Most of our efforts are restricted to widely grown major and exotic vegetables.  A large number of underutilized vegetables have shown good promise for utilization of the marginal soils, vast areas of which otherwise lie barren as wastelands. The use of these marginal lands will help augmenting supplies of vegetables without conflicting with the food priorities. Advances in plant genomics now provide breeders advanced molecular and bioinformatics’ tools that allow the study of the whole genome to accelerate breeding efforts such as genome sequencing. The concerted efforts are needed to tame the technology and capitalize our knowledge to bring underutilized vegetables in domain of common people.  Author has made an arduous task to address more than 35 underutilized vegetables listed in the syllabus under various heads and has a firm belief that it will address the requirement of study materials on these crops in well fitting manner.  It will be very useful for the students of Vegetable Science and different disciplines of botany and medicinal sciences.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. A.K. Pandey is Dean, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi.  Prior to join RLBCAU, Jhansi, Dr. Pandey served as Dean, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh under Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur. Before entering Central University service, Dr. Pandey worked as Principal Scientist at Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi. He is ARS Scientist of 1985 batch. Dr. Pandey obtained his M.Sc. (Ag.) and Ph.D. degree in Horticulture from C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur. Dr. Pandey participated in the I^st International Post Graduate Course on Protected Agriculture in Arid and Semi-arid Region at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He has published more than 87 research papers, 172 popular articles and review articles in journals of national and international repute. Dr. Pandey till date has authored 15 books, and out of his many books, Underutilized Vegetable Crops ,  Aquatic vegetables, Velvet bean   (Mucuna prureins L. DC.),  Exotic Vegetables,  Curry leaf and  and  The wealth of Perennial Vegetables are most referred text. Dr. Pandey’s contribution towards utilizing the underutilized vegetable crops in addressing the nutritional security is considered one of the most notable achievements in enriching the food diversity and inviting the attention of researchers to lesser known vegetables of the country.

Dr. Pandey has been conferred several awards and honours for his distinguished academic contributions. Hon’ble President of India has conferred on him the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Gyan-Vigyan Purskar.  Apart from these, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, Government of India honoured him  thrice for his significant contribution. Dr. Pandey is a prolific writer and for his significant contribution, Scientific and Applied Research Centre, Meerut. UP has conferred on him the Outstanding Authorship in Science and Technology Award, 2010 and Life Time Achievement Award, 2016 by BSRD, Allahabad. Dr. Pandey is a Member on Board of a number of Scientific Societies and Academic panels. He is a fellow of Indian Society of Vegetable Science (ISVS), Varanasi and Society of Biological Sciences and Rural Development, Allahabad.