Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Based on 2010 FAO data, the worldwide gross value per ha for a major vegetable
such as tomato was $ US 12,556 and much greater than cereals such as maize with
$ US 331. Vegetables are adapted to a range of climatic conditions, offering a wide
choice for farmers. A good example is the diversity of vegetable production in Mid-
dle Eastern countries located near the Mediterranean Sea, an area characterized by a
cold and wet winter climate in the north, and a sub-desert climate in the south. Here,
several vegetable crops can be harvested up to three times a year, such as in Turkey,
Egypt, Syria and Israel. Major abiotic stresses which detract from sustainability
in vegetable production systems are water limitations, high salinity, low fertility,
and temperature extremes. Economic factors and competition for land and water
resources often preclude solving the first three problems by cultural practices alone.
The fourth factor is even more difficult to address in open-field production, as farm-
ers are limited by their local production environments. In this chapter we high-
light critical aspects that contribute to the success of intensive vegetable production
systems. Those are: technological advances in stand establishment and irrigation
management systems, breeding and genetics to improve abiotic stress tolerance and
product quality, and marketing and consumer trends for vegetable products.
Stand Establishment Systems
Seeding Technologies
In 2012, the global vegetable seed market was estimated at US $ 4 billion with the
distribution being solanaceous (39 %), cucurbit (18 %), root and bulbs (15 %), bras-
sicas (14 %), leafy (7 %) and large seed vegetables (7 %) (Anon
2012f
). Direct seed-
ing has been the standard establishment system of vegetable production for centu-
ries. This is in large part due to the use of cultivars developed by open pollination,
which are much less costly than F
1
hybrid seeds. Direct seeding is the recommended
method used for large-scale vegetable production aimed at machine harvesting such
as tomato, sweet corn, snap bean, chili pepper, cucumber, leafy vegetables, roots
and bulbs such as carrots, beets and onions. Farmers demand seeds that have rapid
germination and seedling emergence, leading to uniform stands, particularly under
stressful conditions of extreme temperatures, drought and high soil salinity.
Seed enhancement technologies such as seed coating (pelleting, encrusting, and
filmcoating), hydration treatments (priming at low water potential) or gel mixtures
with growth promoting compounds such as rhizobacteria or gibberellic acid have
been developed to improve speed and synchrony of seedling emergence as well as
seedling vigor in open fields of several vegetable crops, including tomato, pepper,
and cucumber (Orzolek
1983
; Watkins and Cantliffe
1983
; Cantliffe et al.
1987
;
Bradford et al.
1990
; Edelstein et al.
1995
; Kloepper et al.
2004
; Nowak et al.
2004
;
Halmer
2008
; Cantliffe
2009
).
