Innovations in breaking the yield barrier of tropical vegetables

Increasing food production for the growing population is an important challenge of the present and future. Vegetables are very important commodity in food supply because they are inevitable source for nutrients and health. Moreover vegetable cultivation provides farmers with much higher income than staple crops. However, a number of constraints limit the prospect of expanding tropical vegetable cultivation, which mainly includes high incidence of pest and diseases. Vegetables are also sensitive to environmental extremes, which causes low yields. Adoption of innovative technologies starting from seed management to different crop management strategies will help to alleviate these production challenges. The various innovative technologies in breaking the yield barrier of tropical vegetables include seed treatment, crop management, water management, fertigation, mulching, use of plant growth regulators and bio fertilizers, vegetable grafting and use of high yielding F₁ hybrids in different vegetable crops.