Aromatic plant species in agricultural production systems based on marginal soils.
2012
Rao, E. V. S. P.
Globally, agricultural production systems are under greater pressure than they were at any time in human history. Although agriculture is expected to feed the populations with nutritious food, land availability for food production is becoming limited. In addition, competition for agricultural lands from non-agricultural uses, the need for non-food commodities, degradation of soils, impending effects of climate change have necessitated proper management of natural resources for meeting the demands of mankind. In this context, one good strategy is to arrest degradation of natural resources including soils, economical use of marginal and degraded soils through diversification of agricultural crops for food and industrial and environmental purposes. Aromatic plants that yield essential oils that are used widely in flavour, fragrance and health-care industries have been considered important diversification candidates in such a scenario. Scientific evidences suggest that aromatic plants have multiple advantages in being adaptable to marginal/degraded soils and of having the ability to arrest some soil degradation processes. In order to derive optimum economic and ecological advantages of aromatic plants, it is necessary to develop proper cropping systems involving aromatic crops, identify most suitable agro-ecological conditions for their growth, develop good agronomic practices for their cultivation in marginal/degraded soils, adopt proper post-harvest processing methods and establish marketing channels. In this review, scientific evidence of suitability of some aromatic plant species to soils prone to erosion, low fertility, moisture stress conditions, salinity and sodicity, contamination are presented. Value-chain management of aromatic crops and their products in order to derive economic and ecological advantage is necessary.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by CABI