The present enlarged edition has four parts viz Part-I Spices, Part-II Plantation Crops, Part-III Medicinal Plants and Part-IV Aromatic Plants.
It caters to the need of the students of undergraduate programmes in Horticulture/Agriculture/Forestry being offered in various State Agricultural Universities and also to the students of Botany courses of the conventional Universities. It will also serve as a handbook for extension personnel and progressive growers of these crops.
Prof. N. Kumar, Former Dean (Hort) of TNAU, obtained his B.Sc (Hort.), M.Sc. (Agri.) in Horticulture and Ph.D in Horticulture degrees in the years 1976, 1978 and 1989 respectively from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore with distinct academic records. He has been awarded the five Gold Medals for his academic achievement besides seven medals from other organizations for his contribution in horticulture. He has published more than 100 International and National Journals and contributed chapters in four edited books besides authoring three textbooks in horticulture. He has got a rich experience in teaching of undergraduate and Postgraduate students for more than 30 and 25 years respectively and has so far guided 16 Ph.D and 21 M.Sc. (Hort.) students. He has organized 17 national and 3 international events in Horticulture in the capacity as Organizing Secretary and he has also visited 19 countries so far to attend various International Symposiums and other events. He has been conferred the Fellow of Association for improvement in Production and Utilization of Banana (AIPUB), NRCB, Trichy (2007), awarded ISHS Medal by the President of International Society for Horticultural Science, Leuven, Belgium (2008) and also conferred Fellow of Horticulture Society of India, New Delhi during 2012 in recognition of his meritorious service in the field of horticulture.
