This book is designed to acquaint the students with the basic horticultural operations, practices, skills and basic requirements of establishment and production of horticultural crops from the view point of botany, soil, climate, management, and post harvest. The readers are introduced with horticultural sciences with emphasis on technical skills, entrepreneurship, occupational opportunities, and horticultural business practices.

Water is a major limiting factor affecting plant growth, development and yield mainly in arid and semi-arid region where plants are often exposed to periods of water deficit stress which is also known as drought stress (Foyer et al., 1994). Drought and heat stress can cause oxidative stress through the production of reactive oxygen species such as super oxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide. Also the drought, salinity, extreme temperatures and oxidative stress are often interconnected and may induce similar cellular damage. Plant growth and productivity is adversely affected by...