The first edition of the book entitled 'Vegetable Crops in India' published in 1986 was revised in 1993 with the title 'Vegetable Crops'. Both the previous editions were considered as outstanding publication on the subject and proved valuable to the students, teachers, researchers and extension specialists in horticulture in general and olericulture in particular, in different parts of the world. During the period after the book was revised in 1993, enormous work has been reported on all important vegetable crops and it was considered necessary to published the present revised edition in two volumes.

This book is an initiative of a subcommittee of SCOPE (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) which realized that the integrity of many natural ecosystems was being threatened by the ingress of invasive species.