FOREWORD

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is an honor and a pleasure to welcome all of you to Turkey, to Adana and to my University and to the “1^st International ISHS Symposium on Cucurbits”.

It is also a great pleasure to address a few words to all my colleagues, scientists and technicians from more than 20 countries dispersed on five continents.

Two years ago, in the “Business Meeting of the Section of Vegetables” which took place during the “1^st International Symposium on Solanaceae for Fresh Market” in Spain, Prof. Carlos Portas, President of Section of Vegetables proposed me to hold the Second Symposium on Solanaceae in Adana. Since some other Solanacaea Symposia were organized by ISHS and one of them was held in Turkey, in Adana, in 1993, I thought, this was not a good choose of place and I proposed another ISHS Symposium on Cucurbits, because there was not any scientific meeting on Cucurbits until today under the umbrella of ISHS. This proposal was appropriated by ISHS by corresponding each other and this meeting was materialized.

I would like to thank ISHS for supporting us on the organization of this meeting and to Prof. Dr. C. Portas who is not together with us today because of his new job, although he was very much willing to attend.

As you know, the Cucurbitaceae family is a big community and includes more than 60 cultivated plant species. The organs of them have a wide range of use, such as roots, leaves, shoot tips, flowers, young or ripen fruits and seeds can be used as food. They are also used for industrial food or drinks such as salad oil, pickled fruits, alcoholic or soft, cold or hot drinks, for the production of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, various storage containers, bottles, musical instruments, masks, jewelry, decoration material.

Cultivation of cucurbits is extended to the tropical, subtropical and temperate zone conditions. Production of them is spread out from amateur home gardens to industrial greenhouses as big as producing yield of 500 tons/ha.

The world production of the major 4 species of the family such as melon, watermelon, cucumber and squash reached 70 million tons. Turkey produces approximately 10% of the world production and takes the second place after China. It is a great honor for me to host the first meeting of Cucurbits. Considering Çukurova in the Mediterranean region, it is an important center of Turkey for all Cucurbit species but especially for watermelon. The climatic advantage of our region developed the protected cultivation of Cucurbits, for an example, only protected cultivation of watermelon is performed in Çukurova and the production has passed over 15.000 ha.

I would like to emphasize my pleasure for holding this meeting in Adana and thanking the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Governor of Adana, the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, the Turkish Society of Horticultural Science and especially my University and Faculty for supporting us both financially and morally.

Many private seed or agricultural companies, the Bank of Agriculture of the Turkish Republic, and the Kadir Has Foundation for Education did also support us to organize this meeting. I thank all of them.

From the preparation stage of this meeting, our Organizing Committe and the Scientific Committee showed a great effort for the organization and for evaluating the papers. I would like to thank all of them including all the staff members and students of my Departments.

We will do our best to ensure this meeting will be well organized both with scientific and social atmosphere with your contributions.

I wish this meeting create an opportunity to have a close collaboration between the related countries and to develop the activities under the auspices of ISHS.

Thank you all again for participating to this meeting and I declare the Symposium opened.

Prof. Dr. Kazim Abak
Convener


OPENING ADDRRESS
Dear Prof. Dr. Kazim Abak,
Dear Member of the Organizing And Scientific Committees,
Dear Participants,

It is my pleasure to address you a short message in the opening Ceremony through the Convener of this 1st International ISHS Symposium on Cucurbits.

The first it is a special moment for our Section of Vegetables (S.V.). After so many tentative (according to my knowledge there were ISHS Scientists trying to organize such a meeting after fourteen years), I am very happy that Turkish scientists had been able to make it. All of us well know that Turkey is one of the leading vegetable countries in the world and with remarkable scientists working in horticulture.

The second you have been able to organize an excellent program with more than forty oral presentations and sixty posters. Also an excellent scientific Committee. And regarding field trips, media instructions and social events I am sure the field of Committee performed a very good job.

I am sure that you are helping the growth of science and technology in the field of vegetables with your participation in this 1st, Symposium on Cucurbits.

As you well know, ISHS is an international scientific family with more than there thousand members and fifty affiliated countries. And publishes Acta Horticulurae now the longest horticulture serial in the world.

In our Section of Vegetables we work through Working Groups, Opened to non-ISHS scientists. Already the following working groups do exist: Timing, Nutrition and Fertilization, Processing, Seeds, Biodiversity, Irrigation, Brassica, Alliacea and Asparagus.

I also suggest that you create a Working Group inside our Section of Vegetables on Cucurbit Crops; during this meeting the 1^st. Chairman should be selected. The W.G. would help for a smooth and continuous work on Cucurbitacea.

Best regards,

Prof. Dr. Carlos A. M. Portas
President of Section of Vegetables