Microbes are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere and regulate many critical elemental and biogeochemical phenomena. Because microbes are the key players in the carbon cycle and in related biological reactions, microbial ecology is a vital research area for understanding the contribution of the biosphere in global warming and the response of the natural environment to climate variations. The beneficial uses of microbes have enabled constructive and cost-effective responses that have not been possible through physical or chemical methods. This new volume reviews the multifaceted interactions among microbes, ecosystems, and their pivotal role in maintaining a more balanced environment, in order to help facilitate living organisms coexisting with the natural environment. With extensive references, tables, and illustrations, this book provides valuable information on microbial utilization for environmental sustainability and provides fascinating insights into microbial diversity. Key features include: Looks at enhancing plant production through growth-promoting arbuscular mycorrhizae, endophytic bacteria, and microbiome networks Considers microbial degradation and environmental management of e-wastes and azo dyes Explores soil-plant microbe interactions in metal-contaminated soils Examines radiation-resistant thermophiles for engineered bioremediation Describes potential indigenous/effective microbes for wastewater treatment processes Presents research on earthworms and microbes for organic farming

This new book presents an abundance of important information and case studies that deal with bamboo farming and its effects from and on climate change adaptation and mitigation. There is a lack of research on the role of bamboo in climate change adaptation and mitigation; this volume helps to fill that gap by providing information that will enable policymakers to consider bamboo farming and its implications in carbon trading. Bamboo represents one of the world's highest yielding renewable natural resources and is an important source of non-timber forest products for subsistence use as well as for materials with many commercial and industrial uses. There are over 1500 documented applications of bamboo products, including materials for bridges, construction, furniture, agricultural tools, handicrafts, papers, textiles, boards, edible, and bioenergy applications. With their fast growth rate and rapid propagation, bamboo forests have a high C storage potential, especially when the harvested culms are transformed into durable products and thereby prolonging the C storage. Environmentalists love bamboo for its quick growth and for the fact that it can be harvested without harming the environment. This volume is a rich resource on the role of bamboo in ecological farming and climate change mitigation. Key features of the book include: * Explores the role of bamboo on climate change and environment and ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change * Considers overlooked bamboo biomass resources * Explains carbon capture and storage potential in bamboo * Assesses opportunities for carbon farming and carbon trading in bamboo * Looks at the role on bamboo cultivation on the livelihood of rural populations * Details the soil properties needed for bamboo-based agroforestry systems

This book addresses the evolving crisis in agriculture and sketches the 'community economy' that grounds agricultural enterprise more accurately than the industrial model. In its current practice, agriculture is (in the United States but increasingly in the rest of the world) unsustainable and destructive. The most immediately unsustainable feature of industrial agriculture is its dependence on the products of petroleum-as feedstock for fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, and as fuel for the farm machinery and transport of agricultural products into the cities. The problems of agriculture and in general the food systems to which it is attached range from the vulnerability of monocultures to new and stronger pests to the emerging medical problem of obesity. The need for agricultural reform is widely acknowledged; one part of the new work being done suggests that food production in the cities may solve several of its problems at once. This book is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students in agriculture and environmental studies.

This volume explores the latest techniques used for sustainable development of eco-friendly pest management systems. Chapters in this book look at the design of novel RNAi-mediated pest control strategies and related issues. Some of the topics covered in this book are identification and characterization of differentially expressed non-coding RNAs in insect genomes; functional small RNA design; analysis of endogenous RNAi pathways; RNAi screening; plant models of RNAi-mediated pest control; and dsRNA delivery. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, RNAi Strategies for Pest Management: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for any scientist or researcher interested in learning more about this exciting and developing field. Chapter 18 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Chitosan in the Preservation of Agricultural Commodities presents a cohesive overview of research topics regarding the production and characterization of chitosan, the development of coatings and fi lms, its functional properties, and antimicrobial potential of this compound on economically important agricultural commodities. It includes the modes of action from a physiological, enzymatic, and molecular perspective, and evaluations of the activity of chitosan nanocomposites and nanoparticles in biological models. The first section deals with the chemical characteristics and functional properties of chitosan and new chitosan-based biomaterials intended for food preservation. The second section covers various aspects of the control achieved by chitosan on different microorganisms affecting various horticultural commodities, grains, and ornamentals, and its modes of action. The third section explores enzymatic and gene expression induction by chitosan application on fruit and vegetables; the fourth section offers insight on the use of chitosan nanocomposites in biological models associated with food conservation and control of microorganisms.

First published in 1987, Agricultural Extension Worldwide presents an international perspective on agricultural extension and highlights extension as an integral function of agricultural development. Agricultural extension is one of the largest nonformal problem-solving educational systems in the world. It is generally concerned with transferring knowledge and research to farmers but may include services to other target audiences such as farm families and rural youth, as well as serve for developing rural community resources. In sixteen chapters, various major systems of extension are discussed along with factors that make for their success or failure, including the linkages required and the policy and financial supports necessary to make them effective. This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of agricultural economics, agricultural policy and agriculture in general.

This book explores the concepts and role of green computing and its recent developments for making the environment sustainable. It focuses on green automation in disciplines such as computers, nanoscience, information technology, and biochemistry. This book is characterized through descriptions of sustainability, green computing, their relevance to the environment, society, and its applications. Presents how to make the environment sustainable through engineering aspects and green computing Explores concepts and the role of green computing with recent developments Processes green automation linked with various disciplines such as nanoscience, information technology, and biochemistry Explains the concepts of green computing linked with sustainable environment through information technology This book will be of interest to researchers, libraries, students, and academicians that are interested in the concepts of green computing linked with green automation through information technology and their impacts on the future.

Focusing on ethnography and interviews with subsistence food producers, this book explores the resilience, innovation and creativity taking place in subsistence agriculture in America. To date, researchers interested in alternative food networks have often overlooked the somewhat hidden, unorganized population of household food producers. Subsistence Agriculture in the US fills this gap in the existing literature by examining the lived experiences of people taking part in subsistence food production. Over the course of the book, Colby draws on accounts from a broad and diverse network of people who are hunting, fishing, gardening, keeping livestock and gathering and looks in depth at the way in which these practical actions have transformed their relationship to labor and land. She also explores the broader implications of this pro-environmental activity for social change and sustainable futures. With a combination of rigorous academic investigation and engagement with pressing social issues, this book will be of great interest to scholars of sustainable consumption, environmental sociology and social movements.

Following the crisis of the Special Period, Cuba promoted urban agriculture throughout its towns and cities to address food sovereignty and security. Through the adoption of state recommended design strategies, these gardens have become places of social and economic exchange throughout Cuba. This book maps the lived experiences surrounding three urban farms in Havana to construct a deeper understanding about the everyday life of this city. Using narratives and drawings, this research uncovers these sites as places where education, intimacy, entrepreneurism, wellbeing, and culture are interwoven alongside food production. Henri Lefebvre's latent work on rhythmanalysis is used as a research method to capture the everyday beats particular to Havana surrounding these sites. This book maps the many ways in which these spaces shift power away from the state to become places that are co-created by the community to serve as a crucial hinge point between the ongoing collapse of the city and its future wellbeing.

This book examines different innovations in worldwide agricultural-systems including the applications of artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and features of machine learning (ML) for the benefits of the farm-community. Specifically, it examines the use of agricultural equipment and IoT to reduce physical stress; innovative equipment that measure and reduce mental work load; and innovative techniques to help with employee safety. Featuring case studies and future implications, this book is an excellent guide for academics and researchers in the agri-sector.

Honey is a supersaturated solution of sugar made by bees. Honeybees collect a liquid secretion from flowers, called nectar, and take this back to their hives. It is an appreciated natural gift to humanity derived entirely from honeybees. Honey is the by-product of nectar collected by bees from the flowers, with some digestive enzymes produced by the honeybees themselves. Honey: A Miraculous Product of Nature summarizes the current status of honey, it's uses and related aspects. This illustrated volume describes use of honey in traditional medicines, i.e. Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani by acting as a preservative and nourishing agent. Also, other properties like digestibility, palatability, deliciousness, refreshing, thirst quencher, stomachic, anti-obtrusive, expectorant, anti-oxidative, anti-tussive and blood purifier are explained in beautiful manner. The role of honey in improving eyesight, strengthens gums and teeth and it's use in jaundice, spleen enlargement, sore throat, chest diseases, sexual debility, renal and cystic calculi, intestinal worms, heart diseases and leprosy is very well described. The compiled knowledge from range of bee scientists, Honey: A Miraculous Product of Nature aims to provide broad knowledge on honey to the researchers, apiculturists and students to continue their work on honey and honeybees.

The book mainly comprises of novel food processing techniques and the equipment requirement for installation. The book also provides the scope and opportunities of entrepreneurship in the major horticultural crops like banana, mango, pine-apple, and some under-utilized fruits and vegetables. The book also enlightens the readers about the marketing strategies, business plan preparation, safety and quality issues etc. It covers almost all important aspects of entrepreneurship development in food processing sector. Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

Provides a comprehensive guide about how to use machine vision for Industry 4.0 applications like analysis of images for automated inspections, object detection, object tracking etc. Includes case studies of Robotics Internet of Things with its current and future applications in Healthcare, Agriculture, Transportation, etc. It highlights the inclusion of impaired people in industry, like intelligent assistant that helps deaf-mute people to transmit instructions and warnings in a manufacturing process. It examines the significant technological advancements in machine vision for industrial Internet of things and explores the commercial benefits using the real world applications from healthcare to transportation. Provides a conceptual framework of Machine vision for the various Industrial applications. Addresses scientific aspects for a wider audience such as senior and junior engineers, undergraduate and post-graduate students, researchers, and anyone else interested in the trends, development, and opportunities for the Machine Vision for Industry 4.0 applications.

This book deals with an array of topics in the broad area of biotic stress responses in plants, focusing on "problems and their management" by selecting some of the widely investigated themes. Such as: major insect-pest of cereal crops in India and their management, biotic stresses of major pulse crops and their management strategies, insect pests of oilseed crops and their management, biotic stresses of vegetable crops and their management, insect pests infesting major vegetable crops and their management strategies, fruit crops insect pests and their biointensive integrated pest management techniques, mass trapping of fruit flies using Methyl Eugenol based traps, organic means of combating biotic stresses in plants, nematode problem in pulses and their management, and approaches in pest management of stored grain pests. This book is useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agronomy, Horticulture, other cognate disciplines of agriculture and allied sciences and other research workers. Note: T& F does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

1 The first book on data-driven national assessment of social, ecological, and economic rangeland sustainability 2 Written by leading experts who include real community case studies to personalize the assessment and impacts 3 Highlights data needs for future assessments to spur innovation in development of new techniques and technologies 4 Explains web-based mapping tools to help users create maps of sustainability metrics at their preferred scale of interest 5 Introduces a novel 3-dimensional triangle to depict sustainability ratings at variable scales

The book has covered recent techniques on bio-intensive integrated approaches of horticultural pest's management. An attempt to compile information on non-chemical ways of pest management strategies including agronomic approaches to physical, mechanical, biopesticides, biocontrol agents, biorational pesticides etc. which are non harmful to environment and economically viable has been made. This book is a useful reference material for organic product producing farmers, researchers and students who are involved in bio-intensive pest management strategies. Note: T& F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

1. This book examines the agrarian transformation in India from the point of view of Gender in particular, and deals with processes witnessed across the global South - rural distress, deagrarianisation, depeasantisation, migration, feminisation of agriculture, identity based inequalities in rural labour markets etc. 2. It contains latest empirical data on rural Dalit labourers 3. The book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies and Political economy across UK and USA.

Re-envisioning Advances in Remote Sensing: Urbanization, Disasters and Planning aims at portraying varied advancements in remote sensing applications, particularly in the fields of urbanization, disaster management and regional planning perspectives. The book is organized into three sections of overlapping areas of research covering chief remote sensing applications. Apart from introducing the advances in remote sensing through Indian remote sensing developments, it depicts the broader themes of: urbanization and its impacts; geospatial technology for disaster management; and, remote sensing applications in models and planning. It also provides outlook to future research agenda for remote sensing. Features: * Depicts advances in remote sensing in major fields through applications of geospatial technologies. * Covers remote sensing applications in varied aspects of urbanization, urban problems and disasters. * Includes advancements in remote sensing in model building and planning perspectives. * Analyses the usage of smartphones and other digital devices in mapping urban problems and monitoring disaster risks. * Explores future agenda for remote sensing advances and its ever-widening horizon. This book would be of interest to all the researchers and graduate students pursuing studies in the fields of remote sensing, GIS, geospatial technologies, urbanizations, disaster management, regional planning, environmental sciences, natural resource management and related fields.

1.Provides detailed information about two healthy substitutes for cereal crops 2.Explains the importance of utilizing ancient crops as new era Superfoods 3.Promotes the concept of utilizing food crops as nutraceuticals by discussing physical, chemical and physiological characteristics of Chia and Quinoa 4.Describes the importance of using Chia and Quinoa to help as functional foods

Micropropagation of plants is a multibillion dollar industry being prac- ticed in hundreds of small and large nurseries and commercial labora- tories throughout the world. At present, it is the only component of plant biotechnology which has been commercially exploited on such a large scale, especially for the production of ornamentals. Now micro- propagation of trees and medicinal plants has also assumed great im- portance. With recent progress made in the propagation of fruit and forest trees, and the immediate need for afforestation and planting of orchards, propagules and plantlets are required quickly and in large numbers. Taking these points into consideration High-Tech and Micro- propagation I, If, If I, and IV were published in 1991 and 1992. The present two volumes, High-Tech and Micropropagation V and VI, com- prise 51 chapters contributed by international experts from 24 countries. High-Tech and M icropropagation V comprises 24 chapters arranged into the following three sections: I. Vegetables and fruits (garlic, Amaranthus, Brassica oleracea, pepper watermelon, cassava, banana, Myrtus communis, passionfruit, Poly- mnia sonchifolia, pepino, and spinach) II. Grasses (bamboos, Caustis dioica, Dendrocalamus, Miscanthus x giganteus, sugarcane) III. Trees (Aegle marmelos, Eucalyptus, Fraxinus excelsior, Juglans cinerea, Pinus virginiana, Prosopis, and Ulmus species) High-Tech and Micropropagation VI comprises 27 chapters arranged in two sections: I.

Fertigation requires a thorough understanding of the science behind the technology to make it deliver the immense possibility it offers in crop production. Though the idea of fertigation existed from the times of solution culture, it did not receive the necessary attention from among plant nutritionists and agronomists when it reappeared in the context of micro irrigation. Fertilizer application in field agriculture has also not developed as a precision technology. Recommendations of the quantum of fertilizers required for a crop, at least in India are not based on current varieties of the crops, nor have they anything to do with the growth rate and developmental changes occurring while a crop is managed by the grower. Most of the fertilizer recommendations are itself very old and efforts to make them relevant to the current growing conditions, soil status, crop variety and crops reaction to the environment etc. are very limited. It is even worse when growers follow traders' recommendations whose idea is to sell more the fertilizer they supply. Not only lower yields and very low fertilizer use efficiencies, but the deterioration of soil and water bodies are the results. Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

This new book provides an insightful look at the varied and exciting uses and applications of Wi-Fi and the Internet of Things in agriculture. With internet-enabled communications becoming more widely available, farms and agricultural establishments can take advantage of these new technologies for a wide range of farm operations, such as crop management, farm vehicle tracking, livestock monitoring, storage monitoring, and more. The collected data from these devices can be stored in the cloud system or server and accessed by the farmers via the internet or mobile phones. This book shows the many benefits to farmers from applying IoT, including better utilizing information for monitoring crops, optimizing water use, planning effective fertilization strategies, and saving time and reducing the operation expenses. Topics include using IoT for vertical farming, IoT-based smart irrigation system, landslide susceptibility assessment, automated aeroponics systems, crop survival analysis, and more. The volume also considers the challenges of IoT in agriculture, such as the requirements of applications of wireless sensor networks, the threat of attacks and the detection of vulnerabilities in wireless sensor networks, and more. Internet of Things for Agriculture 4.0: Impact and Challenges provides a better understanding of the time- and resourcing-saving benefits of wireless sensors and remote monitoring devices in agriculture. The volume will be useful for those involved in agricultural operations as well as scientists and researchers, and faculty and students in agriculture and computer and information science engineering.

This collection calls for improved technical communication for the public through an embodied, situated understanding of environmental risk that promotes social justice. In addition to providing a series of chapters about recent issues on risk communication, this volume offers a diverse look at methodological practices for students, researchers, and practitioners looking to address embodied aspects of crisis and risk that incorporate UX, storytelling, and dynamic text. It includes chapters that bring embodiment to the forefront of risk communication, highlighting the cycle of content creation, dissemination, public response and decision making, continuing iterations of educational efforts, and recovery, toward increasing adaptive capacity as a whole. In addition, this work directs necessary attention to overcoming perceptual difficulties, memory lapses, definitional differences, access issues, and pedagogical problems in the communication of risks to diverse publics. This collection is essential reading for scholars and can be used as a supplemental text or casebook for courses in technical communication, environmental communication, risk and crisis communication, science communication, and public health.

This volume provides an interdisciplinary collection of studies that cover the trends and issues related to agricultural productivity and availability, food and nutrition security, and sustainability in India. The book discusses a broad range of vital issues concerning the production and consumption of food during the era of climate change, and has been prepared to generate awareness of these issues in a large agricultural economy to shed light on new perspectives and solutions to achieve sustainable food production and security in India. The book is organized into three major sections: Climate and Agricultural Productivity for Availability, Changes and Trends in Cropping Patterns and Food Security, and Food and Nutrition Security for Sustainable Development. The book will be of interest to students, researchers, policymakers, and other inquisitive readers interested in different aspects of agriculture, food and nutrition security, and sustainable development.

The content of this book provides information on advanced knowledge in the sphere of importance and scope of horticulture in India, horticulture based integrated farming systems, integration of livestock in horticulture based farming systems, emerging issues, natural resource management, disease and pest management, organic farming and certification, post-harvest measures and value addition in arid fruits and vegetables, marketing aspects, status and export promotion measures and procedures. Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.