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Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > Agricultural science
During the past 15 years, cellular and molecular approaches have
emerged as valuable adjuncts to supplement and complement
conventional breeding methods for a wide variety of crop plants.
Biotechnology increasingly plays a role in the creation,
conservation, characterization and utilization of genetic
variability for germplasm enhancement. For instance,
anther/microspore culture, somaclonal variation, embryo culture and
somatic hybridization are being exploited for obtaining incremental
improvement in the existing cultivars. In addition, genes that
confer insect- and disease-resistance, abiotic stress tolerance,
herbicide tolerance and quality traits have been isolated and
re-introduced into otherwise sensitive or susceptible species by a
variety of transgenic techniques. Together these transformative
methodologies grant access to a greater repertoire of genetic
diversity as the gene(s) may come from viruses, bacteria, fungi,
insects, animals, human beings, unrelated plants or even be
artificially derived. Remarkable achievements have been made in the
production, characterization, field evaluation and
commercialization of transgenic crop varieties worldwide. Likewise,
significant advances have been made towards increasing crop yields,
improving nutritional quality, enabling crops to be raised under
adverse conditions and developing resistance to pests and diseases
for sustaining global food and nutritional security. The
overarching purpose of this 3-volume work is to summarize the
history of crop improvement from a technological perspective but to
do so with a forward outlook on further advancement and
adaptability to a changing world. Our carefully chosen "case
studies of important plant crops" intend to serve a diverse
spectrum of audience looking for the right tools to tackle
complicated local and global issues.
The book explores the fundamental principles, advances in forensic
techniques, and its application on forensic DNA analysis. The book
is divided into three modules; the first module provides the
historical prospect of forensic DNA typing and introduces
fundamentals of forensic DNA typing, methodology, and technical
advancements, application of STRs, and DNA databases for forensic
DNA profile analysis. Module 2 examines the problems and challenges
encountered in extracting DNA and generating DNA profiles. It
provides information on the methods and the best practices for DNA
isolation from forensic biological samples and human remains like
ancient DNA, DNA typing of skeletal remains and disaster victim
identification, the importance of DNA typing in human trafficking,
and various problems associated with capillary electrophoresis.
Module 3 emphasizes various technologies that are based on SNPs,
STRs namely Y-STR, X-STR, mitochondrial DNA profiling in forensic
science. Module 4 explores the application of non-human forensic
DNA typing of domestic animals, wildlife forensics, plant DNA
fingerprinting, and microbial forensics. The last module discusses
new areas and alternative methods in forensic DNA typing, including
Next-Generation Sequencing, and its utility in forensic science,
oral microbes, and forensic DNA phenotyping. Given its scope, the
book is a useful resource in the field of DNA fingerprinting for
scientists, forensic experts, and students at the postgraduate
level.
Food security, crop protection, biodiversity, and human and
environmental health are among the main needs and concerns of
society. Modern biotechnology and life sciences represent a
constantly evolving area that is key for the rational use of
natural resources - resources that in turn are indispensable for
societal development. This book features the outcomes of the IV
International Biotechnology and Biodiversity Congress, held in
Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2018. It includes extensive reviews of the
trends in agricultural and forestry biotechnology, molecules and
materials biodiscovery, ethnomedicine, environmental impact and
bioindustry research, describing many of these topics from the
Latin America perspective and showing how the biodiversity and
ancient knowledge of these countries are vital for worldwide
sustainable development.
The book presents a comprehensive study of the impact of policy
reforms on output, employment, and productivity growth across
sectors of India since 1991. It showcases varied responses from
different sectors as they faced different degrees of policy
interventions, and challenges or opportunities as regards markets,
technology, and availability of skills and other complementary
resources. The book also discusses the contributions of the service
sector on India's GDP and employment. The book throws light on the
phenomena of rising inequality and persistent poverty which
continues to shadow and be a hallmark of post-reform India, despite
high economic growth. It underlines the failure of these reforms to
bring about major change in social and economic organizations and
institutions. The book's contents stress on the criticality of
addressing these issues as they have a serious potential of
jeopardizing the country's ability to maintain high growth
momentum. With these pertinent topics, the book would be of
interest not only to the research community, but also to policy
makers and practitioners of various sectors addressed here.
This book examines comprehensively for the first time, the scope
and accuracy of indigenous environmental knowledge. It shows that
in some spheres, including agriculture, house design, fuel and
water manipulation, the high reputation of local observers is well
deserved and often sufficiently insightful to warrant wider
imitation. However it also reveals that in certain matters, notably
some aspects of health care and wild-species population management,
local knowledge systems are conspicuously unsound. Not all the
difficulties are of the communities own making, some stem from
external factors outside their control. However in either case,
remedial measures can be suggested and this book describes,
especially for the benefit of practitioners, what steps might be
taken in rural communities to improve the quality of life. The
possibility of useful transfers of information from local settings
to Western ones is not ignored and forms the subject of the book's
final chapter.
Exploring the competitiveness and profitability of the agricultural
sector in Central Europe, this book argues that the successful
management of agricultural enterprises is inconceivable without the
knowledge and application of modern forms of management and
technology. Organised in an analytical framework and offering
comprehensive empirical data, this book focusses on the countries
of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The contributors
identify good practices, unresolved problems, and factors
influencing profitability. Topics explored include the challenges
of increasing sales potential, competitiveness, partnerships and
cooperation, human resources issues, and risk management. By
constituting a valuable source of knowledge, Managing Agricultural
Enterprises is important to those researching the agricultural
industry and management, but also to policy-makers and managers of
agricultural enterprises.
Written in easy to follow language, the book presents cutting-edge
agriculturally relevant plant biotechnologies and applications in a
manner that is accessible to all. This book updates and introduces
the scope and method of plant biotechnologies and molecular
breeding within the context of environmental analysis and
assessment, a diminishing supply of productive arable land, scarce
water resources and climate change. New plant breeding techniques
including CRISPR-cas system are now tools to meet these challenges
both in developed countries and in developing countries. Ethical
issues, intellectual property rights, regulation policies in
various countries related to agricultural biotechnology are
examined. The rapid developments in plant biotechnology are
explained to a large audience with relevant examples. New varieties
of crops can be adapted to new climatic conditions in order to
reduce pest-associated losses and the adverse abiotic effects
This book provides essential insights into methods and practices of
'Climate-smart Agriculture,' which is driven by the principles of
climate resilience and smart resource use in agricultural
production. Climate-smart agriculture is a key policy instrument
for achieving poverty eradication and a hunger-free world, as well
as mitigating the effects of climate change. This book discusses in
detail climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices that
can reduce the vulnerability of agricultural systems, improve the
livelihoods of farmers and other stakeholders, and reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions from crop production and livestock
husbandry. The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU)
sector produces roughly 10-12 gigatons of CO2-equivalent per year;
therefore, sustainable practices for agriculture and related land
use hold immense potential to mitigate climate change. The
potential impacts of climate variability and climate change on
agriculture are extensively documented and articulated, especially
with regard to global and national environmental agendas that call
for innovation, transformation and climate-resilient advances in
agriculture. As the book demonstrates, climate-smart agriculture
offers an excellent tool for boosting agricultural output to feed
the growing global population; for reducing greenhouse gases
emissions from agriculture and other land use; and for protecting
agricultural production systems from the impending dangers of
climate change.
This book presents a compilation of case studies from different
countries on achieving agricultural sustainability. The book
stresses that, in order to meet the needs of our rapidly growing
population, it is imperative to increase agricultural productivity.
If global food production is to keep pace with an
increasing population, while formulating new food production
strategies for developing countries, the great challenge for modern
societies is to boost agricultural productivity. Today, the
application of chemicals to enhance plant growth or induced
resistance in plants is limited due to the negative effects of
chemical treatment and the difficulty of determining the optimal
concentrations to benefit the plant. In the search for alternative
means to solve these problems, biological applications have been
extensively studied. Naturally occurring plant-microbe-environment
interactions are utilized in many ways to enhance plant
productivity. As such, a greater understanding of how plants and
microbes coexist and benefit one another can yield new strategies
to improve plant productivity in the most sustainable way.
Developing sustainable agricultural practices requires
understanding both the basic and applied aspects of agriculturally
important microorganisms, with a focus on transforming agricultural
systems from being nutrient-deficient to nutrient-rich. This work
is divided into two volumes, the aim being to provide a
comprehensive description and to highlight a holistic approach,
respectively. Taken together, the two volumes address the
fundamentals, applications, research trends and new prospects of
agricultural sustainability. Volume one consists of two
sections, with the first addressing the role of microbes in
sustainability, and the second exploring beneficial soil microbe
interaction in several economically important crops. Section I
elucidates various mechanisms and beneficial natural processes that
enhance soil fertility and create rhizospheric conditions
favourable for high fertility and sustainable soil flora. It
examines the mechanism of action and importance of rhizobacteria
and mycorrhizal associations in soil. In turn, section II presents
selected case studies involving economically important crops. This
section explains how agriculturally beneficial microbes have been
utilized in sustainable cultivation with high productivity.
Sustainable food production without degrading the soil and
environmental quality is a major priority throughout the world,
making this book a timely addition. It offers a comprehensive
collection of information that will benefit students and
researchers working in the field of rhizospheric mechanisms,
agricultural microbiology, biotechnology, agronomy and sustainable
agriculture, as well as policymakers in the area of food security
and sustainable agriculture.
This book covers advanced concepts and creative ideas with regard
to insect biorational control and insecticide resistance
management. Some chapters present and summarize general strategies
or tactics for managing insect pests such as the principles of IPM
in various crop systems and biorational control of insect pests,
advances in organic farming, alternative strategies for controlling
orchard and field-crop pests. Other chapters cover alternative
methods for controlling pests such as disruption of insect
reproductive systems and utilization of semiochemicals and
diatomaceous earth formulations, and developing bioacoustic methods
for mating disruption. Another part is devoted to insecticide
resistance: mechanisms and novel approaches for managing insect
resistance in agriculture and in public health.
Eating locally and developing an urban-rural food continuum is a
rapidly evolving movement. Integration of multi-functional forms of
agriculture - termed New Forms of Urban Agriculture (NFUA) - could
be a critical adaptation to strengthen this movement and for the
sustainability of cities. While NFUA have the potential to provide
diverse benefits to humans, there is an absence of reliable
empirical data on the scale and impact of urban resources on NFUA
which has a profound impact on its viability and sustainability. In
this book, we shift the focus from how NFUA have potential to
impact the urban system to investigate the potential impacts of
urban resources on NFUA. Access to resources such as land, labour,
clean water, etc. are major barriers to enter the agriculture
sector in the cities; the chapters in this book present projects or
reviews recent research on the subject from different cities in the
world. This edited volume offers critical perspectives from diverse
disciplines, expertise, and geographic contexts related to the
actual and potential role of urban and peri-urban agriculture in
the developing and the developed world where forms, adaptations,
and debates around NFUA vary distinctively. Using and urban ecology
lens, the book provides empirical evidence of how urban resources
of land, water/waste, labour, and biodiversity impact NFUA.
The book is a practical manual which has been created to support
the syllabus of agro-meteorology courses specifically designed for
graduate and post-graduate students. The topics covered in the
manual include working with meteorological instruments for
measurement of various meteorological parameters like temperature,
humidity, sunshine hours, precipitation, etc. Separate chapters
have been included for computation of growing degree days,
agro-climatic zones, crop modelling and agro-advisory services. The
book will have great appeal to students of agriculture,
horticulture, and forestry.
Plants require essential nutrients (macronutrients and
micronutrients) for normal functioning. Sufficiency range is the
levels of nutrients necessary to meet the plant's needs for optimal
growth. This range depends on individual plant species and the
particular nutrient. Nutrient levels outside of a plant's
sufficiency range cause overall crop growth and health to decline,
due either to deficiency or toxicity from over-accumulation. Apart
from micronutrients (B, Cl, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu and Mo), Aluminum (Al),
cerium (Ce), cobalt (Co), iodine (I), lanthanum (La), sodium (Na),
selenium (Se), silicon (Si), titanium (Ti), and vanadium (V) are
emerging as novel biostimulants that may enhance crop productivity
and nutritional quality. These beneficial elements are not
"essential" but when supplied at low dosages, they augment plant
growth, development, and yield by stimulating specific molecular,
biochemical, and physiological pathways in responses to challenging
environments. The book is the first reference volume that
approaches plant micronutrient management with the latest
biotechnological and omics tools. Expertly curated chapters
highlight working solutions as well as open problems and future
challenges in plant micronutrient deficiency or toxicity. We
believe this book will introduce readers to state-of-the-art
developments and research trends in this field.
In their rapid colonization of soil exposed by fires, floods, and
grazing animals, weeds resemble the human specialists we label
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs). Weeds are the first
responders when disasters occur in nature. They occupy bare soil
and prevent erosion by wind and water. In extreme cases such as a
landslide, weeds are essential to the healing processes that
replace the lost soil. Like a Band-Aid on a skinned knee, weeds
protect the land while it recovers. Besides protecting the soil
after disaster, weeds provide food for wildlife, and some of them
provide food and medicine for people. Able to withstand harsh
conditions, weeds will proliferate as global warming and other
human impacts intensify. Thus, nature's EMTs will increase while
all other plants decline. The book provides a succinct definition
of weeds according to their form and function in ecosystem
processes. The narrative uses a representative set of weed species
from a desert location to illustrate the full range of weed
characteristics.
This volume analyzes the global challenges of food security, land
use changes, and climate change impacts on food production in order
to recommend sustainable development policies, anticipate future
food services and demands, and identify the economic benefits and
trade-offs of meeting food security demands and achieving climate
change mitigation objectives. The key points of analysis that form
the conclusions of this book are based on measuring the quantity
and quality of land and water resources, and the rate of use of
sustainable management of these resources in the context of
socio-economic factors, including food security, poverty, and
climate change impacts. In six parts, readers will learn about
these crucial dimensions of the affects of climate change on food
security, and will gain a better understanding of how to assess the
trade-offs when combating multiple climate change challenges and
how to develop sustainable solutions to these problems. The book
presents multidimensional perspectives from expert contributors,
offering holistic and strategic approaches to link knowledge on
climate change and food security with action in the form of policy
recommendations, with a focus on sociological and socio-economic
components of climate change impacts. The intended audience of the
book includes students and researchers engaged in climate change
and food security issues, NGOs, and policy makers.
This book is devoted to Agroecological Crop Protection, which is
the declension of the principles of agroecology to crop protection.
It presents the concepts of this innovative approach, case studies
and lessons and generic keys for agroecological transition. The
book is intended for a wide audience, including scientists,
experimenters, teachers, farmers, students. It represents a new
tool, proposing concrete keys of action on the basis of feedbacks
validated scientifically. Beyond the examples presented, it is
therefore of general scope and proposes recommendations for all
temperate and tropical cropping systems. It contributes to the
training and teaching modules in this field and it is an updated
information support for professionals and a teaching aid for
students (agronomy, crop protection, biodiversity management,
agroecology).
This book gathers the latest information on the organization of
genomes in wild Solanum species and emphasizes how this information
is yielding direct outcomes in the fields of molecular breeding, as
well as a better understanding of both the patterns and processes
of evolution. Cultivated Solanums, such as potato, tomato, and
pepper, possess a high number of wild relatives that are of great
importance for practical breeding and evolutionary studies. Their
germplasm is often characterized by allelic diversity, as well as
genes that are lacking in the cultivated species. Wild Solanums
have not been fully exploited by breeders. This is mainly due to
the lack of information regarding their genetics and genomics.
However, the genome of important cultivated Solanaceae such as
potato, tomato, eggplant, and pepper has already been sequenced. On
the heels of these recent developments, wild Solanum genomes are
now becoming available, opening an exciting new era for both basic
research and varietal development in the Solanaceae.
The book summarizes present scientific knowledge in plant
physiology with regards to plant production. The authors, mainly
professors of plant physiology at agricultural universities in
Czechoslovakia, present the individual fields of plant physiology
with regard to the demands of agricultural practice and education
of students and doctorani at these universities.
The first chapters discuss metabolism ie. photosynthesis,
respiration, mineral and heterotrophic nutrition, and water regime
of plants. What follows is a discussion of the physiology of plant
growth, development and movements, and finally resistance of plants
against unfavourable abiotic and biotic effects.
The book shows how to increase the yield of crops by manipulating
photosynthesis and also studies the possible flow of photosynthetic
products to the commercially valuable parts of the biomass.
Rational plant production, however, cannot do without knowledge of
plant nutrition and water regime as a theoretical basis for
fertilization and irrigation. The reader will find this knowledge
detailed as well as information about the ecological and
physiological principles of the resistance of plants against
drought, frost, heat, diseases and other unfavourable effects.
This book caters to the need of researchers working in the
ever-evolving field of agricultural biotechnology. It discusses and
provides in-depth information about latest advancements happening
in this field. The book discusses evolution of plant tissue culture
techniques, development of doubled haploids technology, role of
recombinant-DNA technology in crop improvement. It also provides an
insight into the global status of genetically modified crops, use
of RNAi technology and mi-RNAs in plant improvement. Chapters are
also dedicated for different branches of 'omics' science including
genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics
along with the use of molecular markers in tagging and mapping of
various genes/QTLs of agronomic importance. This book also covers
the role of enzymes and microbes in agriculture in productivity
enhancement. It is of interest to teachers, researchers of
biotechnology and agriculture scientists. Also the book serves as
additional reading material for undergraduate and postgraduate
students of biotechnology, agriculture, horticulture, forestry,
ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences. National and
international biotechnologists and agricultural scientists will
also find this to be a useful read.
Proteomics, like other post-genomics tools, has been growing at a
rapid pace and has important applications in numerous fields of
science. While its use in animal and veterinary sciences is still
limited, there have been considerable advances in this field in
recent years, in areas as diverse as physiology, nutrition and food
of animal origin processing. This is mainly as a consequence of a
wider availability and better understanding of proteomics
methodologies by animal and veterinary researchers. This book
provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art account of the status of
farm-animal proteomics research, focusing on the principles behind
proteomics methodologies and its specific applications and offering
clear example.
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