From Mediterranean Europe to Chile and from China to Australia, chestnut cultivation surface has greatly increased globally over the last several decades. The crop provides solid revenue to growers, is resilient to climate change and the fruits are a calorie-dense, carbohydrate-rich nut, the production of which improves soil and sequesters carbon. However, there is a great lack and a great need for technical information on management of old and new chestnut plantations. The Chestnut Handbook shares achievements in chestnut development and cultivation including information on sustainable planning and management of chestnut production from nursery to plantation, entomology, pathology, and ecosystem services. Cultivation techniques of Chinese, Japanese, and European chestnut species including hybrids are described containing information on over 550 local and commercial cultivars. Beautiful original handmade drawings and technical sheets facilitate accessibility and comprehension of information. FEATURES: * Offers practical, easy-to-follow, technical solutions for chestnut farming and forestry, provides ideas for present and future plantations and management * Contains more than 300 figures published in full color featuring original handmade drawings * Provides information about cultural practices, nursery techniques and ecosystem services * Includes a reference list of over 550 local and commercial cultivars of Chinese, Japanese, and European chestnut species and their hybrids * Presents important information on both major and minor pests and diseases as well as pest diseases and physiological disorders. With the collaboration of more than 30 researchers from internationally renowned institutes, professionals and nurserymen this book serves as a technical reference and valuable resource for agronomists, forest experts, farmers, researchers and students of agricultural and forestry sciences.

Demonstrates the intimate relationship between biological diversity and cultural diversity. The 15 contributors look at experimentation using crops such as rice, maize, beans and root crops, illustrated by case studies from India, Nepal and Nigeria among others. There are also studies of water harvesting in the Sudan and of the home gardens in South India.;The findings of this study show: farmers do experiment; farmers know their local environments intimately, and their experiments are usually site-specific; farmers have a close and detailed knowledge of local cultivators, and are well aware of the need to promote biological diversity; the experiments underlie the imporatnce of "in situ" conservation, including the protection of wild plants; and any attempts of local conservation of natural resources should involve the local inhabitants.;This collection emphasizes the importance of cultural factors and will contribute to the debate about biological diversity.

This new and updated edition of a popular text provides a broad, balanced review of the scientific knowledge of strawberries and their cultivation. The worldwide strawberry industry has grown substantially since the original book was published, and methods of culture have undergone extensive modifications. This volume incorporates important changes to the taxonomy of strawberries and new understanding of how its ancestors evolved. It includes coverage of new disease and pest control methods and recent developments in genomic information. These advancements have greatly improved our understanding of how flowering and fruiting is regulated, and will revolutionize the breeding of strawberries. Drawing on extensive research and practical experience, the author presents an essential text that: Includes new content on genomic data, trait genetics, and marker-assisted strategies for varietal improvement. Provides a thorough review of the evolution of the strawberry and the history of strawberry cultivation. Contains an up-to-date comparison of the cultural systems employed across the world and the physiology behind these practices. Presented in full-colour throughout, this is a core guide for academic and professional researchers, breeders and growers, advisors, extension personnel and students of horticulture.

This volume, Temperate Fruits: Production, Processing, and Marketing, presents the latest pomological research on the production, postharvest handling, processing and storage, and information on marketing for a selection of temperate fruits. These include apple, pear, quince, peach, plum, sweet cherry, kiwifruit, strawberry, mulberry, and chestnut. With chapters from fruit experts from different countries of the world, the book provides the latest information on the effect of climate change on fruit production, organic fruit growing and advanced fruit breeding, the nutraceutical value and bioactive compounds in fruits and their role in human health, and new and advanced methods of fruit production. Topics include microirrigation, sustainable nutrient management, crop protection and plant health management, and farm mechanization.

A significant crop in our global society, rice is a staple food product for over half of the world's population. New technologies are being researched and utilized for increasing the overall production of strong rice crops throughout the world. This book focuses on the new areas of research on the most recent biotechnological and molecular techniques to aid in this endeavor. The researchers who have contributed to this compendium are international leaders in their respective fields. The original research included in the volume is strengthened through the addition of surveys, reviews, success stories, and other aspects that impact the global agricultural industry.

In this volume, world leaders in potato research review historical and contemporary discoveries resulting in a range of advances. Topics include nutritional quality, yield, disease and insect resistance, processing, plant growth and development, and other aspects. The book also examines research yielding significant molecular resources that facilitate breeding, linkage and gene mapping, cytology, functional and structural genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Future research developments that are likely to significantly advance efforts to understand and improve the potato are also explored.

With the current world population growth of 1.2%, the earth can expect to house 9-10 billion people by 2050. Food production, too, must increase to accommodate these numbers. Easy growing, high calorie, nutritious foods, such as bananas are the top priority as a solution to this imminent problem. The first comprehensive compendium on bananas in recent years, Banana Breeding: Progress and Challenges provides in-depth coverage of all aspects of banana breeding and genetics, including biotechnology. A wide-ranging compilation of chapters by various experts, the book begins with a chapter on the general plant morphology of Musa. It continues with chapters such as Evolution and Genetic Relationships in Bananas and Plantains, Genetic Resources for Banana Improvement, Genomes, Cytogenetics, Flow Cytometry of Musa, and Genetics of Important Traits in Musa as well as two chapters that cover the major diseases and pests of banana. The central focus of the book is encompassed in chapters such as Reproductive Biology, Breeding Techniques, Mutations and Cultivar Development of Banana, Biotechnology in Musa Improvement, and Genotype by Environment Interaction and Musa Improvement. The latter chapter offers tools for selecting both narrowly adapted and broadly adapted cultivars. The chapters on quality improvement of cultivated Musa and postharvest processed products provide researchers and teachers with information to improve quality aspects of banana along with information on how to reduce postharvest losses.

This book examines the factors affecting the demand for agricultural land in the United States and the costs of meeting increasing demand.Originally published in 1982

Many of our current agricultural crops are natural or agricultural hybrids (between two or more species), or polyploids (containing more than one genome or set of chromosomes). These include potato, oats, cotton, oilseed rape, wheat, strawberries, kiwifruit, banana, seedless watermelon, triticale and many others. Polyploidy and hybridization can also be used for crop improvement: for example, to introgress disease resistance from wild species into crops, to produce seedless fruits for human consumption, or even to create entirely new crop types. Some crop genera have hundreds of years of interspecific hybridization and ploidy manipulation behind them, while in other genera use of these evolutionary processes for crop improvement is still at the theoretical stage. This book brings together stories and examples by expert researchers and breeders working in diverse crop genera, and details how polyploidy and hybridization processes have shaped our current crops, how these processes have been utilized for crop improvement in the past, and how polyploidy and interspecific hybridization can be used for crop improvement in the future.

This new 2-volume set discusses the importance of fodder production of the minor fodder crops for animals. The volumes focuses on fodder production for forage crops, cover 17 major forage crops and 25 minor forage crops. The volumes discuss crop production methodology and agronomic management in a systemic way, providing an abundance of information on each type of forage crop discussed, including preferred soil type, land capability, cropping patterns, climate, and socioeconomic conditions. They also address pests of the various forage crops, disease management, agroforestry in fodder and forage crops, preservation of forage crops, and forage production and climate change. Forage crops are very essential for quality milk and meat production. Farm animals are normally fed fodder available from cultivated areas, supplemented by a small extent with harvested grasses and top feeds. The three major sources of fodder are crop residues, cultivated fodder, and fodder from trees, pastures, and grazing lands. The patterns and types of fodder crops vary by geographical location.

The soybean is an economically important leguminous seed crop for feed and food products that is rich in seed protein (about 40 percent) and oil (about 20 percent); it enriches the soil by fixing nitrogen in symbiosis with bacteria.

Soybean was domesticated in northeastern China about 2500 BC and subsequently spread to other countries. The enormous economic value of soybean was realized in the first two decades of the 20th century, with world production of soybean tripling in the last 20 years. In addition to human consumption, it is a major protein source in animal feeds and is becoming a major crop for biodiesel production. In the international trade markets, soybean is ranked number one in the world among the major oil crops.

For many decades, plant breeders have used conventional breeding techniques to improve soybeans. While soybean production continues to expand as demand for soybeans and soybean products increases, there is a need for more sophisticated techniques. Bridging traditional research with modern molecular investigations on soybean, this volume explores the recent advances in soybean genome mapping, molecular breeding, genomics, sequencing, and bioinformatics. The book will be useful to soybean researchers as well as researchers working with other crop species.

During the last nine millennia or so, man has improved the rice plant, increased its productivity and has found various uses of its parts. The story of rice differs from region to region and has been different in different periods of time. There was a time when tax was collected in the form of rice in Japan, the Southeast Asian kingdoms created hydraulic feats for its cultivation and Ottoman armies advanced with rice as their ration. In recent years, there have been riots due to scarcity of rice and also international efforts to produce enough rice to avoid hunger. The book provides an interesting reading of all such events in the course of its 9000 years long history.

Understanding abiotic stress responses in plants is critical for the development of new varieties of crops, which are better adapted to harsh climate conditions. The new book by the well-known editor team Narendra Tuteja and Sarvajeet Gill provides a comprehensive overview on the molecular basis of plant responses to external stress like drought or heavy metals, to aid in the engineering of stress resistant crops. After a general introduction into the topic, the following sections deal with specific signaling pathways mediating plant stress response. The last part covers translational plant physiology, describing several examples of the development of more stress-resistant crop varieties.

Rich in bibliographic references, this book presents the current status of knowledge on the physiology of the pea crop. It draws on contributions from plant physiologists and researchers in various other disciplines who have been working together for many years on the production of plants rich in proteins. The text first discusses vegetative and reproductive development, growth under non-limiting conditions, and the nitrogen nutrition of the pea crop. It then explores the effects of the abiotic and biotic stresses on the development as well as the growth and nitrogen uptake by the plant. The book concludes with a global model of the functioning of the pea crop, which is proposed as a tool for the diagnosis of the yield-limiting factors.

Citrus is a very ancient crop known to have existed for over 4000 years. This book is an effort to present Citrus comprehensively. It aims at the holistic way - integrating production and utilization of Citrus.

Europe was told that it had no choice but to accept agbiotech, yet this imperative was turned into a test of democratic accountability for societal choices. Since the late 1990s, European public controversy has kept the agri-biotech industry and its promoters on the defensive. As some opponents and regulators alike have declared, 'GM food/crops are on trial'. Suspicion of their guilt has been evoked by moral symbols, as disputes over whether genetically-modified products are modest benign improvements on traditional plant breeding, or dangerous Frankenfoods; and in disputes over whether they are global saviours, or control agents of multinational companies. This book examines European institutions being 'put on trial' for how their regulatory procedures evaluate and regulate GM products, in ways which opened up alternative futures. Levidow and Carr highlight how public controversy created a legitimacy crisis, leading to national policy changes and demands, in turn stimulating changes in EU agbiotech regulations as a strategy to regain legitimacy.

The processes and consequences of household decision-making are investigated using multi-disciplinary research methods of decision analysis that involves statistical, mathematical, psychological, anthropological, and econometric techniques brought together in a holistic manner. This study is focused in the Ada and Selale regions of the Central Ethiopian Highlands. The technologies studied are fertilizer, improved crop varieties, pesticides, and cross-bred cows. Goals and strategies of households, institutions, access to information, indigenous knowledge, risk taking behavior, and their impacts on household decision-making were studied. Technology adoption was studied under a variety of controllable (e.g., allocation of labor) and uncontrollable (natural factors such as rainfall or government intervention) environments. The findings demonstrated that agricultural producers can attain greater increases in food production and the efficiency with which it is produced if they adopt at least two innovations. The study revealed that non-physical resources such as indigenous knowledge and institutions play a fundamental role on the ability of producers to achieve increases in food production. For development to be sustained, therefore, investments in physical resources should be matched with those in non-physical resources.

The term "soil health" refers to the functionality of a soil as a living ecosystem capable of sustaining plants, animals, and humans while also improving the environment. In addition to soil health, the environment also comprises the quality of air, water, vegetation, and biota. The health of soil, plants, animals, people, and the environment is an indivisible continuum. One of the notable ramifications of the Anthropocene is the growing risks of decline in soil health by anthropogenic activities. Important among these activities are deforestation, biomass burning, excessive soil tillage, indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, excessive irrigation by flooding or inundation, and extractive farming practices. Soil pollution, by industrial effluents and urban waste adversely impacts human health. Degradation of soil health impacts nutritional quality of food, such as the uptake of heavy metals or deficit of essential micro-nutrients, and contamination by pests and pathogens. Indirectly, soil health may impact human health through contamination of water and pollution of air. This book aims to: Present relationships of soil health to human health and soil health to human nutrition. Discuss the nexus between soil degradation and malnourishment as well as the important links between soil, plant, animal and human health. Detail reasons oil is a cause of infectious diseases and source of remedial measures. Part of the Advances in Soil Sciences series, this informative volume covering various aspects of soil health appeals to soil scientists, environmental scientists and public health workers.

This informative book reviews the challenges of agribusiness in the Southeast Mediterranean. The author focuses on sugarcane cultivation in Egypt to illustrate the impact of climate change on agribusiness, and his method and findings may be helpful for other studies in other regions as well. As climate change creates new risks to human populations and food security, a better analysis is needed to understand this new level of uncertainty and to understand how it will impact agriculture and its relationship with economies, livelihoods, and development. Africa emits low greenhouse gases but is hit the hardest by global warming, posing a serious challenge to increasing agricultural productivity in the Southeast Mediterranean. Sugarcane in Egypt is used as a local food source, for international trade, for the balance of payments, for land and water use, and as a basic product for food and fiber manufacturing. Hence every aspect of the economic structure of Egypt relates to agriculture. The book examines the causes and effects of climate change on agribusiness in the Southeast Mediterranean region, such as its effect on prosperity and net farm incomes crop yields. It considers how to promote agribusiness development in the area and the potential to alleviate poverty in rural areas. It looks at the future of the sugarcane industry in Upper Egypt as a case study of agribusiness, with implications that can be applied globally.

This summary of what is known about microclimatic environments and the eff ects of climate on plant growth presents a comprehensive statement on the complex relationship between climate and agriculture. Th e author covers the theory and data of modern physical geography, meteorology, and agronomy within the context of contemporary ecological analysis to produce a book invaluable not only to the student and research worker but also one that deals for the fi rst time with the application of theory to real problems of energy budgets and water balance for the practical agronomist.

Arranged according to the physical processes that aff ect the climate/plant relationship, the book is divided into two parts. The first part considers radiation fl ux in the free atmosphere and in the biosphere near the ground, the processes of photosynthesis and photoperiodism, and the effect of radiation and temperature on plant growth. The second part discusses in detail methods of determining or estimating both potential and actual evapotranspiration, the meteorological approach of computing water balance, and the eff ect of water on plant growth.

The author's clear and logical presentation of material, emphasizing general principles rather than experimental and technical details, makes this book especially useful for students of agricultural climatology. The broad scope of the work and its comprehensive survey of the literature make it equally a valuable reference for professionals in physical geography, meteorology, agronomy, botany, plant physiology, soil science, and hydrology.

Jen-Hu Chang is professor emeritus of geography and climatology at the University of Hawaii. He is a past member of the editorial board of the Annuals of the Association of American Geographers and is past secretary of the Hawaiian Geophysical Society. He is the author of Atmospheric Circulation Systems and Climates, Agricultural Geography of Taiwan, and Problems and Methods in Agricultural Climatology.

This new volume looks at the evolution and challenges of sustainable agriculture, a field that is growing in use and popularity, discussing some of the important ideas, practices, and policies that are essential to an effective sustainable agriculture strategy. The book features 25 chapters written by experts in crop improvement, natural resource management, crop protection, social sciences, and product development. The volume provides a good understanding of the use of sustainable agriculture and the sustainable management of agri-horticultural crops, focusing on eco-friendly approaches, such as the utilization of waste materials. Topics include ecofriendly plant protection measures, climate change and natural resource management, tools to mitigate the effect of extreme weather events, agrochemical research and regulation, soil carbon sequestration, water and nutrient management in agricultural systems, and more. Key features: Discusses sustainable agriculture within the framework of recent challenges in agriculture Looks at the development and diversification of crops and cultural practices to enhance biological and economic stability Discusses innovative nanotechnologies in research and production technologies Highlights the development of new varieties in agri-horticultural crops Discusses use of recent technologies for soil-plant-microbe-environment interactions.

This book is a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated colour guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility without the use and expense of agrichemicals. Information based on the latest research is given on how to use soil conditioning plants to avoid soil degradation, restore soil quality and help clean polluted land. There are 11 chapters: 1 to 6 cover soil health, nitrogen fixation, green manures and herbal leys, bacteria and other microorganisms, phytoremediators and soil mycorrhiza (plant-fungal symbiosis). Chapter 7 has plant illustrations, with climate range and soil types, along with their soil conditioning properties and each plant is presented with a comprehensive description opposite a detailed illustration, in full colour. Chapters 8 to 10 examine soil stabilisers, weeds and invasive plants, and hedges and trees and the final chapter, contains 5 case studies with the most recent data, followed by an appendix and glossary. The book allows the reader to identify the plants they need quickly and find the information necessary to begin implementation of soil regeneration.

This new volume emphasizes the drastic quantitative and qualitative transformation of our surrounding environment and looks at bioresource management and the tools needed to manageenvironmental stresses. This unique compilation and interpretation of concrete scientific ventures undertaken by environmental specialists at the global level explores research dedicated to the management of natural resources by controlling biotic and abiotic factors that make the earth vulnerable to these stresses. The chapter authors look at all types of bioresources on earth and their management at times of stress/crisis, focusing on the need for documentation, validation, and recovery of ethnic indigenous knowledge and practices that could have great impact in stress management. The book looks at topics in nature and changing climate management, adaptation, and mitigation, such as the effects of climate change on agriculture and horticulture, on timber harvesting, and on forest resources. Also specifically discussed are crop resources management, seed crops, tree seedlings, soil management, and conservation practices. The volume also includes chapters on animal resources management.

Lessons learned in Latin America is about the use and dissemination of cover crops in different agroecosystems need to be made more widely available not only to Spanish speaking, but also Anglophone regions. This publication aims to inform a wide range of actors involved in rural development projects, as well as those in applied research, of the potential of cover crops as components of low external input agricultural (LEIA) systems.Cover Crops are, or have the potential to be, an important component in complex, diverse, risk-prone and resource poor farming situations.The publication includes selected case studies from four different countries within Latin America. These address key issues regarding crop cover integration in LEIA systems. A wide range of agroecosystems are covered by the case studies, so that the information can be adapted for use in other regions. The key issues covered by the case studies are the following: Cover crops in annual cropping systems (Honduras), Cover crops in Perennial crops (Bolivia), Role of cover crops in animal husbandry (Mexico), Cover crop systems - Soil improvement and conservation (Honduras), Alternatives to slash-and-burn (Mexico), Diffusion aspects of cover crop based systems, Applied research activities for agricultural systems improvement (Bolivia), Action research with campesino farmers in South-East Mexico.