Emphasizing the unpredictable nature of plant behaviour under stress and in relation to complex interactions of biological pathways, this work covers the versatility of plants in adapting to environmental change. It analyzes environmentally triggered adaptions in developmental programmes of plants that lead to permanent, heritable DNA modifications.

This book looks at how people in the semi-arid conditions of the Sahel cope with their harsh environment. It draws on four years of field research with farmers in the Sahelian region and builds on work with these communities over several decades. Reporting on studies of four village communities, it shows how people work to achieve sustainable livelihoods and emphasises that there can be development without disaster.

This book compiles information relevant to understanding soybean production processes and condenses it into a single volume. The authors identify production practices and bring together diverse information that suggests ways for producers to better utilize the soil and climatic resources of the midsouthern U.S. to enhance production of this valuable and versatile crop. This publication makes a special effort to focus on information that will enhance soybean production in the midsouth, where yields have been lower than those in the upper midwester n portion of the U.S., however, much of the information, such as statistics and crop models, will be applicable to other regions, from Texas to the Carolinas.

"Cannabis sativa" has been a source of man-mad products for over 5000 years. This book contains a series of dissertations, supported by over 700 references, on the history, ethnobotany, chemistry and analysis, and cultivation and processing of cannabis. The medicinal and non-medicinal uses of the plant and its derivates are viewed in the context of national and international legislation to define and control its use. Developments in cannabinoid pharmacology research and receptor theory are also discussed.

Rice: The Primary Commodity de-mystifies the trade, outlines its workings and the problems which confront it.
A.J. Latham outlines the history and cultivation of rice, and the research programmes which have done so much to revolutionise its production in recent years. Including case studies of the rice markets in India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, the USA and many other countries, this book gives an up-to-date and comprehensive view of the unpredictable and rapidly changing world market in rice.

This work features scientific, technical and practical information on mineral, organic and synthetic conditioners, as well as their beneficial effects on the soil's physical properties that promote optimal plant growth, maximize soil fertility, and enhance biomediation processes. It promotes the synergistic use of various agricultural technologies to manage global concerns of decreasing arable land.

The Ecological Farm is a breakthrough resource for ecological fruit and vegetable growers at every scale who want to go beyond organic. Through a unique ecosystem-balancing approach focusing on reduced tillage, minimising farm and garden inputs and pest control, you’ll learn how to build higher soil quality and fertility by using fewer harmful inputs.   Farmer, consultant, and educator Helen Atthowe (along with her late husband, Carl Rosato) have decades of farming experience which is shared in this essential book. They guide readers on how to reduce or eliminate the use of outside inputs of fertiliser or pesticides – even those that are commonly used on certified organic orchards and market gardens. With clear, easy to action language and colour photography, charts, and graphs throughout, The Ecological Farm emphasizes the importance of managing the details of an entire growing system over the full life of an enterprise. The Ecological Farm features a crop-by-crop guide to growing more than 25 of the most popular and profitable vegetables and fruits, including specific management advice for dealing with pests and diseases. You’ll also learn how to: design a system that establishes a year-round root-in-soil system for microbial health strengthen the “immune system� of a farm or garden supply crop needs using only on-farm inputs such as cover crops and living mulch maximise the presence of beneficial insects and microbes minimise ecological impact in dealing with insect pest and disease problems The Ecological Farm makes complex, sometimes messy, ecological concepts and practices understandable to all growers, and makes healthy farming, in which nature is invited to participate, possible.

This unique book examines the beneficial aspects of animal waste as a soil resource - not simply as an agricultural by-product with minimal practical use. Topics include o types of livestock waste - swine, poultry, dairy o methods and management of waste utilization o storage, handling, processing and application of animal waste o supplying crop nutrients o economics of waste utilization o new modeling and management techniques o nonpoint source pollution, water quality, leaching, and air quality.

Sustainability of agricultural systems is a major global concern due to population growth and a number of environmental factors. This book addresses the key to the development of sustainable agriculture-management of soil fertility. Combining data from temperate and tropical regions, it presents a complete picture of how various soils can best be managed under widely different environmental conditions.
Soil Fertility Management for Sustainable Agriculture is an excellent reference for environmental and agricultural professionals as well as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students preparing for a career in agriculture or soil fertility management.

The coconut palm occupies a significant place in the world economy as an important subsistence crop in all the areas in which it is grown. Relatively few countries are able to export any quantity of coconut products because of increasing home demands coupled with low productivity. Yields are generally well below potential despite recent developments with improved planting stock and agronomic practices. In the last 50 years, both these aspects have received considerable attention, but the focus is shifting to investigate how the use of recently developed biotechnological techniques- can benefit the coconut industry. This volume, the result of the International Symposium on Coconut Biotechnology (held in December 1997 in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico), describes recent research in three important areas. Standard plant breeding techniques used with coconut have produced improved planting material, but progress is inevitably very slow. Can more rapid genetic improvement be obtained using molecular techniques? The papers presented in this section suggest that such techniques will open up exciting new prospects, but only after basic information has been gathered on the genetic status of existing coconut stocks. Research using microsatellite techniques seems to provide a useful tool to help to classifying these stocks. However, only a combination of classical breeding methods with modem techniques will lead to the rapid improvement which is required to supply material for urgent replanting programs.

Management of Problem Soils in Arid Ecosystems examines the challenges of managing soils in arid and semiarid regions. These soils contain low organic matter, are not leached, and accumulate lime, gypsum, and/or soluble salts, requiring special management and practices. This book discusses how to identify problems, reclaim the soils, and then use them efficiently and economically. Water management and desertification in these areas are also discussed. It contains extensive references as well as 40 tables and illustrations.

Lexicon of Pulse Crops integrates botanical and linguistic data to analyze and interpret the grain legume significance from the earliest archaeological and written records until the present day. Aimed at both agronomic and linguistic research communities, this book presents a database containing 9,500 common names in more than 900 languages and dialects of all ethnolinguistic families, denoting more than 1,100 botanical taxa of 14 selected pulse crop genera and species. The book begins with overviews of the world's economically most important grain legume crops and their uncultivated relatives, as well as the world's language families with their inner structure, including both extinct and living members. The main section of the text presents 14 specialized book chapters covering Arachis, Cajanus, Cicer, Ervum, Faba, Glycine, Lablab, Lathyrus, Lens, Lupinus, Phaseolus, Pisum, Vicia, and Vigna. They provide the reader with extensive lists of the botanically accepted species and subtaxa and surveys lexicological abundance in all world's ethnolinguistic families, comprising extinct and living as well as natural and constructed languages, while the vernacular names for the most significant taxa are presented in comprehensive tables. Each of these chapters also presents the existing etymologies and novel approaches to deciphering the origins of common names, accompanied by one original color plate depicting possible root evolutions in the form of corresponding pulse crop plants.

Bramble Production provides growers with a basic understanding of how raspberry and blackberry plants grow and respond to changes in their environment. Author Perry Crandall includes management practices used by successful growers, making this book a helpful production guide that you can use for making rational decisions. This knowledge of successful production can be used to recommend or adopt management programs specially designed to produce optimum yields with maximum profits.Students and professionals will find Bramble Production to be a scientifically based, easy-to-understand, comprehensive discussion of all facets of berry production. The principle emphasis is on American production, but grower practices in other parts of the world are included, which makes this a valuable guide book for growers all around the world.To provide you with a thorough understanding of how to produce maximum yields, Crandall covers raspberries and blackberries individually. Each fruit has chapters on its: genetic derivation botany physiology site selection and preparation most popular varieties soil management and cultural practices insect and disease identification and control nutrient deficiency symptoms irrigation harvesting, handling, and marketing worldwide distribution Bramble Production is a valuable supplemental reference text for university, junior college, and high school instructors. Cooperative extension specialists, farm advisors, industry representatives, and research personnel can use it as a basis for diagnoses and recommendations, as can commercial growers, master gardeners, and more sophisticated or curious home gardeners.

This work offers comprehensive, current coverage of preharvest and postharvest handling and production of fruits grown in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world. It discusses over 60 major and minor crops, and details developments in fruit handling and disease control, storage practices, packaging for fruit protection, sizing equipment, conveyors, package fillers, refrigeration methods and more.

Bramble Production provides growers with a basic understanding of how raspberry and blackberry plants grow and respond to changes in their environment. Author Perry Crandall includes management practices used by successful growers, making this book a helpful production guide that you can use for making rational decisions. This knowledge of successful production can be used to recommend or adopt management programs specially designed to produce optimum yields with maximum profits. Students and professionals will find Bramble Production to be a scientifically based, easy-to-understand, comprehensive discussion of all facets of berry production. The principle emphasis is on American production, but grower practices in other parts of the world are included, which makes this a valuable guide book for growers all around the world. To provide you with a thorough understanding of how to produce maximum yields, Crandall covers raspberries and blackberries individually.Each fruit has chapters on its: genetic derivation botany physiology site selection and preparation most popular varieties soil management and cultural practices insect and disease identification and control nutrient deficiency symptoms irrigation harvesting, handling, and marketing worldwide distributionBramble Production is a valuable supplemental reference text for university, junior college, and high school instructors. Cooperative extension specialists, farm advisors, industry representatives, and research personnel can use it as a basis for diagnoses and recommendations, as can commercial growers, master gardeners, and more sophisticated or curious home gardeners.

Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables has increased dramatically in the last several decades. This increased consumption has put a greater burden on the fresh produce industry to provide fresher product quality, combined with a high level of food safety. Therefore, postharvest handling, storage and shipment of horticultural crops, including fruit and vegetable products has increased in importance. Novel Postharvest Treatments of Fresh Produce focuses mainly on the application of novel treatments for fruits and vegetables shipping and handling life. A greater emphasis is placed on effects of postharvest treatments on senescence and ripening, bioactive molecule contents and food safety. The work presented within this book explores a wide range of topics pertaining to novel postharvest treatments for fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables including applications of various active agents, green postharvest treatments, physical treatments and combinations of the aforementioned.

Provides the latest information on nearly all of the phytoalexins of crop plants studied worldwide over the past 50 years-describing experimental approaches to the research of specific plants and offering detailed explanations on methods of isolation and characterization. Supplies in-depth coverage of cotton, soybean, groundnut, citrus, mustard, grapevine, potato, pepper, sweet potato, yam, sesame, tea, tobacco, pea, pigeon pea, and many more.

Indian spices are famous across the globe and have attracted food lovers for ages. With the increasing awareness of health through foods, people are now more conscious about the health and nutraceutical benefits of spices. The past few years have witnessed pioneering research work in this area with various spices. This volume is a comprehensive volume that collects and collates the wisdom of the past and blends it with the technological progress of today. The book offers comprehensive coverage on the subject of Indian spices and their agrotechniques. It is a rich compilation of agrotechniques coupled with background information, research work, and scientific discussion on the basic and applied aspects on the subject. The first chapter in Spices: Agrotechniques for Quality Produce is introductory and provides an overview of spices that have important flavor compounds. It looks at the present status of world spice scenario on export and import, major markets, etc. The second chapter deals with classification of spices, condiments, and herbs. The third chapter is the major one that precisely describes agrotechniques and production technology of fifty individual spices comprised of the major spices. It covers three rhizomatous spices, six bulbous spices, eight tree spices (six aromatic and two acidulant), eleven seed spices, twelve leafy or herbal spices or aromatic herbs, four lesser-known spices, and three other spices with due consideration to quality and value-added benefits. This chapter also presents a general discussion of the systematic position, composition, uses, export-import scenario, medicinal values, etc., of these spices. The subsequent chapters deal with recent research approaches on spices around the world and explore the promises of organic spices and future research directions. This volume will be useful to all those who are interested in spices, including students, teachers, researchers, amateur readers, policymakers, as well as farming communities.

These exciting new companion handbooks are the only ones of their kind devoted solely to the effects of environmental variables on the physiology of the world's major fruit and nut crops. Their cosmopolitan scope includes chapters on tropical and temperate zone species written by scientists from several continents. The influence of environmental factors, such as irradiance, temperature, water and salinity on plant physiology and on vegetative and reproductive growth, is comprehensively discussed for each crop. In addition to being a thorough and up-to-date set of textbooks, the organzation of the two volumes makes them an excellent reference tool. Each chapter focuses on a single crop, or a group of genetically or horticulturally related crop, and is appropriately divided into subsections that address individual environmental factors. Some chapters emphasize whole-plant physiology and plant growth and development, while other chapters feature theoretical aspects of plant physiology. Several chapters provide botanical background discussions to enhance understanding of the crop's response to its environment.

The Practical Handbook of Compost Engineering presents an in-depth examination of the principles and practice of modern day composting. This comprehensive book covers compost science, engineering design, operation, principles, and practice, stressing a fundamental approach to analysis throughout. Biological, physical, chemical, thermodynamic, and kinetic principles are covered to develop a unified analytical approach to analysis and an understanding of the process. A brief history of the development of composting systems, which leads to descriptions of modern processes, is presented.

The Practical Handbook of Compost Engineering also discusses the elements of successful odor management at composting facilities, including state-of-the-art odor treatment and enhanced atmospheric dispersion. The book is excellent for all engineers, practitioners, plant operators, scientists, researchers, and students in the field.

Many people believe that organic agriculture is a solution for various problems related to food production. Organic agriculture is supposed to produce healthier products, does not pollute the environment, improves the fertility of soils, saves fossil fuels and enables high biodiversity. This book has been written to provide scientifically based information on organic agriculture such as crop yields, food safety, nutrient use efficiency, leaching, long-term sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions and energy aspects. A number of scientists working with questions related to organic agriculture were invited to present the most recent research and to address critical issues. An unbiased selection of literature, facts rather than standpoints, and scientifically-based examinations instead of wishful thinking will help the reader be aware of difficulties involved with organic agriculture. Organic agriculture, which originates from philosophies of nature, has often outlined key goals to reach long-term sustainability but practical solutions are lacking. The central tasks of agriculture - to produce sufficient food of high quality without harmful effects on the environment - seem to be difficult to achieve through exclusively applying organic principles ruling out many valuable possibilities and solutions.