Effect of High Temperature on Crop Productivity and Metabolism of Macro Molecules presents a comprehensive overview on the direct effect of temperatures defined as "high", a definition which increasingly includes a great number of geographic regions. As temperature impacts the number of base growth days, it is necessary to adapt plant selection, strategize planting times, and understand the expected impact of adaptive steps to ensure maximum plant health and crop yield. Global warming, climate change and change in environmental conditions have become common phrases in nearly every scientific seminar, symposium and meeting, thus these changes in climatic patterns constrain normal growth and reproduction cycles. This book reviews the effect of high temperature on agricultural crop production and the effect of high temperature stress on the metabolic aspects of macro molecules, including carbohydrates, proteins, fats, secondary metabolites, and plant growth hormones.

Handbook of Agricultural and Farm Machinery, Third Edition, is the essential reference for understanding the food industry, from farm machinery, to dairy processing, food storage facilities and the machinery that processes and packages foods. Effective and efficient food delivery systems are built around processes that maximize efforts while minimizing cost and time. This comprehensive reference is for engineers who design and build machinery and processing equipment, shipping containers, and packaging and storage equipment. It includes coverage of microwave vacuum applications in grain processing, cacao processing, fruit and vegetable processing, ohmic heating of meat, facility design, closures for glass containers, double seaming, and more. The book's chapters include an excellent overview of food engineering, but also regulation and safety information, machinery design for the various stages of food production, from tillage, to processing and packaging. Each chapter includes the state-of-the art in technology for each subject and numerous illustrations, tables and references to guide the reader through key concepts.

Fruit Crops: Diagnosis and Management of Nutrient Constraints is the first and only resource to holistically relate fruits as a nutritional source for human health to the state-of-the-art methodologies currently used to diagnose and manage nutritional constraints placed on those fruits. This book explores a variety of advanced management techniques, including open field hydroponic, fertigation/bio-fertigation, the use of nano-fertilizers, sensors-based nutrient management, climate- smart integrated soil fertility management, inoculation with microbial consortium, and endophytes backed up by ecophysiology of fruit crops. These intricate issues are effectively presented, including real-world applications and future insights.

The Science of Grapevines, Third Edition reflects the latest insights into cultivar relationships, vascular transport, hormone action, and stress responses of grapevines. Based on the author's many years of teaching, research and practical experience with grapevines and grape production, the book is completely revised and updated, presenting a comprehensive introduction on the physical structure of the grapevine, its organs, their functions, and their environmental interactions. While many concepts discussed are broadly applicable to plants in general, the focus is on grapevines, especially cultivated grapevines. This book enables readers to use these concepts in their own scientific research or in practical production systems. Scientifically grounded and integrating discoveries in other plant species, the book explores the physiological processes underlying grapevine form and function, their developmental and environmental control, and their implications for practical vineyard management.

Advances in Agronomy, Volume 155, the newest release in this valuable serial, continues to be recognized as a leading reference and first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. Each volume contains an eclectic group of reviews by leading scientists throughout the world. As always, the subjects covered are rich, varied and exemplary of the abundant subject matter addressed by this long-running serial.

Sweet Potato: Chemistry, Processing, and Nutrition presents foundational information, including identification, analysis, and use of chemical components from sweet potato in a variety of food and nonfood uses. Sweet potatoes can be easily propagated, are rich source of carbohydrates and functional components, and are highly productive, which makes them most suitable for production of staple and functional foods. With the increasing population and the challenges of providing healthy food to the world, there is an increasing consumer demand for new and better sweet potato products, particularly for those in developing countries. Providing a brief description of the specific sweet potato components, their role during processing and strategies for quality optimization, this book also explores novel methods of sweet potato starch, protein, and pectin modification providing students, researchers, and technologists working in the area of food science and others with the most recent information and state-of-the-art technology for developing new and beneficial uses of sweet potato.

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.

This book has 11 chapters which systematically introduce the latest achievements in scientific research and technological application of the forage industry in China, and also cover the laws and polices related to forage production. The main focus of this monograph is the progress of forage science in China. Each chapter in this book contains numerous charts and diagrams further illustrating the impact of development activities in the area. It is the first book in its field and compiled by mobilizing all the research forces in the field of forage grass and under the leadership of China Agricultural University, Lanzhou University, and Sichuan Academy of Grassland Sciences with the support of other related universities and research institutes. China is the largest forage consumption country in the world. Every year, more than 2 billion herbivorous livestock need more than 350 million tons of forage but the supply each year is only 250 million tons. With the policy and financial support of the Central Government, the forage industry in China has been developed rapidly, great progress has been made in the science and technology in forage production, processing, and utilization, and its influence has been increased in the world.

Estimating evapotranspiration (ET) has been one of the most critical research areas in agriculture because of water scarcity, the growing population, and climate change. The accurate estimation and mapping of ET are necessary for crop water management. Traditionally, researchers use water balance, soil moisture, weighing lysimeters, or an energy balance approach, such as Bowen ratio or eddy covariance towers to estimate ET. However, these ET methods are point-specific or area-weighted measurements and cannot be extended to a large scale. On the other hand, while remote sensing is able to provide spatially distributed measurements, the spatial resolution of multispectral satellite images is often not enough for crops with clumped canopy structures, such as trees and vines. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can mitigate these spatial and temporal limitations. Lightweight cameras and sensors can be mounted on the UAVs and take high-resolution images. Unlike satellite imagery, the spatial resolution of the UAV images can be at the centimeter-level. UAVs can also fly on-demand, which provides high temporal imagery. This book examines the different UAV-based approaches of ET estimation. Models and algorithms, such as mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC), the two-source energy balance (TSEB) model, and machine learning (ML) are discussed. It also covers the challenges and opportunities for UAVs in ET estimation, with the final chapters devoted to new ET estimation methods and their potential applications for future research.

In the last few miles above the Cape Cod Canal, visitors to the Cape pass through the towns of Middleboro, Carver, and Wareham. To most, these places will never be more than a roadside sign, but there is life here--of a very particular sort. Beyond the highway are 11,000 acres of bog, and each fall, after the tourists have gone home, men and machines appear to harvest a third of the nation's cranberries, turkey's tablemate. This book looks at the history of this tart and diminutive fruit, the ways it is cultivated, cared for, and consumed. It looks into the lives and livelihoods of those who harvest it--some families have been in the business for five generations. It provides a rich and surprising story of this under-appreciated berry.

The world continues to depend heavily upon a relatively minor range of crops for food, fuel, fibre and industrial use while many potentially good economically acceptable alternatives exist. This book, which is the first in a new series looking at underutilized crops, provides thorough details of those crops which research has suggested may be worthy of further and greater commercial development and exploitation, suggesting potential alternatives to existing widely-exploited crops.

This collection features six peer-reviewed reviews on advances and in detecting and forecasting crop pests and diseases. The first chapter introduces the concept of machine learning to identify and diagnose crop diseases, focussing on the deep learning concept. The second chapter discusses recent advances in crop disease forecasting models, focussing on the application of precision agriculture technologies and Earth observation satellites to identify areas at risk of possible disease outbreaks. The third chapter explores the contribution of remote sensing in improving the ways in which plant health is monitored in response to exposure to biotic stresses, such as disease. The fourth chapter reviews how sensor technologies in combination with informatics and modern application technologies can contribute to more effective pest control. The fifth chapter assesses the role of decision support systems for pest monitoring and management through information technology, such as spectral indices and image-based diagnostics. The final chapter addresses key issues and challenges in pest monitoring and forecasting models, such as the limitation of some traps in attracting insects through the use of sex pheromones.

In the last half century, because of the raising world population and because of the many environmental issues posed by the industrialization, the amount of arable land per person has declined from 0.32 ha in 1961-1963 to 0.21 ha in 1997-1999 and is expected to drop further to 0.16 ha by 2030 and therefore is a severe menace to food security (FAO 2006). At the same time, about 12 million ha of irrigated land in the developing world has lost its productivity due to waterlogging and salinity. Waterlogging is a major problem for plant cultivation in many regions of the world. The reasons are in part due to climatic change that leads to the increased number of precipitations of great intensity, in part to land degradation. Considering India alone, the total area suffering from waterlogging is estimated to be about 3.3 million ha (Bhattacharya 1992), the major causes of waterlogging include super- ous irrigation supplies, seepage losses from canal, impeded sub-surface drainage, and lack of proper land development. In addition, many irrigated areas are s- jected to yield decline because of waterlogging due to inadequate drainage systems. Worldwide, it has been estimated that at least one-tenth of the irrigated cropland suffers from waterlogging.

Plant disease is one of the greatest causes of economic losses of crops throughout the world. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on chemical control measures, but there is an increasing awareness that alternatives to these chemical control measures may be becoming more viable. This work explores the international impact of plant disease on man and how this is measured and diagnosed, discusses epidemiology and the genetics of host-parasite relations and looks at the range of defensive tactics currently available and those under development, in particular those which are more environmentally acceptable than many in widespread use now.

This edited volume is a comprehensive account of plant diseases and insect pests, plant protection and management for various crops using microbial and biotechnological approaches. The book elucidates the role of biotechnology for the enhancement of crop productivity and management of bacterial and fungal diseases via eco-friendly methods. It discusses crop-pest/ pathogen interaction and utilizing this interaction in a beneficial and sustainable way. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, plant scientists and plant pathologists. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, forestry, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences.

Agriculture is facing unprecedented scrutiny for its social and environmental impacts. Many of the key choices it must make are fundamentally about ethics. Key issues in agricultural ethics explores key ethical debates surrounding agriculture and agri-food supply chains. These include issues such as animal welfare, use of labour, the effects of new technologies and the overall impact of agriculture on the environment. It considers the ways these ethical dilemmas may be better understood and potentially resolved. Edited by a leading researcher in the field, Key issues in agricultural ethics will be a standard reference for researchers in agriculture and environmental science, government and other private sector agencies responsible for monitoring good agricultural practice, as well as researchers involved in the social sciences with a focus on ethics.

This collection features four peer-reviewed reviews on the nutritional and health benefits of beverage crops. The first chapter introduces the importance of coffee leaves, highlighting their high antioxidant potential and impact on fruit quality. The chapter provides an inventory of molecules identified in the leaves of cultivated coffee trees, as well as the beneficial effects of these molecules on human health. The second chapter considers the nutritional and health-related aspects of regular coffee consumption, focussing on its ability to prevent the onset of chronic diseases. The chapter also highlights that above-average consumption of coffee can lead to the development of side effects, including caffeine tolerance, dependence and withdrawal. The third chapter discusses the main phytochemicals contained in tea, including polyphenols, amino acids, vitamins, carbohydrates and purine alkaloids. The chapter reviews the current analytical techniques available for tea characterisation, such as chromatic and spectroscopic techniques. The final chapter explores the beneficial health effects of consuming tea on a regular basis. The chapter considers the potential role for tea in combatting chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the possible mechanisms of actions of tea constituents.

This collection features four peer-reviewed reviews on proximal sensors in agriculture. The first chapter addresses the use of proximal sensors to evaluate crop health and performance throughout the growing season. The chapter reviews the evolution of crop sensors, as well as the issues and limitations facing further development, including the need to develop sensors equipped with the ability to detect stresses other than nitrogen. The second chapter reviews recent advances in using proximal sensors to detect crop health status in horticultural crops. The chapter considers the application of sensors to detect micro-environmental parameters linked to pathogen lifecycles which can then be utilised to predict disease risk. The third chapter reviews advances in using proximal spectroscopic sensors to assess soil health. It assesses principles and technologies, key properties measured, advantages and disadvantages together with applications in improving soil management. The final chapter discusses advances in the use of proximal sensor fusion and multi-sensor platforms for improved crop management. The chapter considers the combination of remote sensing from satellites and weather station data as the basis for crop growth models and explores the benefits of utilising a selection of tools to investigate yield prediction.

Soybean (Glycine max L. (Merr)) is one of the most important crops worldwide. Soybean seeds are vital for both protein meal and vegetable oil. Soybean was domesticated in China, and since last 4-5 decades it has become one of the most widely grown crops around the globe. The crop is grown on an anticipated 6% of the world's arable land, and since the 1970s, the area in soybean production has the highest percentage increase compared to any other major crop. It is a major crop in the United States, Brazil, China and Argentina and important in many other countries. The cultivated soybean has one wild annual relative, G. soja, and 23 wild perennial relatives. Soybean has spread to many Asian countries two to three thousand years ago, but was not known in the West until the 18th century. Among the various constraints responsible for decrease in soybean yields are the biotic and abiotic stresses which have recently increased as a result of changing climatic scenarios at global level. A lot of work has been done for cultivar development and germplasm enhancement through conventional plant breeding. This has resulted in development of numerous high yielding and climate resilient soybean varieties. Despite of this development, plant breeding is long-term by nature, resource dependent and climate dependent. Due to the advancement in genomics and phenomics, significant insights have been gained in the identification of genes for yield improvement, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress and increased quality parameters in soybean. Molecular breeding has become routine and with the advent of next generation sequencing technologies resulting in SNP based molecular markers, soybean improvement has taken a new dimension and resulted in mapping of genes for various traits that include disease resistance, insect resistance, high oil content and improved yield. This book includes chapters from renowned potential soybean scientists to discuss the latest updates on soybean molecular and genetic perspectives to elucidate the complex mechanisms to develop biotic and abiotic stress resilience in soybean. Recent studies on the improvement of oil quality and yield in soybean have also been incorporated.

Bioethanol Production from Food Crops: Sustainable Sources, Interventions and Challenges comprehensively covers the global scenario of ethanol production from both food and non-food crops and other sources. The book guides readers through the balancing of the debate on food vs. fuel, giving important insights into resource management and the environmental and economic impact of this balance between demands. Sections cover Global Bioethanol from Food Crops and Forest Resource, Bioethanol from Bagasse and Lignocellulosic wastes, Bioethanol from algae, and Economics and Challenges, presenting a multidisciplinary approach to this complex topic. As biofuels continue to grow as a vital alternative energy source, it is imperative that the proper balance is reached between resource protection and human survival. This book provides important insights into achieving that balance.

Polyphenols in Plants: Isolation, Purification and Extract Preparation, 2nd edition, provides a detailed insight into polyphenols that occur naturally in plants and how they can be affected during growth and development, then effectively removed and optimized for various applications in food production. Historically, plants have been the major sources for drugs and health promotion. While there are a small number of nutrients contained, the growing focus is on the very diverse, complex ring structures: polyphenols that are not nutritious. In order to study or use them in patient treatment, the polyphenols need to be isolated, identified, and purified for application and study. This book brings together experts in the field who share their ongoing examination of isolation and purification of polyphenols as well as determination of their structures and composition. Polyphenols in Plants covers a range of new topics including polyphenols in vegetable waste and agricultural byproducts, extraction methods and characterization of polyphenols, and isolation techniques in the development of new compounds and their use in cancer therapy. This book will be useful to plant scientists and dietary supplement producers, as well as scientists in the food industry and alternative medicine who are interested in the specific health benefits of various dietary extracts and other polyphenol resources.

Once considered a rare and exotic sweetener, sugar was not always as widely available or important as it is today. As part of the human diet for nearly all of recorded history, sugar has evolved over time, becoming quite a common commodity. Yet the very simplicity of this common sweetener masks the highly complex and elaborate global trade that has developed around it. Now, The International Sugar Trade offers the only comprehensive reference guide to the worldwide market. A sweeping analysis of the entire sugar industry, it covers everything from the product's historical beginnings to the complex geopolitical and financial forces that have dominated the worldwide sugar trade during recent decades.

Over the past fifty years, especially, the international trade in sugar has changed dramatically. Since it is either imported or exported by every country on earth, sugar has become an integral component of the economic relationships among nations. Because of that unique position, the trade in sugar has both reflected—and been affected by—a wide range of divergent forces, including global politics, health consciousness, the emergence of developing nations as suppliers and consumers, and many others.

Perhaps the greatest change in the international sugar trade has been the trend toward price stabilization. Historically at the mercy of everything from war to weather, the price of sugar has always been extremely volatile. But, following such trends as the development of sugar substitutes, an overall decline in per capita consumption, and an increase in the overall amount of sugar on the open market, the price of sugar has leveled off considerably. This comparatively recent stability has profoundly altered the manner in which sugar is traded on the world market, and while this has created new opportunities to profit in sugar, it has also made trading in sugar commodities more complex than ever before.

In this important new reference, A. C. Hannah and Donald Spence explore the broad scope of the entire sugar market, providing an essential global tour of the international sugar trade in all its intricacy. Everything is here, from cultivation and refinement to importing and exporting, from commodity trading and tariffs to substitutes and consumption. The International Sugar Trade provides comprehensive coverage of:

• The history of sugar—from cultivation and refining to end use
• Trends in world production, consumption, and international trade
• Crucial information on export marketing, contracts, trade, and prices
• The policies of the world's major sugar producers—with particular attention focused on likely developments in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Cuba
• The impact of existing sugar substitutes and those under development
• The sugar trade cycle and marketing chain, descriptions of key players, and detailed coverage of the sugar futures markets.

The International Sugar Trade contains the most essential and up-to-date information currently available. It includes numerous tables and graphs describing production, consumption, and trade for nearly every country. It also includes five complete appendices exploring sugar and the environment; sugar and health; the Brazilian Alcohol Programme; international sugar agreements; and historical statistics covering the period from 1955 to 1994. It is a vital resource for anyone involved in the international sugar trade.

"[The International Sugar Trade] is a comprehensive account of sugar, the commodity. [It] is aimed at a wide audience, from specialists looking for more background to traders coming to sugar for the first time, students, nonspecialists, and laymen in search of an introduction to the fascinating world of sugar."—from the Preface.

The only complete guide to sugar, one of the world's most important and heavily traded soft commodities, this authoritative overview provides in-depth coverage of a wide range of essential topics, including:

• Origins, background, and production
• The world sugar economy today
• The sugar futures markets
• International sugar agreements
• Consumption trends of substitute products
• Key issues for the future

Soil and crop sensing is a fundamental component and the first important step in precision agriculture. Unless the level of soil and crop variability is known, appropriate management decisions cannot be made and implemented. In the last few decades, various ground-based sensors have been developed to measure spatial variability in soil properties and nutrients, crop growth and yield, and pest conditions. Remote sensing as an important data collection tool has been increasingly used to map soil and crop growth variability as spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions of image data have improved significantly in recent years. While identifying spatial variability of soil and crop growth within fields is an important first step towards precision management, using that variability to formulate variable rate application plans of farming inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides is another essential step in precision agriculture.The purpose of this book is to present the historical, current and future developments of soil and crop sensing technologies with fundamentals and practical examples. The first chapter gives an overview of soil and crop sensing technologies for precision crop production. The next six chapters provide details on theories, methods, practical applications, as well as challenges and future research needs for all aspects of soil and crop sensing. The last two chapters show how soil and crop sensing technologies can be used for plant phenotyping and precision fertilization. The chapters are written by some of the world's leading experts who have contributed significantly to the developments of precision agriculture technologies, especially in the area of soil and crop sensing. They use their knowledge, experiences, and successful stories to present informative and up-to-date information on relevant topics. Therefore, this book is an invaluable addition to the literature and can be used as a reference by scientists, engineers, practitioners, and college students for the dissemination and advancement of precision agriculture technologies for practical applications.