The Future Rice Strategy for India presents forward-looking insights toward achieving sustainable development of the rice sector, ensuring future food and nutritional security. As a staple food for many in India, including the economically disadvantaged, there are many concerns that affect the development of rice sector. Facing issues from environmental demands to economic stagnation, access to food, food inflation, and the Food Security Act (demand - supply - distribution of rice) achieving sustainability in production and exports is an important and urgent challenge. Using case studies to illustrate existing and potential issues, challenges and solutions, The Future Rice Strategy for India presents key strategic options while considering the implicit consequences. In addition, the findings enrich the strategy and policy formulation considerations for the role of rice in the country. This multidisciplinary approach features the expertise of rice scientists covering different aspects of rice sector; from breeding to consumer preferences and markets and trade.

The Future Rice Strategy for India presents forward-looking insights toward achieving sustainable development of the rice sector, ensuring future food and nutritional security. As a staple food for many in India, including the economically disadvantaged, there are many concerns that affect the development of rice sector. Facing issues from environmental demands to economic stagnation, access to food, food inflation, and the Food Security Act (demand - supply - distribution of rice) achieving sustainability in production and exports is an important and urgent challenge. Using case studies to illustrate existing and potential issues, challenges and solutions, The Future Rice Strategy for India presents key strategic options while considering the implicit consequences. In addition, the findings enrich the strategy and policy formulation considerations for the role of rice in the country. This multidisciplinary approach features the expertise of rice scientists covering different aspects of rice sector; from breeding to consumer preferences and markets and trade.

Part of a series which presents papers of topical interest relating to the breeding of plants important to agriculture and horticulture.

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.

Biotic Stress Resistance in Millets presents an important guide to the disease and pest-related challenges of this vital food crop. Biotic stresses are one of the major constraints for millet production, but newly emerging and forward-thinking problems with disease and insect pests are likely to increase as a result of changing weather, making this an imperative book on best practices. Current strategies are mainly through the development of resistant cultivars, as the use of chemicals is cost-prohibitive to many of those producing millet in developing countries where it is of most value as a food source. This book explores non-chemical focused options for improving plant resistance and protecting crop yield. This single-volume reference will be important for researchers, teachers and students in the disciplines of Agricultural Entomology, Plant protection, Resistance Plant Breeding and Biotechnological pest management.

This book reviews modern strategies in the breeding of vegetables in the era of global warming. Agriculture is facing numerous challenges in the 21st century, as it has to address food, nutritional, energy and environmental security. Future vegetable varieties must be adaptive to the varying scenarios of climate change, produce higher yields of high- quality food and feed and have multiple uses. To achieve these goals, it is imperative to employ modern tools of molecular breeding, genetic engineering and genomics for 'precise' plant breeding to produce 'designed' vegetable varieties adaptive to climate change. This book is of interest to scientists working in the fields of plant genetics, genomics, breeding, biotechnology, and in the disciplines of agronomy and horticulture.

Postharvest Ripening Physiology of Crops is a comprehensive interdisciplinary reference source for the various aspects of fruit ripening and postharvest behavior. It focuses on the postharvest physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of ripening and provides an overview of fruits and vegetables, including chapters on the postharvest quality of ornamental plants and molecular biology of flower senescence. It describes various developments that have taken place in the last decade with respect to identifying and altering the function of ripening-related genes. Taking clues from studies in grape and tomato as model fruits, the book reviews a few case studies and gives you a detailed account of molecular regulation of fruit ripening, and signal transduction and internal atmospheres in relation to fruit ripening. It also presents an overview of methods utilized in fruit proteomics, as well as a global proteome and systems biology analysis of fruits during ripening, and discusses the basics of dormancy, its molecular and physiological basis, and methods to break the dormancy. The book provides an overview of the most important metabolic pathways and genes that control volatile biosynthesis in model fruits, including tropical, subtropical, and temperate fruits, with a special emphasis on fruit ripening and the role of ethylene during this process. It presents a brief description of the composition of volatiles in various fruit species and addresses the influences of preharvest factors and postharvest technologies on fruit aroma, basic mechanisms responsible for postharvest flavor change in fresh produce, and the potential impacts of various postharvest technologies on flavor.

Plant diseases cause serious threats to the successful cultivation of horticultural crops resulting in huge losses in their yields. These plant diseases are known to affect horticultural crops at various growth stages and reduce the yield as well as quality of fruits and vegetables. Diseases also cause subsequent postharvest transit and storage losses. The volumes in this 4-volume set, Diseases of Horticultural Crops: Diagnosis and Management, provide the latest diagnostic information along with effective management solutions to the problems of field crop plants caused by phytopathogens. The volumes provide an abundance of information for understanding and managing plant diseases, with emphasis on diagnostic techniques. The collection includes four volumes that cover: Volume 1: Important fruit crops' Volume 2: Vegetable crops' Volume 3: Ornamental plants and spice crops' Volume 4: Important plantation crops, medicinal crops, and mushrooms. The destructive potential of plant diseases in modern day agriculture has increased due to the use of cultivars having a narrow genetic base over huge areas. Knowledge of perpetuation and spread of the pathogens and various factors affecting disease development is necessary for practical management. Disease diagnosis is the prime requirement for recommending preventive or curative measures for effective disease management. These volumes provide the information on the diagnostic tools necessary and management techniques for the various crop types. The chapters cover key diseases, typical symptoms, and management strategies. The volumes also include photographs that show symptoms of important diseases, which are helpful in disease diagnosis. This 4-volume set will be valuable to scientists and researchers, faculty and students, administrators, and many others in the discipline of plant pathology and related agriculture and allied fields.

Biomass currently accounts for about fifteen per cent of global primary energy consumption and is playing an increasingly important role in the face of climate change, energy and food security concerns. Handbook of Bioenergy Crops is a unique reference and guide, with extensive coverage of more than eighty of the main bioenergy crop species. For each it gives a brief description, outlines the ecological requirements, methods of propagation, crop management, rotation and production, harvesting, handling and storage, processing and utilization, then finishes with selected references. This is accompanied by detailed guides to biomass accumulation, harvesting, transportation and storage, as well as conversion technologies for biofuels and an examination of the environmental impact and economic and social dimensions, including prospects for renewable energy. This is an indispensable resource for all those involved in biomass production, utilization and research.

We hear a lot about how agriculture affects climate change and other environmental issues, but we hear little about how these issues affect agriculture. When we look at both sides of the issues, we can develop better solutions for sustainable agriculture without adversely affecting the environment. Agroecology, Ecosystems, and Sustainability explores a modern vision of ecology and agricultural systems, so that crop production can be sustainably developed without further environmental degradation. With contributions from experts from more than 20 countries, the book describes how to make the transition to modern agroecology to help the environment. It examines the global availability of natural resources and how agroecology could allow the world population to reach the goal of global sustainable ecological, agricultural, and food production systems. The book discusses important principles that regulate agroecological systems, including crop production, soil management, and environment preservation. Making the link between theory and practices, the book includes examples of agroecology such as an interdisciplinary framework for the management of integrated production and conservation landscapes and the use of mechanized rain-fed farming and its ecological impact on drylands. An examination of how ecology and agriculture can be allied to ensure food production and security without threatening our environment, the text shows you how natural resources can be used in a manner to create a "symbiosis" to preserve ecological systems and develop agriculture.

Wheat is produced on a greater area, grown over a wider geographic range, and traded internationally as a commodity more than any other arable crop. Wheat alone provides 20% of the calories and protein in the global human diet. Understanding the interactions between wheat production, the environment, and human nutrition is essential for meeting the demands of food security as we approach the middle of the 21st century. Wheat: Environment, Food and Health is written by two leading authorities in the field and offers insights into critical issues such as the sustainability of wheat production, the challenges of both mitigating and adapting to environmental change, and the effects of wheat consumption on human health. Covering a broad range of topics, the authors: Introduce the historical development and utilization of the wheat crop. Describe the factors affecting the quality and acceptability of wheat for different uses. Discuss the soil characteristics that are required for, and changed by, wheat production. Examine the water, temperature, and light requirements of wheat systems. Explore the methods and sustainability of plant breeding and farmer approaches to improving crop yields. Describe the development, structure, and composition of wheat grain. Discuss the contribution and impacts, both positive and negative, of wheat consumption on human health. - Discuss how modern technologies and new approaches are addressing the challenges of maintaining wheat production. Wheat: Environment, Food and Health is an essential resource for researchers and academics in disciplines including agriculture, plant biology, applied biology, botany, food science and nutrition, crop improvement, food security, environmental sustainability, and human health.

This book provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the recent developments in cotton production and processing, including a number of genetic approaches, such as GM cotton for pest resistance, which have been hotly debated in recent decades. In the era of climate change, cotton is facing diverse abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, toxic metals and environmental pollutants. As such, scientists are developing stress-tolerant cultivars using agronomic, genetic and molecular approaches. Gathering papers on these developments, this timely book is a valuable resource for a wide audience, including plant scientists, agronomists, soil scientists, botanists, environmental scientists and extention workers.

Peanut, an amphidiploid, is an important food and oil crop and has an interesting evolutionary history. This book provides a glimpse of the advances in genetic resources and genomics research of peanut made during the last decade. It contains an overview of germplasm, advances in genetic and genomic resources, genetic and trait mapping, proteomic and transcriptomic analyses, functional and comparative genomics studies, and molecular breeding applications. This book should prove useful to students, teachers, and young researchers as a ready reference to the latest information on peanut genetics and genomics.

This is the first manual presenting a set of protocols for production of doubled haploids (DH) in 22 major crop plant species including 4 tree species. It contains various protocols and approaches of DH production proven for different germplasm of the same species. The protocols describe in detail all steps of DH production - from donor plants growth conditions, through in vitro procedures, media composition and preparation, to regeneration of haploid plants and chromosome doubling methods. The users of this manual will be able to choose among microspore versus anther cultures, wide hybridisation or gynogenesis, the most suitable method for production of DH in particular laboratory conditions for their plant material. Numerous colour illustrations should help in this decision. The user will also find information on organization of a doubled haploid laboratory, basic DH media and on associated simple cytogenetic methods for ploidy level analysis. The practical protocols are supplemented with the list of published DH protocols for other crop plants and separate chapters dealing with major applications of DH in breeding, mutant production, transgenesis, and genetic mapping and genomics.
The book was prepared by the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture in close co-operation with the EU program COST 851' on Gametic cells and molecular breeding for crop improvement'.

This book evaluates maize as a bioenergy fuel source from two perspectives. It explores whether the input energy needed to generate fuel significantly exceeded by the energy harvested. In examining this issue, the chapters provide assessments of the social, economic, and political impact on fuel pricing, food costs, and the environmental challenge with corn biomass the engine of change. It then examines whether corn be genetically improved so that its biomass is significantly increased, its cellulose-lignin complex made more amenable to harvesting and to processing, and grown in regions not normally associated with its cultivation of food.

Consisting of fifty barn poems, 50 Barn Poems is an evocative yet accessible sketch of that old barn that haunts the back of your brain. Vague memories of road trips, skateboarding, the ocean, and ping-pong are all reconstructed in the shape of a barn and set on fire. We're not even sure they're poems. Maybe they are just: BARN. Go ahead, take off your shoes and drive off a cliff. The barn awaits.

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.

Currently 868 million people are undernourished and 195 million children under five years of age are stunted. At the same time, over 1 billion people are overweight and obese in both the developed and developing world. Diseases previously associated with affluence, such as cancer, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease, are on the rise. Food system-based approaches to addressing these problems that could enhance food availability and diet quality through local production and agricultural biodiversity often fall outside the traditional scope of nutrition, and have been under-researched. As a consequence, there remains insufficient evidence to support well-defined, scalable agricultural biodiversity interventions that can be linked to improvements in nutrition outcomes. Agricultural biodiversity is important for food and nutritional security, as a safeguard against hunger, a source of nutrients for improved dietary diversity and quality, and strengthening local food systems and environmental sustainability. This book explores the current state of knowledge on the role of agricultural biodiversity in improving diets, nutrition and food security. Using examples and case studies from around the globe, the book explores current strategies for improving nutrition and diets and identifies key research and implementation gaps that need to be addressed to successfully promote the better use of agricultural biodiversity for rural and urban populations and societies in transition.

Currently 868 million people are undernourished and 195 million children under five years of age are stunted. At the same time, over 1 billion people are overweight and obese in both the developed and developing world. Diseases previously associated with affluence, such as cancer, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease, are on the rise. Food system-based approaches to addressing these problems that could enhance food availability and diet quality through local production and agricultural biodiversity often fall outside the traditional scope of nutrition, and have been under-researched. As a consequence, there remains insufficient evidence to support well-defined, scalable agricultural biodiversity interventions that can be linked to improvements in nutrition outcomes. Agricultural biodiversity is important for food and nutritional security, as a safeguard against hunger, a source of nutrients for improved dietary diversity and quality, and strengthening local food systems and environmental sustainability. This book explores the current state of knowledge on the role of agricultural biodiversity in improving diets, nutrition and food security. Using examples and case studies from around the globe, the book explores current strategies for improving nutrition and diets and identifies key research and implementation gaps that need to be addressed to successfully promote the better use of agricultural biodiversity for rural and urban populations and societies in transition.

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.

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.