There is an ever-increasing demand for more food but one of the stumbling blocks to achieving this goal is quality and quantity losses due to various pests and pathogens and the mycotoxins synthesized by these harmful biotic entities. Thus far, strategies employed to manage these post-harvest diseases and mycotoxins decontamination include established physical, cultural, and chemical methods. Recently, the application of chemicals to reduce decay and deterioration caused by various pathogens has been impeded as these hazardous chemicals contaminate the environment, enter the food chain, and destroy beneficial microorganisms and pests by aiming at non-target microorganisms. In light of this, the usage of eco-friendly and non-polluting alternatives to chemical pesticides is the call of the hour. Bio-management of Postharvest Diseases and Mycotoxigenic Fungi deals with the current state and future prospects of using various bio-management techniques that are natural, eco-friendly, and environmentally safe. It aims to increase awareness of their potential as well as sensitizing readers to the various aspects of biologicals in pest control. Key Features: Highlights classical versus new techniques adopted to manage postharvest diseases Discusses novel approaches in managing fungal spoilage and mycotoxin decontamination Provides readers with a 360-degree perspective of the pre- and post-harvest quality mycotoxin decontamination research being conducted Details proposals of new ideas to ensure a food secure and pesticide-free world This book disseminates notable and diversified scientific work carried out by leading experts in their own field. Written by qualified scientists in each of their respective disciplines, it can serve as a current and comprehensive treatise on the emerging field of bio-management of postharvest diseases and mycotoxin decontamination by products that are "generally regarded as safe."

Using real cases of food fi rms and agriculture supply chains as a context, How is Digitalization Affecting Agri-food? New Business Models, Strategies and Organizational Forms aims to understand the key themes in strategic and organizational research in this area. Despite the importance of food and agriculture in the current political and societal context, analysis of the impact of digitalization and information technologies on the industry is still limited. The objective of this monograph is to understand the direction of this change. With case studies of food firms and agriculture supply chains it sets out to conceptualize food organizing and organizations as a fruitful object of inquiry, both at the intra and interorganizational levels. It aims to understand new business models, strategies, and organizational forms. Contributions in this stream of research have the potential to yield important and relevant insights for both scholars and societies. This book is written primarily for academics engaged in innovation management or strategy, or conducting organizational behavior research. It will also be of relevance to practitioners and managers in the agri-food industry.

This book explores the emergence and development of the legal concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing, and its application in agriculture. Developed in the 1990s, the concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing has been deployed in an ever-wider variety of international instruments, including those on biodiversity, climate change and human rights. A lack of clarity persists, however, on what fair and equitable benefit-sharing requires and entails, and whether its implementation supports or eventually undermines equity and justice. This book examines these questions in the area of land, food and agriculture, addressing for the first time several instances of the agricultural production chain, including research and development, land governance and land use and access to markets. It identifies challenges regarding implementation of the concept as enshrined in environmental treaties and soft-law instruments, with a focus on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. It investigates its role, enabling conditions and limitations, in a contradictory policy context involving environmental, food security and human rights objectives but also a growing web of multilateral and bilateral trade and investment agreements. Linking international law research with a socio-legal analysis, the book addresses four grassroots examples, which offer ideas for institutional and legal innovation from the local to the global level. This interdisciplinary title will be of great interest to students and scholars of international environmental law, agriculture, land law, development studies and global governance, as well as policymakers and practitioners working in these fields. "The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198304, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

Focuses on the coffee and tea industries, using accounts of single producer communities to highlight the transformation from plantation-style colonial agriculture towards systems that now claim to produce social and environmental benefits from the farm to the cup Includes tandem case studies of coffee in the Guatemalan highlands and tea in the hill country of Sri Lanka, incorporating the perspectives of coffee exporters, importers, roasters, and cafe owners.

We are surrounded by thousands of animals, alive and dead. They are an intimate and ever-present part of our human lives. As a society, we privilege veterinarians as experts on these animals: they are our educators and teachers in what they say, what they do, and the decisions that they make. Yet, within the field of education, there is little research on the curriculum, pedagogy, and experiences of veterinary school and students. What do veterinarians learn in veterinary school? How do their experiences during those four years shape their perceptions of animals? How do the structures, curriculum, and pedagogy of veterinary college create and influence these experiences? Learning Animals opens up this conversation through an exploration of the complicated, fascinating and often painful stories of a cohort of veterinary students as they make their four-year journey from matriculation through graduation. The book examines how the experiences of veterinary students shape how humans relate to animals, from public policy and decision-making about the environment and animals slaughtered for food, to the most personal decisions about euthanizing companion animals. The first full-length, critical, qualitative study of the perspectives of our primary teachers about animals, this will be a thought-provoking read for those in the fields of both educational research and veterinary education.

This book deals with an array of topics in the broad area of biotic stress responses in plants, focusing on "problems and their management" by selecting some of the widely investigated themes. Such as: major insect-pest of cereal crops in India and their management, biotic stresses of major pulse crops and their management strategies, insect pests of oilseed crops and their management, biotic stresses of vegetable crops and their management, insect pests infesting major vegetable crops and their management strategies, fruit crops insect pests and their biointensive integrated pest management techniques, mass trapping of fruit flies using Methyl Eugenol based traps, organic means of combating biotic stresses in plants, nematode problem in pulses and their management, and approaches in pest management of stored grain pests. This book is useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agronomy, Horticulture, other cognate disciplines of agriculture and allied sciences and other research workers. Note: T& F does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

[F]or anyone who has ever sat in a city office dreaming of owning a smallholding one day and living off the land, this book will inspire them to take the plunge. Rated 5 stars by The Telegraph I raced through this beautiful story with mounting awe and excitement. What Lynn and Sandra have achieved on their croft in Scotland is a miracle of rebirth on land Isabella Tree, author of Wilding The inspiring story of two courageous women who took the leap and embraced a whole new way of life. Kate Humble, author of Home Cooked As seen on the BBC’s This Farming Life  Our Wild Farming Life is what happens when you follow your dreams of living on the land; a story of how two people became farmers – and how they learned to make a living from it, their way. Lynn and Sandra left their friends, family and jobs in England to travel north to Scotland to find a small piece of land they could call their own. They had no money, no plan and no experience in farming. They had in mind keeping a few chickens, a kitchen garden and renting out some camping space, but instead, they fell in love with Lynbreck Croft – 150 acres of wild Scottish Highlands filled with opportunity and beauty, shrouded by the Cairngorms mountains. This is the inspirational true story of Lynbreck Croft – a regenerative Scottish croft rooted in local food and community – and the dreams of two women in search of a new, wilder existence. In Our Wild Farming Life, Lynn and Sandra recount their experiences as they rebuild their new home and work out what kind of farmers they want to be. They learn how to work with Highland cattle, become part of the crofting community and begin to truly understand how they can farm in harmony with nature to produce wonderful food for themselves and the people around them. Through efforts like these, Lynn and Sandra have been able to combine regenerative farming practices with old crofting traditions to keep their own personal values intact.

Biometry for Forestry and Environmental Data with Examples in R focuses on statistical methods that are widely applicable in forestry and environmental sciences, but it also includes material that is of wider interest. Features: * Describes the theory and applications of selected statistical methods and illustrates their use and basic concepts through examples with forestry and environmental data in R. * Rigorous but easily accessible presentation of the linear, nonlinear, generalized linear and multivariate models, and their mixed-effects counterparts. Chapters on tree size, tree taper, measurement errors, and forest experiments are also included. * Necessary statistical theory about random variables, estimation and prediction is included. The wide applicability of the linear prediction theory is emphasized. * The hands-on examples with implementations using R make it easier for non-statisticians to understand the concepts and apply the methods with their own data. Lot of additional material is available at www.biombook.org. The book is aimed at students and researchers in forestry and environmental studies, but it will also be of interest to statisticians and researchers in other fields as well.

This long-needed book highlights how traditional Mexican agriculture has changed according to environmental, climatic, geographical, social and cultural conditions. Grounded in archaeological-historical data from interrelated research of various scientific disciplines, the book also draws on studies made by anthropologists of varied small-scale agricultural groups. Traditional Mexican Agriculture is the result of a holistic study of Mexican agriculture. It offers the reader a perspective of traditional agriculture in Mexico from social, cultural and ecological Anthropology, Ethnology, regional and environmental History, and Agroecology, to help obtain sustainable agroecology where human societies obtain better ways of life and a healthy and nutritious food system. The book further aims to recover ideas, management, and components of local knowledge of small-scale farmers. Pitched at university students and academics, as well as researchers and developers of agricultural matters, this book will be ideal reading at agrarian universities and related institutions. It provides a basis for future studies in sustainable agricultural systems in this region.

This book presents recent research and advances in various solid-liquid separation technologies and some applications for treating produced water. It covers fundamental principles and the importance of produced water in major industrial sectors and compares solid-liquid separation technologies. In addition, this book Presents the results of research studies conducted to evaluate the performance of solid-liquid separation technologies Discusses a wide range of technologies, including membrane, filtration, crystallization, desalination, supercritical fluids, coagulation, and floatation Includes experimental, theoretical, modeling, and process design studies With its comprehensive coverage, this book is an essential reference for chemical researchers, scientists, and engineers in industry, academia, and professional laboratories. It is also an important resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students studying solid-liquid separations.

Provides historical context for the many contributions made by using the Xenopus model System. Chapters written by an international team of leading researchers using Xenopus as a model organism. Chapters deal with cell biology, developmental biology, genomics, and evolutionary biology and include the results of the research. Well illustrated with color diagrams and photos.

Maize is among the most widely spread and widely used crops of the world, used for cereals for over 4 billion humans, as food for farm animals, and as a source material for biofuel production. Yet there are relatively few books on the cropping system of this important crop. This book, Maize Agroecosystem, is a concise treatise dealing with agronomy, soil fertility, and productivity of maize. The information is global in nature and considers recent developments in all maize cropping belts. The "global maize agroecosystem" is a conglomerate of several "maize cropping belts" that flourish on different continents. The impact of nutrient management on the productivity of maize agroecosystems is the main focus of this book. The book includes the history of maize growing, the kinds of soil needed, nutrient dynamics, the use of soil organic matter, the physiology and genetics of maize, and integrated nutrient management. It presents comprehensive knowledge regarding the physicochemical dynamics of the three major nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Also covered is how fertilizers impinge on soils of maize farms and their impact on soil and groundwater quality. The impact of crop genotype on soil nutrient dynamics and productivity is also highlighted. The information provided here will be highly useful to students at colleges and universities in the fields of agricultural sciences and environmental science and ecology, and the book also functions as valuable resource for researchers and professors in crop science. Several figures and tables are included that describe and summarize the impact of various agronomic/fertilizer management procedures on crop productivity.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Organic practices are quickly redefining how agriculture is done around the world, as we come to realize how detrimental conventional agriculture is to local and global environments and economies. This book serves as an overview of some of the important topics in organic agriculture. The volume is broken into several sections which explore the effects of organic practices on crop productivity, the use of biofertilizers, plant cultivars, and compare the environmental impact with conventional agriculture. Also covered are the following topics: *Organic agriculture as a strategy to combat many of the negative effects of conventional agriculture, such as pollution and loss of soil fertility *How practices, such as the use of biofertilizers, can enhance plant growth over the use of chemical fertilizers *Vermicompost and the high potential to benefit land in agricultural use *Organic practices' associations with increased soil fertility, increased biodiversity, and greenhouse gas sequestration *The negative effects of organic agriculture practices, such as an increase in nitrogen pollution or pests This easily accessible reference volume offers a comprehensive guide to this rapidly expanding field. Edited by an experienced writer with experience in both food systems and agricultural sociology, Organic Agricultural Practices: Alternatives to Conventional Agricultural Systems is an authoritative and easy-to-use reference, ideal for both researchers in the field and students who wish to gain an overview to this important field of study.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Environmental science integrates physical and biological sciences to the study of the environment, with the goal of solving today's environmental challenges. Many of these challenges tie into a greater concept of using the earth's resources sustainably. This collection brings together some very important advances in environmental science, including how climate change affects plant disease, how to keep birds and bats away from wind turbines, disinfecting polluted water for drinking, how climate policy impacts natural habitats, cancer risk due to ecological issues, and much more.

The ultimate goal of crop production is to provide quality produce to consumers at reasonable rates. Most fresh produce is highly perishable, and postharvest losses are significant under the present methods of management in many countries. However, significant achievements have been made during the last few years to curtail postharvest losses in fresh produce and to ensure food security and safety as well. These include advancements in breeding horticultural crops for quality improvement; postharvest physiology; postharvest pathology and entomology; postharvest management of fruits, vegetables, and flowers; nondestructive technologies to assess produce quality; minimal processing of fruits and vegetables; as well as innovations in packaging and storage technology of fresh produce. This new book, Postharvest Biology and Technology of Horticultural Crops: Principles and Practices for Quality Maintenance, describes the above-mentioned advancements in postharvest quality improvement of fresh horticultural produce. This book will be a standard reference work for postharvest management for the fresh produce industry. It presents important new advances that will extend the shelf life of fresh produce by retaining its safety and nutritional or sensory quality. The book covers a multitude of topics, particularly advances in: * Conventional breeding approaches for fruits and vegetables * Storage of fruits and vegetables * Postharvest treatment and smart packaging * Management of pests and other postharvest diseases * Postharvest management of fresh-cut flowers * Management of medicinal and aromatic plants during postharvest * Biotechnological methods for postharvest management

Applications of Furrow and Micro Irrigation in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions, the fifth volume in the Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation series, addresses the ever-challenging need for irrigation systems in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, areas that are suffering from severe water shortages. These areas, such as Egypt, Tunisia, most of Africa, and parts of South America, Central America, and Australia, find it a struggle to grow crops sustainably with the water available. This important book emphasizes sustainable agriculture practices to promote increased water usage efficiency in dry areas for growing of crops. It presents a variety of research and studies on such topics as: * Meteorological instruments for water management * Buried micro irrigation laterals for soil water retention * Water vapor flux models * Performance of various crops grown under different irrigation methods * Scheduling of irrigation * Phyto-monitoring techniques This valuable book is a must for those finding it a challenge to maintain sustainable crop production in the midst of continuous water shortages in areas where water is not naturally plentiful. With contributions from authors with hands-on experience in the field, the book will be an invaluable reference and guide to effective micro irrigation methods.

This book covers topics on the basic models, assessments, and techniques to calculate evapotranspiration (ET) for practical applications in agriculture, forestry, and urban science. This simple and thorough guide provides the information and techniques necessary to develop, manage, interpret, and apply evapotranspiration [ET] data to practical applications. The simplicity of the contents facilitates a technician to develop an ET data for effective water management.

With contributions from leading scientists in agricultural biology and young researchers, this book examines the ecological consequences that sometimes arise with various methods of increasing crop productivity. It also presents agroecological approaches to crop improvement and productivity from several perspectives, examines alternative energy sources, and discusses other problems related to sustainable agriculture.

This valuable book, the third volume in the Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation series, focuses on sustainable micro irrigation management for trees and vines. It covers the principles as well as recent advances and applications of micro irrigation techniques. Specialists throughout the world share their expertise on: * Automation of micro irrigation systems * Service and maintenance of micro irrigation systems * Evaluation of micro irrigation systems * Scheduling of irrigation * Using municipal wastewater for micro irrigation * Micro-jet irrigation and other systems * The effect of potassium, acid lime, and other elements

Down from the Trees: Man's Amazing Transition from Tree-Dwelling Ape Ancestors covers the evolution of man from tree-dwelling ape to Homo sapiens as he is today. Using easy-to-read language, the author takes complex, jargon-filled material and extracts the essence of the topic and coveys it in a clear and engaging manner. He approaches the subject of human evolution from three different disciplines: fossil evidence and its interpretation, evolutionary theory and its applicability, and genetic evidence and its ability to unlock prehistoric information. The third discipline has advanced unbelievably in the last few years, and this book includes the most up-to-date research. There is nothing more interesting to humans than the story of their origins. The evolutionary process of a tree-dwelling ape becoming a walking, talking man who has developed the technology to walk on the moon, transplant hearts, or modify living things is no trivial story. This book provides a fascinating and comprehensive view of what science has learned of human evolution.

The grass family is one of the largest and most diverse families in the plant kingdom and is of great economic value. Grasses provide human beings and domestic animals with the main necessities of life, add diversity to the landscape and stability to the ground surface, and also provide ornamental and amenity value. The present handbook is a pictorial resource guide to the identification of different common grasses in their early growth stage. In this book, 100 of the most common grasses (palatable and unpalatable) growing in the grasslands have been characterized on the basis of the vegetative characters of the seedling. A key to the identification of the grasses at their seedling stages is provided to help easily identify the grasses at their early stage of development. Many of the grasses described in the book are cosmopolitan, and many grow worldwide. Terms used to describe a grass seedling are used with help of photographs. Different diagnostic features of the seedling-such as growth habits, types of vernation, nodes, internodes, leaf laminas, leaf tips, leaf sheaths, ligules, auricles, and collars-have been used for their identification. The descriptions and photographs enable users to successfully and easily identify these species in a field environment. The book has been divided into two main sections. The first section covers the characteristic features of the caryopses. It includes light and scanning electron microscopic features and a diagnostic key to the identification of the species. The second section deals with grass seedling morphology and provides a key to the identification of the species on the basis of early vegetative features. Each of the sections includes an introduction, materials and methods, and results, supplemented with microphotographs representing the features of identification. This handbook is the first of its kind to include so many grass species that can be authentically identified with the help of pictorial diagnostic features of the seedlings and caryopses. The identifying features are solely on the basis of morphological, micromorphological, and morphometric characters. This handbook will be an important reference book of value to students in basic grass taxonomy or ecology classes as well as to academicians, researchers, pasture management practitioners, as well as professionals working in grassland restoration.

This new book, Sustainable Micro Irrigation Design Systems for Agricultural Crops, brings together the best research for efficient micro irrigation methods for field crops, focusing on design methods and best practices. Covering a multitude of topics, the book presents research and studies on: Indigenous alternatives for use of saline and alkali waters Hydraulic performance Distribution of moisture Fertigation technology Buried micro irrigation laterals Drip irrigation scheduling Rainwater harvesting Adoption and economic impact of a micro irrigation model This book is a must for those interested in irrigation planning and management, namely, researchers, scientists, educators, and students.

Micro irrigation, also known as trickle, drip, localized, high frequency, or pressurized irrigation, is an irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. It is done through narrow tubes that deliver water directly to the base of the plant. Clogging is a menace in the success of drip irrigation systems, and the situation is more complex under subsurface drip irrigation. Irrigation planners and engineers have found a variety of innovative methods to help to minimize clogging. This book emphasizes the implications of micro irrigation clogging, especially under the subsurface placement of laterals. The book offers remedies to decrease clogging and methodologies to improve the performance of micro sprinklers. This valuable resource addresses this critical problem, covering: Challenges in clogging under subsurface drip irrigation Principles, practices, and management of emitter clogging Efficiency of acidification for unclogging of emitters Performance characteristics of micro sprinklers The book will serve as a reference manual for professionals in biological and civil engineering, horticulture, soil and crop science, and agronomy, as well as for graduate and undergraduate students in related fields. It will be a valuable reference for professionals who work with micro irrigation/wastewater and water management and for technical agricultural centers, irrigation centers, agricultural extension services, and other agencies that work with micro irrigation programs.

This important new volume presents a plethora of research on the distribution of heavy metals in soils and rocks of natural habitats, farmlands, and urbanized areas along with the factors influencing their bioavailability. The authors evaluate the content of organic matter, soil acidity, mineral fertilizers, and more. Developed for ecologists and specialists in the field of environmental protection and the conservation of biological diversity, the book presents the problems of reducing the anthropogenic load on the surrounding countryside and focuses on sustainable agricultural development.

Improving agricultural water use efficiency (WUE) is vitally important in many parts of the world due to the decreasing availability of water resources and the increasing competition for water between different users. Micro irrigation is an effective tool for conserving water resources. Studies have revealed a significant water savings, ranging from 40% to 70% under drip irrigation compared with surface irrigation. This new volume, Engineering Interventions in Sustainable Trickle Irrigation: Irrigation Requirements and Uniformity, Fertigation, and Crop Performance, presents valuable research that evaluates crop water and fertigation requirements, examines optimum irrigation and fertigation scheduling, and analyzes the performance of agricultural crops under micro irrigation. With an interdisciplinary perspective, this volume addresses the urgent need to explore and investigates the current shortcomings and challenges of water resources engineering, especially in micro irrigation engineering. The volume discusses crop water requirements, fertigation technology, and performance of agricultural crops under best management practices. The chapter authors present research studies on drip irrigated tomato, chilies, cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, garlic, sugarcane maize, cashew nut, sapota, banana, mango, and blueberries. Removing the research gap, this volume provides new information that will be valuable to those involved in micro irrigation engineering.