Covering a wide array of topics on the status and challenges of organic farming, including production, nutrient management, plant protection, processing methods, organic production, policy issues, etc., in food crops, vegetable crops, and sugarcane, this new volume addresses how organic farming is an attractive option toward the reduction of toxic emissions produced from traditional agriculture and how it can help mitigate the deleterious effects on crops from climate change. With a focus primarily on India but with application elsewhere in the agricultural world, the volume looks at organic crop production in conjunction with ensuring rural livelihood security, maintaining and enhancing soil health, sugarcane productivity and sugar industry by-products, nutritional management in system-based organic farming, the management of pests in organic farming, the use of vermiculture as an important method for organic farming, and much more. The volume also looks at the issues and challenges in the marketing of organic produce.

Sugarcane, an important source of sugar, plays a substantial role in world economy. As a C4 plant this has very efficient system for carbohydrate metabolism through photosynthesis. Crop improvement efforts have concentrated mainly on improving quality traits, mainly sugar content. This being a complex trait, involves a large number of target genes in the metabolic pathway. The complex polyploid nature of the crop makes it more difficult to pin point the key players in this complex pathway. Despite its importance, little is known about the exact mechanism of sucrose accumulation and its regulation in sugarcane. Many enzymes have been proposed to have a key role in determining the ultimate sucrose content in sugarcane. There are evidences to show that some of these like Sucrose Phosphate Synthase (SPS) and Sucrose Synthase (SuSy) are encoded by multiple genes that show organ specifity in sugarcane. Especially in a crop like sugarcane where the classical techniques are of limited help in elucidating various genetic complexities, molecular techniques can be of help in throwing some light on the grey areas. Molecular marker strategies will be of help in understanding some aspects of sucrose metabolism and its regulation in this crop, thus complementing the ongoing crop improvement programmes.