Biotechnology in Crop Improvement

When plants of the same kind are grown and cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. For example, crop of wheat means that all the plants grown in a field are that of wheat. Crops are of different types like cereals, vegetables and fruits. These can be classified on the basis of the season in which they grow. Cultivation of crops involves several activities undertaken by farmer over a period of time. These activities or tasks are referred to as agricultural practices and they are: Preparation of soil, adding manure and fertilizers, irrigation, protecting from weeds, harvesting and storage. Effective management of all these practices is necessary for sustainable crop production. This book is written to serve a text book of agronomy-cum-reference/guide book for the students of agriculture, veterinary, soil conservation and field practitioners. The book fills the need for an up-to-date comprehensive text on crop management and integrated farming under varying situations and covers comprehensively the content of the courses of Field Crops and Farming Systems in Agronomy offered for the students at under graduate and post graduate levels of agricultural universities in the country. This book will be of immense use in imparting knowledge on the basic principles of crop production and applied aspects of integrated farming systems for students, teachers, scientists, extension workers and professionals engaged in agricultural development. Contents: Biotechnology in Crop Production; Biotechnology of Vegetables and Fruits; Plant Reproduction and Biotechnology; Plant Genetics Engineering; Microbiology in Biotechnology; Relation of Bacteria to Agriculture; Role of Bacteria and Actinomycetes in Biological Control of Pests and Diseases; Prospects and Limitations of Agricultural Biotechnologies.