W. Selvamurthy – författare

Food and Nutritional security remains a major constraint in high altitude cold arid regions especially in Trans-Himalayas. Several initiatives have been taken by government and non-governmental organizations to meet the fresh food requirements in this inhospitable terrain. The book is an informative compilation of cold arid agro animal technologies and focuses mainly on research and development perspectives pertaining to high altitude regions. Though the main focus is on agro animal technologies, plentiful information exists in the book for all those engaged in research on high altitude cold arid and circumpolar environments. Multidisciplinary group of scientists have contributed on different aspects at high altitude agro-techniques, flora and fauna for bringing out this essential book. Chapters deal with various subjects’ viz. vegetable research to meet the nutritional requisites, importance and design of solar green houses and seed production of vegetable crops. Fruit production and important fruit crops such as seabuckthorn and apricot have also been described. Some chapters also describe the biodiversity of Trans-Himalayan medicinal plants, biotechnological approaches for their characterization and conservation, the nutraceuticals developed and energy efficient long term conservation of plant germplasm in permafrost conditions. The sustainable livestock and poultry production and prospects for fodder production at high altitudes have been presented in detail. The book also deals with eco environment improvement of Ladakh through afforestation, potential non conventional energy sources and describes the soil health status of the region. The importance of agricultural extension in transferring the technology from lab to land has also been discussed in high altitude perspectives and the challenges which limit human performance at high altitude have also been elaborated.