SpringerBriefs in Agriculture – serie

This book, focusing on the agriculture sector, provides useful analysis of the green economy implementation context and a practical framework for implementing vegetable crop production green economy projects. The book addresses a distinct gap, as there are currently no guidelines available for planning and implementing green economy projects in the agriculture sector. The book combines information from desktop reviews and field research on vegetable production in a green economy context in South Africa in order to bridge the gap between the theoretical green economy concept and practical implementation issues that would be encountered at the project level. It includes a step-by-step process for translating abstract green economy principles into tangible projects on the ground, so that the potential benefits of a green economy are realizable.

Allelopathic studies may be defined in various aspects; weed against weed/crop and vice versa. This book focuses on the ways to utilize the allelopathic potential of weeds or crops for controlling weeds in the agroecosystems. Vigorous use of herbicides is poisoning our environment at an alarming rate; allelopathy can be employed as a useful alternative to control weeds naturally under field conditions. The book contains chapters on the history of allelopathy; allelopathic potential of several important crops (rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, mustard, sunflower) and weeds (members of Solanaceae, Convolvulaceae, Asteraceae, Verbenaceae). Moreover, it highlights how the allelopathic potential of these weeds and crops can be employed effectively to suppress weeds under field conditions. The book also discusses topics on the role of allelochemicals in agroecosystems; impact on local flora; biotic stress induced by allelochemicals; mechanism of action of allelochemicals and future prospectiveof allelopathy. Prepared with basic concepts and importance of allelopathy, this book is intended for the agricultural community, botanists, students and researchers.

Global food production and climate change among other concerns are societal issues that require major research input from crop science. While suggestions are abundant on how crop science can help to resolve these issues, many of the suggestions come from people who are not actually familiar with the challenges and requirements to modify crop plants grown under field conditions to achieve the necessary improvements. Efforts to alter a gene or even several genes have very rarely proven successful in having impact on crop production under realistic field conditions. This lack of success has not been addressed head on. This book serves as a reminder to crop scientists and others that open, clear-minded assessments of the entirety of evidence concerning a hypothesis is required before making claims of possible increases in crop performance. This attitude of skepticism is not a negative attitude but rather an employment of the cornerstone of scientific investigation based on formation and evaluation of hypotheses. Skeptical analyses are to be presented in the book on some of the common suggestions for improving crop plants. The six specific topics to be addressed are photosynthesis, seed number, nitrogen use efficiency, water use efficiency, crop water loss, and unconfirmed field observations. Each of the topics in this book, will first be reviewed to present the origins of the popular assumptions about how specific plant modification will result in improved crop performance. The review of the background information will be followed by an examination of the evidence, logic, and predicted outcomes for the assumed benefits of the modifications. Finally, each chapter will offer novel, alternate approaches to plant modification that have documented support for positively impacting crop performance. The book will not be written in specialized, detail language but offer access for those with a wide range of interests in options for increasing crop production in the future. Thegoal of the book is to provide information that is useful to those with interests ranging from climatologist to food-oriented sociologists. Of course, the topics covered will be of direct interest to those studying plant sciences, particularly crop scientists. The hope is to challenge a reader to re-examine some of her/his assumptions about crop improvement and approach the topic with a renewed practice of skepticism in formulating and evaluating hypotheses.

The success of modern-day agriculture lies in the digitalization of agricultural systems. The primary aim of this book is to provide a starting point to understand the fundamentals and design of digital agriculture systems with reference to the enabling technologies that deal with the production, improvement, and protection of crops/plants and livestock. The other associated objectives of this book include the explanation of the design and deployment of IoT-based digital agriculture systems in such a simple way that agriculture students understand straightforwardly. Therefore, this book is an effort to partially fill the gap associated with the understanding of the development and deployment of digital agriculture systems (including both precision and smart farming). We believe that with the provided details of enabling technologies and their usage in digital agriculture systems, agriculture students will find it easier to comprehend the designing of small-/large-scale IoT-based digital agriculture systems. This book provides insight into different technologies, architectures, and case studies that will ultimately help students to understand the concept of Digital Agriculture and its related applications. It enables students to realize the importance of open issues and future challenges of digital agriculture systems.

This open access book provides insights into the current political and legislative framework within the European Union and in each of its Member States, which may act as drivers or barriers to the implementation of non-chemical management practices and technologies in the production of aromatic and medicinal plants.The book presents the results of research carried out by interdisciplinary teams on non-chemical weed management in medicinal and aromatic plants, as part of the COST CA23123 project, and is of practical interest to students, academics and agroforestry producers. The European Union has a set of strategies for climate and biodiversity, as well as a range of instruments within the Common Agricultural Policy, which are worth analysing in terms of their impact and relationship with the aromatic and medicinal plant sector. Furthermore, it is important to understand the decision-making process at farm level, and this is also addressed in the book. There are a number of factors relating to farmers’ perceptions, technological availability and needs, labour availability, consumer pressures, market functioning and the legislative framework that influence farmers’ decisions. Finally, the book addresses the involvement of stakeholders in the aromatic and medicinal plant sector.

Genetically uniform cultivars in many self-pollinated cereal crops dominate commercial production in high-input environments especially due to their high grain yields and wide geographical adaptation. These cultivars generally perform well under favorable and high-input farming systems but their optimal performance cannot be achieved on marginal/organic lands or without the use of external chemical inputs (fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides). Cereal breeding programs aim at evaluating candidate lines/cultivars for agronomic, disease and quality traits in a weed free environment that makes it impossible to identify traits conferring competitive ability against weeds. Moreover, quantification of competitive ability is a complex phenomenon which is affected by range of growth traits. Above (e.g. light) and below (e.g. water and nutrients) ground resources also influence competitiveness to a greater extent. Competitiveness is quantitatively inherited trait which is heavily influenced by many factors including genotype, management, environment and their interaction. Sound plant breeding techniques and good experimental designs are prerequisites for maximizing genetic gains to breed cultivars for organically managed lands. The brief is focused on breeding wheat for enhanced competitive ability along with other agronomic, genetic and molecular studies that have been undertaken to improve weed suppression, disease resistance and quality in organically managed lands. The examples from other cereals have also been highlighted to compare wheat with other cereal crops.

This brief will provide a bridge in succinct form between the geostatistics textbooks and the computer manuals for `push-button' practice. It is becoming increasingly important for practitioners, especially neophytes, to understand what underlies modern geostatistics and the currently available software so that they can choose sensibly and draw correct conclusions from their analysis and mapping. The brief will contain some theory, but only that needed for practitioners to understand the essential steps in analyses. It will guide readers sequentially through the stages of properly designed sampling, exploratory data analysis, variography (computing the variogram and modelling it), followed by ordinary kriging and finally mapping kriged estimates and their errors. There will be short section on trend and universal kriging. Other types of kriging will be mentioned so that readers can delve further in the substantive literature to tackle more complex tasks.

A new perspective on the global food security situation and highlights the need for seeking a common vision and implementing global planning to define the manner in which the human species will manage its food security. The basic question of ‘is there enough food’ is examined in general and then in some detail. The history of food production is reviewed in the hope that lessons can be learned from the past. But even after ten thousand years of experience we are not able to feed adequately about a third of our total population, despite what statistics can be made to tell us. Intensive agriculture has stripped out the nutrients that support plant growth and marginalised extensive tracts of land. The global solution to feed the growing population has been and continues to be – produce more food. Even during the last 30 years, about 95 percent of global research investments have focused mainly on increasing productivity. However about a third of the food produced, sufficient to feed over two billion hungry people, is lost or wasted in the food value chain. Climate change is another confounding factor that impinges on our discussions. Pests of all kinds continue to destroy food before and after it is harvested, even though the technology to protect it is available. A huge amount of food is wasted in value chains, particularly at the domestic level. Global food production systems are exposed to unprecedented biosecurity risks posed by invasive harmful organisms and this trend is likely to further exacerbate as current approach to biosecurity is based on the notional premise that lines on maps and the legislation that goes with them is sufficient to halt epidemics. Solutions include extending the number of cultivated plant and animal species to include those that can prosper in what are currently considered to be extreme environments.

This book focuses on early germination, one of maize germplasm most important strategies for adapting to drought-induced stress. Some genotypes have the ability to adapt by either reducing water losses or by increasing water uptake. Drought tolerance is also an adaptive strategy that enables crop plants to maintain their normal physiological processes and deliver higher economical yield despite drought stress. Several processes are involved in conferring drought tolerance in maize: the accumulation of osmolytes or antioxidants, plant growth regulators, stress proteins and water channel proteins, transcription factors and signal transduction pathways. Drought is one of the most detrimental forms of abiotic stress around the world and seriously limits the productivity of agricultural crops. Maize, one of the leading cereal crops in the world, is sensitive to drought stress. Maize harvests are affected by drought stress at different growth stages in different regions. Numerous events in the life of maize crops can be affected by drought stress: germination potential, seedling growth, seedling stand establishment, overall growth and development, pollen and silk development, anthesis silking interval, pollination, and embryo, endosperm and kernel development. Though every maize genotype has the ability to avoid or withstand drought stress, there is a concrete need to improve the level of adaptability to drought stress to address the global issue of food security. The most common biological strategies for improving drought stress resistance include screening available maize germplasm for drought tolerance, conventional breeding strategies, and marker-assisted and genomic-assisted breeding and development of transgenic maize. As a comprehensive understanding of the effects of drought stress, adaptive strategies and potential breeding tools is the prerequisite for any sound breeding plan, this brief addresses these aspects.

This work gives a multidisciplinary approach to assess and provide solutions to improve food security in Egypt.  It has specific chapters on projection of climate change using IPCC AR5 models and regional climate model, and a chapter on population projection in 2030. This book aimed at research, graduate/post graduate students and policy makers.  It can also be used by overpopulated countries to solve their own food gap problems.

This work is to compile our current knowledge on GY phytoplasma biology at the genomic, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics level, as well as to summarize the approaches for their detection.Phytoplasma are the most poorly characterized plant pathogenic bacteria from the Mollicutes class. In recent years new biostatistics and bioinformatics approaches have improved our understanding of their biology and interactions with host grapevines and a great improvement has been made toward their molecular detection, both in laboratories and on-site. They have a broad range of plant hosts among the monocots and dicots, and diseases of many important crops are associated with these pathogens. At least ten taxonomically unrelated phytoplasmas, one of them a quarantine pest in Europe, have been associated with grapevine yellows diseases (GY), which have great economic impact on viticulture worldwide.

This Serves as an exclusive source of information BSR caused by G. boninense. It is a valuable and a must reference and guide for planters, agricultural students, agronomists and all those working in the oil palm industry. The authors believe this book will complementing the existing books on different approaches in the similar field as this book will discuss in-depth details and guidance on controlling the BSR disease using biological means, which is the unique features of the book itself.This book compiles precise and detail information on current detection methods. Infection of Ganoderma only appear at the very late stage of infection where more than 70% of the internal tissues have decayed, leaving no chance to cure the infected palms. Therefore, early detection of infected palms in advance of terminal symptoms is crucial. New approaches which has been proven possible to be conducted in field will be also provided. The key advantages of the reviewed detection methods are to help the readers to determine the best measure they could apply that suit their availability and accessibility.Oil palm is an international commodity used for food, household and industrial purposes. It is the world highest oil producer crop with potential yield capacity of 10 to 15 times higher compares to other oil crops planted on the same size of land. Increases in global demand for edible oil and biofuel, driven by the increasing population remains the main factor driving up the expansion of oil palm cultivation in South East Asia (SEA) countries and other region of the world. Currently, Malaysia and Indonesia are the two countries which contributed to 90% of the world’s palm oil export. Unfortunately, the oil palm industry in SEA is under threat of a devastating disease. This disease is known as Basal Stem Rot (BSR) which caused by a fungus, Ganoderma boninense. In Malaysia alone, the economic loss caused by this disease was estimated between RM 225 million to RM 1.5 billion (up to 500 million USD) a year. With no known remedy at present, BSR disease continues to erode the profitability of the oil palm industry, and created a significant concern globally.This book is a joint effort by the authors whom are currently working actively on finding control methods of BSR disease in oil palm. With immense experience in the field, this book provides information with data backup covering both detection and control strategies of Ganoderma. Many researchers have agreed that most of the failures to control this pathogen are due to the lack of knowledge about this pathogen. Hence, this book provides information on the pathogenic nature of G. boninense. Prior understanding of the pathogen biology and their mode of infection provides the audience a new insight into BSR epidemiology that enables the implementation of appropriate management strategies.This book presents a detailed review on the control measures on BSR disease that is currently taken. These include cultural control that is practised most of the time, chemical control using formulated fungicidal and development of disease resistance variety. Focusing on a specific issue which need urgent attention with good supporting data, this book gives a more in depth information on the use of biological approaches in controlling G. boninense to meet the current oil palm-environmental dilemmas and demand of more eco-friendly practices in the field. Biological agents have been proven to be successful in many different models. In this book, the proposed methods address combinations of biological control agents (BCA) to improve the limitations of single BCA application. The results presented are based on trials conducted all the ways from in vitro to nursery and finally in the field (under the most commonly practiced agronomic practices).The 6 chapters in this book address many current issues in tacklingthe pathogen and development of sustainable disease managment programmes. There are, an introduction to the oil palm industry in global prespective and its future potential (Chapter 1), The pathogenic nature of Ganoderma (Chapter 2), Current detection methods of G. boninense which are sub-divided into Lab-based and Field detection methods (Chapter 3), Control methods of the pathogen, which covers cultural practices, chemical control, development of disease resistance and biological control (Chapter 4), Integrated control of G. boninense using combination of biocontrol agents (Chapter 5) and finally an overview of the book content which summarize the discussed matters as well as suggest several recommendations for future research or improvement attempts (Chapter 6).

The objective of this study is to analyze several dimensions of the agricultural economics reality for the representative farms of the European Union countries by using microeconomic data available in the Farm Accountancy Data Network from 1989-2009. To support this research, several ratios and efficiency indicators were calculated across several variables relative, namely, to the agricultural output and the utilized agricultural area. These ratios and indicators were analyzed further through econometric models associated with the convergence approaches, presenting with more detail the Portuguese case. Furthermore, it is important to design a set of strategies that are more suited to the European Union realities.

This brief reviews the pollination aspects of both wild and domesticated fruit tree species in a global climate change context. It explores cross-pollination mediated by insects, vertebrates and abiotic factors, self-pollination and their global warming implications. The authors identify the link between abiotic factors such as precipitation and severe droughts in the context of tree pollination and climate change. Furthermore, pollination and conservation implications in agriculture as well as wild tree populations are explored. Emphasis has been given to fruit trees growing in tropical, subtropical and temperate environments.

The book is based on the author's life time experience in exploring and researching the genus Avena. It describes some great events in oat research and minor stories along the way. It will be of interest and value to all those working with oats and to students and scientists of crop evolution, including those dealing with collecting and conserving wild genetic resources.A first part deals with the morphology and taxonomy of the genus and a classification based on the biological species concept is presented. A further part is devoted to the author’s research accomplishments in this genus. It describes morphological characters distinguishing between diploids and tetraploids of series Eubarbatae, the genetic relationships between them, and the mode of origin of the tetraploid form. The section Denticulatae, to which the common oat belongs, is extensively treated. Further, oat domestication and the newly domesticated protein rich A. magna are described. A third part dealswith wild genetic resources of oat.

A number of driving forces, including the soaring global crude oil prices and environmental concerns in both developed and developing nations has triggered a renewed interest in the recent years on the R&D of biofuel crops. In this regard, many countries across the globe are investing heavily in the bioenergy sector for R&D to increase their energy security and reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels. Currently, most of the biofuel requirement is met by sugarcane in Brazil and corn in the United States, while biodiesel from rapeseed oil in Europe. Sweet sorghum has been identified as a unique biofuel feedstock in India since it is well adapted to Indian agro-climatic conditions and more importantly it does not jeopardize food security at the cost of fuel. Sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is considered as a SMART new generation energy crop as it can accumulate sugars in its stalks similar to sugarcane, but without food¬¬-fuel trade-offs and can be cultivated in almost all temperate and tropical climatic conditions and has many other advantages. The grain can be harvested from the panicles at maturity. There is no single publication detailing the agronomic and biochemical traits of tropical sweet sorghum cultivars and hybrid parents. Hence, an attempt is made in this publication- “Characterization of improved sweet sorghum cultivars” to detail the complete description of cultivars. This book serves as a ready reference on the detailed characterization of different improved sweet sorghum genotypes following the PPVFRA guidelines for the researchers, entrepreneurs, farmers and other stakeholders to identify the available sweet sorghum cultivars and understand their yield potential in tropics.

Weed scientists are confident of increasing production through agricultural technology, including herbicides, but do not must ask if the moral obligation to feed people is sufficient justification for the benefits and harms achieved. A continuing, rigorous examination of the science’s goals that leads to appropriate change is advocated. Weed scientists have a research consensus - a paradigm - Weeds must be controlled. Herbicides are the best control technology. Agriculture's practitoners should discuss the necessity and risks of their technology. Discussion must include scientific evidence and value-laden arguments.