Contents: Crop Improvement for stress resistance-perspectives: 1. Harnessing science and technology for sustainable rice based production systems/Gurdev S. Khush. 2. Inter-linkages and association among stress tolerance traits and their utilization for crop improvement in stress environments/D.P. Singh, Ashok Kumar and S.D. Upadhyaya. 3. Client-oriented breeding: a better way of describing farmers' participation in plant breeding/J.R. Witcombe, D.S. Virk, K.A. Steele, A. Mottram, S. Gyawali, K.P. Devkota, A. Musa, C. Johansen and K.D. Joshi. 4. Designing of crop improvement and seed production programmes for sustainable production under stress environments/S.K. Rao. 5. Triticale, an escalating stress tolerant crop in the Carpathian basin region of Europe/L/ Bona. 6. Prospects of improving drought tolerance in common bean/B.P. Singh, I. Rao and S. Beebe. 7. Genetic options for drought management in Sorghum/Belum V.S. Reddy, S. Ramesh, P. Sanjana Reddy and B. Ramaiah. 8. Genetic enhancement of stress tolerance in chickpea: present status and future prospects/P.M. Gaur, S. Pande, H.C. Sharma, C.L.L. Gowda, K.K. Sharma, J.H. Crouch and V. Vadez. 9. Maize and wheat breeding under stress conditions in Hungary/Pal Pepo-Szilard Toth-Henriett and Oskolas-Zoltan Bodi. 10. Variability among disomic chromosome substitution lines of wheat for content and uptake of important micronutrients/Subodh Kumar Singh, R.K. Behl, Lokesh, Anoop Singh and Neeru Narula. Breeding for resistance to abiotic stress: 11. Breeding drought tolerant chickpea genotypes using morpho-physiological traits/R.S. Waldia, N. Kumar and Preeti Verma. 12. Root characteristics related to drought tolerance in chickpea/Neeraj Kumar, A.S. Nandwal, R.S. Waldia and R.K. Pannu. 13. Some physiological responses of Snap Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.) to Water Stress during reproductive period/Ashok Kumar, Hide Omae, Koichi Kashiwaba and Mariko Shono. 14. Physiological mechanisms of heat tolerance in snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)/Hide Omae. 15. Plant genes influencing heat tolerance in wheat/Kushal Pal Singh, R.K. Behl, S.K. Sharma and Sameena. 16. Delayed leaf senescence, meteorological parameters, morphological traits and their association with grain yield in wheat/Shweta Ahlawat, A.K. Chhabra and R.K. Behl. 17. Effect of early and terminal heat stress on biomass partitioning, chlorophyll stability and yield of different wheat genotypes/K.D. Sharma, R.K. Pannu and R.K. Behl. 18. Response of Sorghum genotypes to high night temperature/Francisco Zavala-Garcia, Gilberto E. Salinas-Garcia and Jose E. Trevino-Ramirez. 19. Selection of N use efficient Maize Genotypes/Sain Dass, Dharam Pal, K.S. Dhanju, J.C. Mehla, Vineet Kumar, D.P. Singh and R.K. Moudgal. 20. Evaluation of pigeonpea genotypes for phosphorus use efficiency/Sunita Sheokand, A.L. Patel, Ram Dhari and K. Swaraj. Breeding for resistance to biotic stress: 21. Exploitation of host plant resistance for the development of Wilt resistant chickpea genotypes/S.K. Chaturvedi and S.N. Gurha. 22. Development of resistant lines of onion against purple blotch/U.K. Khare, M.K. Tripathi, S. Tiwari and R. Rana. 23. Inheritance and Allelic relationship of genes giving resistance to Pod fly in Pigeonpea (Cajanus Cajan)/I.P. Singh, S.S. Lal, C.P. Yadava and P.K. Katiyar. 24. Identification of morphological/productivity traits for Chilo partellus resistance in Maize/Sain Dass, G. Srinivasan, J.C. Mehla, R.K. Moudgal, K.S. Dhanju, Dharam Pal and D.P. Singh. 25. Screening for multiple resistance to biotic stresses in groundnut/P. Venkataravana, V. Shankaranarayana, N. Janakiraman and V.L. Madhuprasad. 26. Screening of fieldpea genotype against rust/Vinod Singh, Ranjeet Singh and R.B. Singh. 27. Screening of Sorghum germplasm against shoot fly (Atherigona soccata Rondani)/S. Upadhyay, Usha Saxena and P.N. Gadewadikar. 28. Screening of white onion germplasm for year round production/Vijay Mahajan, K.E. Lawande, Anil Khar and V.S.R. Krishnaprasad. 29. Morphophysiological disorders induced in damping-off pathogen aphanomyces cochlioides by host Rhizoplane bacteria/Abhinandan Deora, Yasuyuki Hashidoko, Md. Tofazzal Islam, Yuriko Aoyama, Toshiaki Ito and Satoshi Tahara. 30. Isolation and characterization of phosphate solubilizing bacteria from the rhizoplane of rice,  wheat and tomato cultivated in Bangladesh/Md. Tofazzal Islam, Abhinandan Deora, Yasuyuki Hashidoko, Atiqur Rahman, Toshiaki Ito, and Satoshi Tahara. 31. Understanding of ecochemical interactions between plants and zoospores: potentials for biorational control of the peronosporomycete soil borne phytopathogens/Md. Tofazzal Islam, Yasuyuki Hashidoko, and Satoshi Tahara. 32. Rhizo-biocomplex: an important concept to regulate rhizospherous environment for sustainable crop production/Yasuyuki Hashidoko and Satoshi Tahara. Biotechnological approaches for resistance to stress: 33. Biotechnological approaches for improving the tolerance of wheat to abiotic stress/Seedhabadee Ganeshan, Monica Baga, Allen Limin, Indira Ratnayaka, Sanjay V. Chodaparambil, D. Brian Fowler and Ravindra N. Chibbar. 34. Genetic diversity of photo-period insensitive and sensitive genotypes of soybean determined by amplified fragment length polymorphism (Aflp) markers/R.K. Singh, V.S. Bhatia, N.K. Singh and G.S. Chauhan. 35. Study of genetic diversity in different genotypes of Brassica Napus by Sds page/Anupreet Kour and S.P. Singh. 36. Studies on abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic tomatoes/Meenal Rathore, N.K. Singh and S.C. Das. 37. Performance of transgenic cotton hybrids to combat Bollworms at farmers fields/V.K. Garg, R.K. Choudhary, S.K. Khamparia and Yogesh Patel. 38. In Vitro screening for salt tolerance in sugarcane/Mithilesh Kumar, Suman Kalyani and Harsh Kumar. 39. Studies on the Anther culture of groundnut: Callus induction and differentiation from anther cultures in Arachis Species/S.K. Bera and T. Radhakrishnan. 40. Investigation of salt tolerance in Potato (Solanum Tubersum L.) with in vitro methods/Pal Pepo-Szilard Toth-Henriett Eskolas-Zoltan Bodi. 41. Improving the Anther culture efficiency of recalcitrant Indica rice varieties by combination of culture media and temperatures/M.A. Javed, T. Ishii, O. Kamijima and S. Misoo. 42. Identification and characterization of new microsatellite markers associated with apparent amylose content in rice/A.S. Yadav, S.B. Kadaru, Alicia B. Ryan and James H. Oard. 43. Identification of molecular markers linked to fiber quality traits in upland cotton/C.K. Maheshwari, N.S. Tomar and J. Amudha. 44. Mapping new Qtls for improvement of Downy Mildew [Sclerospora Graminicola (Sacc.) J. Schroet.] Resistance in pearl Millet (Pennisetum Glaucum (L.) R.Br.)/S.K. Gulia, C.T. Hash, R.P. Thakur, Wendy A. Breese, R.S. Sangwan. Natural resource management in stress environment: 45. Natural resource management options for rainfed vertisols and associated soils of India/V.S. Tomar, S.S. Tomar and R.A. Sharma. 46. Determination of optimum fertilizer recommendations using a computer model of nitrogen balance/Konrad Miegel. 47. Growth analysis of Indian mustard as influenced by nitrogen levels/R.S. Banga, R.S. Bisht and S.S. Bisht. 48. Influence of phosphorus and sulphur application in Indian mustard/S.S. Tomar and C.S. Bhalla. 49. Soil Alkalinity and yield of different cotton cultivars under rain fed farming/O.P. Sharma and S.K. Verma. 50. Conservation and utilization of rainfed areas through agroforestry interventions-an overview/P. Rai and Ram Newaj. 51. Integrated farming system under stress environment/R.P.S. Baghel. 52. Evaluation of sustainability indices of improved management practices of dryland agriculture in Western Madhya Pradesh/R.A. Sharma and S.K. Sharma. 53. Water stress management for crop production in black alkali soils/S.K. Verma. 54. Evaluation of optimum range of soil moisture stress for establishment of Rabi crops in vertisols/S.K. Sharma, P.R. Tiwari and V.S. Tomar. 55. Sustainable production of food, energy and industry raw materials trough new crop rotation systems involving perennial Rhizomatous grasses/Rolf Olsson and Shaojun Xiong. 56. Seasonal variability of percolation from tanks in vertisols of Narsinghpur District/Neeraj Seth, M.K. Awasthi, S. Shrivastava, R.N. Shrivastava and R.K. Nema. 57. Possibilities of the evaluation of productivity and sustainability of the farming systems in temperature climate zone/Kubat J., and Lipavsky J. 58. Influence of phosphorus and zinc on yield attributes and yield of green gram under irrigated arid conditions of Western Rajasthan/Nisha Mehra and A.K. Dahama. 59. Utilization of humic acid in crops production - an overview/Sharif M., R.A. Khattak, M.S. Sarir and A. Wais. 60. Effect of temperature and moisture stress on the soil bacterial community structures/P.K. Sharma. 61. Biological control of heavy metal mobilization and transport with consequences for phytoremediation and food contamination/Hans Bergmann, Klaus-Dieter Voigt, Bernd Machelett, Rene Mascher and Gerhard Gramss. 62. Influence of heavy metals on seed germination and biochemical components of Okra [Abelmoschus Esculentus (L.) Moench] seedlings/Usha Chakraborty and Belinda Lahon. 63. Priming in relation to seed vigour in Okra (Abelmoschus Esculentus L. Moench)/J.S. Kanwar, Geeta Bassi and Jaswinder Singh. 64. Dry matter partitioning, nodulation and their impact on grain yield in Urdbean in response to climatic changes/A.K. Pal and S. Singh. 65. Intercropping in hot arid regions - a key to resource conservation/V.S. Rana, Sajjan Kumar, S.K. Sharma and Milakh Raj. 66. An integrated approach to manage soybean diseases for sustainable yield and production/M.M. Ansari. 67. Use of Vam fungi in some selected agro-forestry trees in stress conditions/Rashmi Agarwal, B.M. Ojha and Bhavna Dixit. 68. Development of pest forecast models for key pests of Sorghum/R.A. Balikai. 69. Weather based forewarning model for groundnut leaf miner/B. Vinoth Kumar, G. Thambidurai, T.N. Balasubramanian and R. Jagannathan. 70. Role of Abiotic factors on population dynamics of pigeonpea Pod fly (Melanagromyza obtusa Malloch/D.C. Singh, G. Tiwari, Ranjeet Singh and Pankaj Kumar. 71. Efficacy of some plant products against termite management in irrigated wheat/A.A. Patel, V.A. Solanki, A.M. Patel and D.R. Patel. Sustainable production and development: 72. Gender policy and mainstreaming in agricultural research; possibilities and constraints/Patricia Goldey. 73. Gender differentials in food intake, disease and health care in agriculture and dairy farming systems in Haryana, India/Indu Grover, Nishi Sethi and Rukmani Godara. 74. Household food security of tribal farmers in Jharkhand/Rekha Sinha and Valeria Lakra. 75. Conservation and exploitation of the horticultural diversity in Chhattisgarh for sustainable agricultural development/Dinesh Kr. Jain, Gaurav Sharma, Prabhakar Singh and P.N. Singh. 76. Production potential and economics of Mustard based crop sequences on the farmers' field in Rajasthan/O.P. Premi, S.K. Jha, Manoj Kumar, Fateh Singh, Y.P. Singh, N.S. Bhogal, A.K. Singh and Arvind Kumar. 77. Technological gaps in pest management among rural women in coastal agro eco-system of Orissa/S.K. Srivastava, B.K. Attri and Pandey Hema. 78. Cotton production risk management through crop insurance: a case study of Nimar Valley of Central India/S.B. Nahatkar. P.K. Mishra and B.B. Beohar. 79. Promotion of productive high quality G. Arboreum cotton to meet the needs of cultivators of rainfed ecosystem vis-a-vis textile industries/Rajani Tomar, G.K. Koutu and P.P. Shastry.

"In order to meet the food, feed, fiber, fuel needs of ever increasing human and animal population world over, particularly in developing nations of Africa and Asia and South America, a commensurate enhancement in crop production has to be in place. The ultimate aim of sustainable agriculture is be to enhance food production on continuous basis while maintaining the natural resource base in accordance with carrying capacity of supporting agro-eco system.

 Most of the progress in increasing crop production has been realized in favourable environments and high input conditions. In such areas environmental concerns in terms of depletion of natural resource base including soil degradation due to over mining of nutrients, imbalanced fertilization, salinity due to excessive irrigation, water deficits and environmental pollution affecting food chain have already become apparent and points to ponder. Moreover, climatic changes such as increased atmospheric temperature, uncertainty in rainfall; perpetual droughts and floods of varying intensities etc lead to environmental fragility which adversely affects crop production. These are serious issues which need to be looked into, if the food requirements of future generation are to be met on sustainable basis. 

This would need a holistic system approach to harness natural resources for the welfare of mankind through scientific management of land and water resources, use of appropriate agro-technology and judicious exploitation of biodiversity and genetic options for enhancing crop production especially in stress environments. Keeping these facts in view, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishaw Vidyalaya, Jabalpur and the Society of Sustainable Agriculture and Resource Management (SSARM) jointly organized an international conference on "Sustainable crop production in stress environment: management and genetic options" during Feb. 9-12, 2005 at JNKVV, Jabalpur (M.P.), India.

This book is based on the research findings presented by eminent scientists from India and abroad. Major purpose of this publication is to highlight the technologies related to management of natural resources and crop improvement/gene technologies that are developed at global level to minimize the effects of biotic and abiotic stresses on crop production and for ameliorating yield and stress tolerance potential of crops in green and grey areas as well as socio-economic aspects." (jacket)