Crop Science and Land Use for Food and Bioenergy

Contents: Foreword. Preface. I. Vision: 1. Land Resources and Land Use Options - Challenges for Food Security to Climate Change/Manfred Kern. II. Crop Improvement: 2. Biotechnological strategies to ameliorate abiotic stress in crops to enhance productivity and improve food security in African countries/Seedhabadee Ganeshan and Ravindra N. Chibbar. 3. Genetic resources provided by genetic engineering/Pal Pepo-Henriett Oskolas Kovacsne. 4. Hybrid Wheat: Developmental approaches and impact analysis/S.K. Sethi and Ashwani Kumar. 5.Triticale, a viable and adaptable crop: history, present situation and prospect in Hungary and Mid-Europe/L. Bona 6.Strategies to enhance wheat productivity under drought stress conditions/S.S. Dhanda, R.K. Behl and Renu Munjal. 7. Distribution of Zinc, Copper and Selenium in Food Chain; Bioavailability, Clinical Implications and Biofortification/Salmaan Saee, Abdul Wakeel, Rishi Kumar Behl and Abdul R. Asif. 8. Genetic improvement of nutrient use efficiency in wheat under low input conditions/Aditya K. Surya, R.K. Behl, S.S. Dhanda and Mitsuru Osaki. 9. Genetic variation for nodulation and nitrogen fixation in chickpea - an appraisal/Preeti Verma. 10.Maize scenario in India/Sain Dass, Chikkappa G. Karjagi, K.P. Singh and Shekhar, J.C. 11. Strategies of maize breeding to increase efficiency of land use and phytomass conversion to mitigate climate change/Molla Assefa and K. W-Giorgis. 12. An important endangered medicinal plant: Tylophora indica - an appraisal review/Ridhima Spatia. 13. Indian Seed Industry scenario and the role of Vibha Seeds Group/P. Vidyasagar. IV. Plant Microbe Interaction: 14. Influence of rhizosphere bacteria of African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) on calcium, iron, and aluminium phosphate in-vitro mobilization/W. Merbach, H. Fankem, A. Deubel S. Ruppel and N. Narula. 15. Host genotype-Azotobacter chroococcum -Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Interactions in relation to nutrient use efficiency in wheat/R.K. Behl, N. Narula Silke Ruppel and E. Kothe. 16.Siderophore production in Azotobacter chrococcum strains/Christian Dimkpa and Erika Kothe. 17.Impact of ethylene-diamine resistant mutants of Azospirillum lipoferum (lacz+) marked on crop productivity of wheat/R.C. Anand, R. Jawa, M.U. Charaya and N. Narula. 18. Effect of Bt Cotton root exudates on native microbial population and its impact on growth of bioinoculants/R. Gera, Seema Mehta and R.C. Aanand. 19. Microbial and enzymatic activities in some coal mine soils from Central Scotland. V. Resource Management:  20. Evaluation of organic matter content in arable soils in the Czech Republic/J. Kubat J and J. Lipavsky. 21. Effect of crop residues and FYM on yield and quality of carrot roots/Ashwini Kumar, M.K. Rana and V.S. Rana. 22. Effect of N and P fertilizer rate on yield and yield components of potato/Fisseha Negash and Molla Assefa. 23. Phosphorus efficiency and P influx of maize in Low P Alfisol/P.B.S. Bhadoria, D. Samal, S. Singh, L. Horst, B. Steingrobe and N. Claassen.  24. Genetic and management options for effective productivity of water and other interlinked resources in semi-arid and tropical regions of developing countries/D.P. Singh, Ashok Kumar, Ravi Gupta and Yadvika. 25. Improving rural livelihoods with rainwater harvesting and conservation on communal croplands in South Africa: opportunities and obstacles/Gerhard R. Backeberg. 26. Climate Change and its Impact on Bangladesh Agriculture/Arifu Rahman Siddhiqui. 27. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for sustainable Rice production-perspectives/Surendra Kumar Ghritlahre and D.P. Singh. VI. Bioenergy and Sustainable Development:  28. Bioenergy, Poverty and Hunger -Could Bioenergy be a total Disaster for those who are starving?/N. El Bassam. 29. Use of Land suitability assessment and farm modelling to determine viability of agroforestry and bioelectricity generation in the western Cape, South Africa/CCC Von Doderer and TE Kleynhans. 30. Anaerobic digestion of animal waste/Omar Badran. 31. Assessing land use options - Spatially explicit landscape modelling as tool in optimizing land use efficiency/Christoph Katsch 32.Sustainable Horticulture in Afghanistan/Mohd. Saalim Saaie “Arghun” and A. Wais. 33.Sustenance, Subsistence and Sustainability with Special Reference to Africa/Brigitta Benzing. VI. Socio-Economic Aspects: 34.Socio-economic Aspects of Sustainable Land Use/Hans Meliczek. 35.Land use systems and rural poverty in Georgia/Johanna Pavliashvili. 36.Land use pattern towards agri-horticulture, urbanization and industrialization in relation to sustainable development/S.K. Mehta. 37.The Strengthening Agricultural Research for Development (ARD): Situation and Strategy, Research and Technology/Bohumil Havrland and Karel Srnec.

Crop productivity is predominantly determined by the crop genotype, production environment, and their interaction. Several plant processes are involved in making crop yield and end use quality of agricultural produce. Therefore, knowledge of process control and rate limiting traits and genes governing them under optimum and stress environments is valuable in crop and/or crop genotype selection for various agro-ecological niches. In order to sustain food and bio-energy supplies it is important to improve the inherent potential of crops for increased use efficiency of natural and applied inputs, to increase stress tolerance, to harness plant microbe interactions, to use improved agro-technology and appropriate land use patterns for sustainable development. Moreover, the ultimate aim of sustainable agriculture is to enhance food production by maintaining the natural resource base. This should be achieved in accordance with the carrying capacity of the supporting agro-ecological systems for the ever increasing human and animal population all over the world. In many parts of the world arable lands, the depletion of the natural resource base has already become apparent, including soil degradation due to over mining of nutrients, imbalanced fertilization, and salinity due to excessive irrigation, water deficits and environmental pollution. Further, global warming, the uncertainty in rainfall; perpetual droughts and floods of varying intensities etc. affect crop production and land use. Additionally crop production on arable lands for bio-energy has to be balanced with food requirements which will call for judicious use of land resources. Increasing urbanization, the creation of special economic zones, government policies regarding land ownership, small holders priorities and other socio-economic factors would determine land use as well as crop diversification. This book covers a wide range of topics like crop sciences and crop improvement, plant microbe interactions, resource management, bio-energy, sustainable development and socio economic aspects of land use and other natural resources that can compliment the objectives of sustainable land use.