This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agriculture.The first chapter reviews the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as biostimulants for sustainable crop production and explores the benefits of its use, such as bidirectional nutrient exchange and soil quality. The chapter discusses the requirements needed for successful implementation of AMF in sustainable crop production, and also maps the current m...

Comprehensive review of key topics in root science, including root architecture, root growth regulators, root anatomy and nutrient acquisitionCoverage of root response to both biotic and abiotic variablesDiscusses the range of techniques to optimize root function, from phenotyping to identify desirable root traits and exploiting the genetics of root traits to the use of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM)

Plant disease management remains an important component of plant pathology and is more complex today than ever before including new innovation in diagnostic kits, the discovery of new modes of action of chemicals with low environmental impact, biological control agents with reliable and persistent activity, as well as the development of new plant varieties with durable disease resistance. This book is a collection of invited lectures given at the 9th International Congress of Plant Patholo...

Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from scie...

This open-access textbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date guide for students and practitioners wishing to access in a single volume the key disciplines and principles of wheat breeding. Wheat is a cornerstone of food security: it is the most widely grown of any crop and provides 20% of all human calories and protein. The authorship of this book includes world class researchers and breeders whose expertise spans cutting-edge academic science all the way to impacts in farmers’ fields. T...

Table 1. Global allocation of arable land between different com modities Globally, cereal cropping dominates cultivated land Commodities' Proportion of land area use (around 50% of total area, Table 1). The remain (%) ing arable land is used for production of oilseed, fibre, or food and cash crops. In addition, vast areas are Cereals maintained under temporary or permanent pasture for Wheat 16 forage production (2-3 fold greater than the total area Rice 10 under cultivation and permanent c...

Plant Defense provides an overview of all major aspects of plant defence, including defence against pathogens, parasites, and invertebrate and vertebrate herbivores. The book looks at defense mechanisms including structural and chemical defences, and constitutive and inducible defences. Including details of how plants 'sense' attack and how this is communicated within the plant and also to neighbouring plants, how plants coordinate defence responses to simultaneous multiple attack...

Insects have evolved very unique and interesting tactics using chemical signals to survive. Chemical ecology illustrates the working of the biological network by means of chemical analyses. Recent advances in analytical technology have opened the way to a better understanding of the more complicated and abyssal interactions of insects with other organisms including plants and microbes. This book covers recent research on insects and chemical communications and presents the current status a...

Discusses ways of ensuring genetic diversity, advances in wheat breeding and their use to improve properties such as drought resistance and cold tolerance;Summarises research on factors affecting nutritional and other aspects of wheat quality;Reviews advances in understanding wheat pests and diseases together with ways of controlling them such as disease-resistant varieties, integrated pest and weed management

Never before has a holistic approach to sustainable agriculture and plant physiology been presented in one source. This book compiles a multi-authored and international perspective on the ways in which crop physiology could be integrated with other disciplines. With a focus on genetic improvement and agronomy, this book addresses the challenges of environmentally sound production of bulk and quality food, fodder, fiber and energy, which are of ongoing international concern. - Provides a vi...

Soils into which crop plants root and from which they obtain essential minerals and water contain huge arrays of microbes. Many have highly beneficial effects on crop growth and productivity, others are pathogens causing diseases and losses to yield and quality, a few microbes offer protection from these pathogenic forms and others have little or no effect. These intimate and often complex inter-relationships are being explored with increasing success providing exciting opportunities for i...

Plant volatiles—compounds emitted from plant organs to interact with the surrounding environment—play essential roles in attracting pollinators and defending against herbivores and pathogenes, plant-plant signaling, and abiotic stress responses. Biology of Plant Volatiles, with contributions from leading international groups of distinguished scientists in the field, explores the major aspects of plant scent biology.Responding to new developments in the detection of the com...