This collection features five peer-reviewed reviews on rust diseases of cereals.The first chapter provides an overview of the wheat rust pathogen lifecycle and discusses recent integration of basic biological knowledge and genomic-led tools within an epidemiological framework.The second chapter introduces stripe rust and provides an overview of its decimation of crop yields worldwide. The chapter summarises recent advances in identifying stripe rust resista...

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

Integrated Pest Management: Current Concepts and Ecological Perspective presents an overview of alternative measures to traditional pest management practices using biological control and biotechnology. The removal of some highly effective broad-spectrum chemicals, caused by concerns over environmental health and public safety, has resulted in the development of alternative, reduced risk crop protection products. These products, less toxic to the environment and easily integrated into biolo...

This open access book presents simple, robust pre-field screening protocols that allow plant breeders to screen for enhanced tolerance to heat stress in rice. Two critical heat-sensitive stages in the lifecycle of the rice crop are targeted – the seedling and flowering stages – with screening based on simple phenotypic responses. The protocols are based on the use of a hydroponics system and/or pot experiments in a glasshouse in combination with a controlled growth chamber where the heat s...

Covers key advances in breeding, including conventional, marker-assisted and transgenic breeding techniquesSummarises key advances in understanding bacterial, fungal and viral diseases of sugarcaneAssesses best practice in integrated disease, pest and weed management

Comprehensive coverage of the latest research on the genetic diversity of sorghumReviews key developments in breeding, from conventional to marker-assisted techniques, as well their application in developing higher-yielding, more stress-resistant varietiesDiscusses key elements in integrated crop, pest and weed management

The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the world’s fourth most important food crop after maize, rice and wheat with 377 million tonnes fresh-weight of tubers produced in 2016 from 19.2 million hectares of land, in 163 countries, giving a global average yield of 19.6 t ha-1 (http://faostat.fao.org). About 62% of production (234 million tonnes) was in Asia (191), Africa (25) and Latin America (18) as a result of steady increases in recent years, particularly in China and India. As a majo...

The food, feed, ?ber, and fuel needs of the changing world pose the challenge of doubling or tripling of world food, feed, and ?ber production by the year 2050 to meet the needs of a 11 billion global population. In addition, the dramatic changes in food prices in the recent years further warrant that production and productivity need to be enhanced to ensure adequate supplies. Biotechnology can make a signi?cant contribution to this effort as demonstrated by cotton and other crops; the new...

Discusses developments in good agricultural practice from crop growth models to improved water and nutrition management;Reviews advances in understanding plant physiology and genetic diversity as well as their contribution to improvements in breeding;Summarises recent research on diseases and pests as well as their control through developing disease-resistant varieties or integrated weed management

Reviews key steps in biopesticide product developmentComprehensive coverage of the range of biopesticides, from microbial to natural substance-based biopesticidesStrong focus on pheromone and allelochemical semiochemicals as well as peptide-based biopesticides

This unique book covers the molecular aspects of plant stress and the various industrial applications. Chapters cover many important topics in the biology of plant stress, including morphological and physiological changes of plants due to accumulation of pollutants; the types of stress for enhanced biofuel production from plant biomass; plant adaptation due to different types of environmental stresses; potential applications of microRNAs to improve abiotic stress tolerance in plants; plant...

Reviews key recent research on the main fungal diseases, their modes of infection and potential strategies for dealing with themSummarises the range of techniques for breeding more resistant varietiesAssesses ways to manage fungicide resistance and the range of methods in developing integrated disease management of cereals