The cut flower and foliage industry is a global business with major production locations in North America, South America, Central America, East Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Few other horticulture crops are as ubiquitous, yet the production techniques and challenges are universal. This book describes the main international production locations and markets, including current trends and directions. The focus is on production in protected cultivation. The m...

This book features five peer-reviewed reviews on controlled environment agriculture.The first chapter summarises rapid improvements in the technology used for plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), including developments in automation, lighting, climate control, sensors and algorithms.The second chapter briefly discusses the sustainability of indoor vertical farms (IVF) and details best practices for conducting an environmental sustainability assessment of IVFs u...

This specially curated collection features five reviews of current and key research on vertical farming in horticulture.The first chapter describes and evaluates technologies and methods for growing edible plants indoors and presents a survey of selected commercial vertical farms currently operating that employ them.The second chapter explores the benefits of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs). The chapter assesses resource consumption, costs ...

Strong focus on environmental physiology, abiotic stress and breeding more abiotic stress-resistant varietiesReviews range of advanced marker-assisted breeding techniques, including gene editingDiscusses key advances in the value chain to improve resource use for more sustainable production

The value of the groceries purchases in the USA is over $500 billion annually, most of which is accounted for by packaged foods. Plastic packaging of foods is not only ubiquitous in developed economies, but increasingly commonplace in the developing world, where plastic packaging is instrumental in decreasing the proportion of the food supply lost to spoilage. This new handbook is a combination of new material and updated chapters, chosen by Dr. Sina Ebnesajjad, from recently published boo...

The Composting Handbook provides a single guide to the science, principles and best practices of composting for large-scale composting operations facing a variety of opportunities and challenges converting raw organic materials into a useful and marketable product. Composting is a well-established and increasingly important method to recycle and add value to organic by-products. Many, if not most, of the materials composting treats are discarded materials that would otherwise place a burde...

Engineering Principles, Modelling and Economics of Evaporative Coolers covers the basic engineering and technical principles behind the operation and construction of evaporative coolers, also highlighting challenges. The book presents the reader with selected case studies on modelling in the cooling chamber and explains the economic implications an evaporative structure can bring. Edited by a team of specialists, the book also explains the strong dependence of the technology's performance ...

Biomass currently accounts for about fifteen per cent of global primary energy consumption and is playing an increasingly important role in the face of climate change, energy and food security concerns.Handbook of Bioenergy Crops is a unique reference and guide, with extensive coverage of more than eighty of the main bioenergy crop species. For each it gives a brief description, outlines the ecological requirements, methods of propagation, crop management, rotation and pro...

Reviews key advances and best practice in cultivation techniques across the value chain of organic farmingDiscusses ways of monitoring and improving the environmental impact of organic crop productionParticular focus on ways of supporting organic farming in the developing world

This book elucidates the importance of long-term experiments in revealing evidence of soil fertility decline in Africa. An evaluation of experiences from on-going long-term experiments is given in broad detail. The first chapter explains the paradigm shift in soil fertility management then provides justification for long-term experiments before illuminating experiences from long-term experiments in East, West and Southern Africa. The second, sixth, eighth and ninth chapters give an in-dept...

Insect Management for Food Storage and Processing, Second Edition is completely revised and updated with new chapters on topics including inspection techniques; retail pest management; environmental manipulation (e.g., hot, cold, modified atmospheres, ionization) to control insects; and the latest scientific research on integrated pest management (IPM) control techniques. Common and unusual exterior/interior pest insects are covered and examples of both chemical and non-chemical pest insec...

Summarises current good agricultural practice in maize cultivation, from seed selection to nutrient management, conservation agriculture, rotations and intercropping;Reviews advances in understanding and managing diseases and pests such as viruses, nematodes and weeds;Discusses ways maize cultivation can be made more ‘climate smart’