The introduction of "smart machines" for agricultural operations will allow several advantages, such as an increase in their efficiencies, a reduction in environmental impacts and a reduction of work injuries. There are partially- and fully-automatic devices for most aspects of agricultural functions, from seeding and planting to harvesting and postharvesting, from spraying to livestock managem…
Globally, the agri-food sector has a major role to play in ensuring food security and economic development, especially for lower income countries. In the increasingly demanding context of environmental risk, exacerbated by climate change, and of environmental degradation, agricultural producers are faced with the challenge to meet the demand of the agri-food sector to feed growing populations i…
This book offers an up-to-date review of the regulatory role of nitric oxide (NO) changes in the morphological, physio-biochemical as well as molecular characteristics of plants under abiotic stress. The first of two parts comprises four chapters and focuses on the properties, chemical reactions involving NO and reactive nitrogen species in plants. The second part, consisting of eleven chapters…
This volume explores problems in the history of science at the intersection of life sciences and agriculture, from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Taking a comparative national perspective, the book examines agricultural practices in a broad sense, including the practices and disciplines devoted to land management, forestry, soil science, and the improvement and management of c…
G proteins are the key regulators for a wide range of cellular processes in animals and plants. In comparison to animals and yeast, plants have a single Rho-GTPase subfamily called Rho-like GTPases (ROPs). The ROP family of monomeric GTPases has emerged as a versatile and key regulator in plant signal transduction processes. During the past few years’ studies on plant RHO-type (ROP) GTPase ha…
Overall, this work identifies key points to be taken into account when drawing up guidelines that govern the use of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops in order to preserve the effectiveness of this innovation over time. This multidisciplinary expert report, based on an international literature review, assesses the effects of the cultivation of crops possessing HT traits. HT crops may appear to be u…
The individual chapters discuss genetic resources; classic and modern breeding methods for providing new olive cultivars; the genotype x environment interactions determining the response to biotic and abiotic stresses; fruit metabolism related to oil production and the synthesis of health beneficial molecules; the mapping of genes and quantitative trait locus; and genomic, transcriptomic and pr…
This book offers comprehensive coverage of important grain cereals including their origin and distribution, crop gene pool, level of diversity, production constraints, traits of importance for genetic base widening, crop improvement methodologies, genome mapping, genomics for breeding, and future strategies. The chapters, contributed by eminent crop researchers from around the world, provide ra…
This book serves the larger community of plant researchers working on the taxonomy, species delimitation, phylogeny, and biogeography of pseudo-cereals, with a special emphasis on amaranths. It also provides extensive information on the nutritive value of underutilized pseudo-cereals, the goal being to broaden the vegetable list. Amaranthus is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived pe…
This book is an overview of our current understanding of aluminium toxicity and tolerance in plants. It covers all relevant aspects from molecular and cellular biology, to genetic approaches, root biology and plant physiology. The contribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to alleviating aluminium toxicity is also discussed. Over 40% of total agricultural land resources are acidic in nature, …