This book provides state-of-the art analysis, never done before in Egypt, on agro-climatic zones level. This study deals with how the national cropping pattern can be modified to overcome abiotic stresses, such as water scarcity, induced salinity and climate change to reduce their negative effects on food production. To this end, different cropping patterns are suggested. This study can be a framework for other developing countries to be used in quantifying and filling the gap in their knowledge about practices that can help in increasing their food security through increasing food production. Furthermore, the study is useful for policy makers to help them in their future plans and policies.
Climate Change and Crop Stress: Molecules to Ecosystems expounds on the transitional period where science has progressed to 'post-genomics' and the gene editing era, putting field performance of crops to the forefront and challenging the production of practical applicability vs. theoretical possibility. Researchers have concentrated efforts on the effects of environmental stress conditions such as drought, heat, salinity, cold, or pathogen infection which can have a devastating impact on plant growth and yield. Designed to deliver information to combat stress both in isolation and through simultaneous crop stresses, this edited compilation provides a comprehensive view on the challenges and impacts of simultaneous stresses. Presents a multidisciplinary view of crop stresses, empowering readers to quickly align their individual experience and perspective with the broader context Combines the mechanistic aspects of stresses with the strategic aspects Presents both abiotic and biotic stresses in a single volume
Advances in Rice Research for Abiotic Stress Tolerance provides an important guide to recognizing, assessing and addressing the broad range of environmental factors that can inhibit rice yield. As a staple food for nearly half of the world's population, and in light of projected population growth, improving and increasing rice yield is imperative. This book presents current research on abiotic stresses including extreme temperature variance, drought, hypoxia, salinity, heavy metal, nutrient deficiency and toxicity stresses. Going further, it identifies a variety of approaches to alleviate the damaging effects and improving the stress tolerance of rice. Advances in Rice Research for Abiotic Stress Tolerance provides an important reference for those ensuring optimal yields from this globally important food crop. - Covers aspects of abiotic stress, from research, history, practical field problems faced by rice, and the possible remedies to the adverse effects of abiotic stresses - Provides practical insights into a wide range of management and crop improvement practices - Presents a valuable, single-volume sourcebook for rice scientists dealing with agronomy, physiology, molecular biology and biotechnology
Crops experience an assortment of environmental stresses which include abiotic viz., drought, water logging, salinity, extremes of temperature, high variability in radiation, subtle but perceptible changes in atmospheric gases and biotic viz., insects, birds, other pests, weeds, pathogens (viruses and other microbes). The ability to tolerate or adapt and overwinter by effectively countering these stresses is a very multifaceted phenomenon. In addition, the inability to do so which renders the crops susceptible is again the result of various exogenous and endogenous interactions in the ecosystem. Both biotic and abiotic stresses occur at various stages of plant development and frequently more than one stress concurrently affects the crop. Stresses result in both universal and definite effects on plant growth and development. One of the imposing tasks for the crop researchers globally is to distinguish and to diminish effects of these stress factors on the performance of crop plants, especially with respect to yield and quality of harvested products. This is of special significance in view of the impending climate change, with complex consequences for economically profitable and ecologically and environmentally sound global agriculture. The challenge at the hands of the crop scientist in such a scenario is to promote a competitive and multifunctional agriculture, leading to the production of highly nourishing, healthy and secure food and animal feed as well as raw materials for a wide variety of industrial applications. In order to successfully meet this challenge researchers have to understand the various aspects of these stresses in view of the current development from molecules to ecosystems. The book will focus on broad research areas in relation to these stresses which are in the forefront in contemporary crop stress research.
Plants are subjected to numerous environmental stresses, which can be classified into two broad areas: abiotic and biotic stresses. While the first is considered the damage done to an organism by other living organisms, the latter occurs as a result of a negative impact of non-living factors on the organisms. In this scenario, the current most accepted opinion of scientists is that both biotic and abiotic factors in nature and agroecosystems are affected by climate change, which may lead to significant crop yield decreases worldwide. We should take into consideration not only this environmental concern but also the fact that 20 years from now the earth's population will need 55% more food than it can produce now. Therefore, it is crucial to address such concerns and bring about possible solutions to future plant stress-related outcomes that might affect global agriculture. This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of both biotic and abiotic stresses through 10 chapters that include case studies and literature reviews about these topics. There will be a particular focus on understanding the physiological, biochemical, and molecular changes observed in stressed plants as well as the mechanisms underlying stress tolerance in plants.
Abiotic stresses have become an integral part of crop production. One or other persist either in soil, water or in atmosphere. The information in the areas of injury and tolerant mechanisms, variability for tolerance, breeding and biotechnology for improvement of crop plants against abiotic stresses are lying unorganized in different articles of journals and edited books. This information is presented in this book in organized way with up-to-date citations, which will provide comprehensive literatures of recent advances. More emphasis has been given to elaborate the injury and tolerance mechanisms, and development of improved genotypes against stress environments. This book also deals with the plants' symptoms of particular abiotic stress, reclamation of soil and crop/cropping pattern to over come the effect of adverse condition(s). Each has been laid out with systematic approaches to develop abiotic stress tolerant genotypes using biotechnological tools. Use of molecular markers in stress tolerance and development of transgenic also have been detailed. Air pollution and climate change are the hot topic of the days. Thus, the effect of air pollution and climate change on crop plants have been detailed in the final three s of this book. Under abiotic stress, plant produces a large quantity of free radicals (oxidants), which have been elaborated in a separate 'Oxidative Stress'. This book has been divided into seven major parts- physical stress (salt), water stresses (drought and waterlogging), temperature stresses (heat and cold), metal toxicities (aluminium, iron, cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, copper, zinc etc) and non-metal toxicities (boron and arsenic), oxidative stress, and finally atmospheric stresses (air pollution, radiation and climate change). Hope, this book will be of greater use for the students and researchers, particularly Plant Breeders and Biotechnologists as well as the Botanists, to understand the injury and tolerance mechanisms, and subsequently improvement of crop genotypes for abiotic stresses.
Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technology is not reaching its potential to improve human health and the environment because of stringent regulations and reduced public funding to develop products offering more benefits to society. While the debate about these and other questions related to the genetic engineering techniques of the first 20 years goes on, emerging genetic-engineering technologies are adding new complexities to the conversation. Genetically Engineered Crops builds on previous related Academies reports published between 1987 and 2010 by undertaking a retrospective examination of the purported positive and adverse effects of GE crops and to anticipate what emerging genetic-engineering technologies hold for the future. This report indicates where there are uncertainties about the economic, agronomic, health, safety, or other impacts of GE crops and food, and makes recommendations to fill gaps in safety assessments, increase regulatory clarity, and improve innovations in and access to GE technology.
Sustainable Crop Productivity and Quality under Climate Change: Responses of Crop Plants to Climate Change explores the physiological, biochemical, and molecular basis of the responses of major crop plants to a range of climate change scenarios. From the development of climate-resilient crop varieties which lead to enhanced crop productivity and quality to better utilization of natural resources to ensure food security through modern breeding techniques, it presents insights into improving yield while securing the environment. Understanding the impact of climate on crop quality and production is a key challenge of crop science. Predicted increases in climate variability necessitate crop varieties with intrinsic resilience to cooccurring abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, and flooding in a future climate of elevated CO2. This book presents a much-needed mechanistic understanding of the interactions between multiple stress responses of plants that is required to identify and take advantage of acclimation traits in major crop species as a prerequisite for securing robust yield and good quality. This book is an excellent reference for crop and agricultural scientists, plant scientists, and researchers working on crop plant ecophysiology/stress physiology and future crop production. - Includes breeding strategies for developing climate-resilient crop varieties - Presents a comprehensive overview of the current challenges, approaches, and best practices - Authored by frontline researchers and experts who work at the fields of climate change impacts on crop productivity
This book tackles the issue of using crop rotation to increase food production and secure it for the growing population of the future. Crop rotation can be a solution of food gaps in the developing counties. Crop rotation plays an important role in attaining soil sustainability and in controlling pests and weeds. It can alleviate damage caused by climate change by reducing losses in productivity of the crops, minimizing soil fertility loss and increase irrigation water productivity. This book also includes the reviews of a large number of crop rotations that have been published internationally, and additionally, the crop rotations that have been implemented in Egypt have a unique characteristic to them and therefore, a large number of those reviews have also been included.
