Landbrugsvidenskab

This book provides a comprehensive explanation of rainfed farming, dryland agriculture, and watershed management concepts. Despite utilizing all available water resources for irrigation, approximately half of the cultivated land will still rely on rainfall. With limited scope for expanding cultivated areas, meeting future food demands becomes an immense challenge. It is within this context that the significance of dryland agriculture emerges.Indian agriculture relies heavily on the monsoon, making water crucial for sustainable development. Unequal distribution of the global average rainfall (about 1000 mm) contributes to disparities in agriculture and socio-economic conditions. Around 70% of India's agriculture depends on rainfall, producing nearly 44% of the food and supporting 40% of the human and 60% of the livestock population. Even with full irrigation potential, half of cultivated land still relies on rain. Approximately 30% of the country is prone to drought and waterscarcity, posing challenges for rainfed agriculture. Inefficient water use affects other inputs, emphasizing the need for resource management and indigenous systems.This book serves as a valuable resource for farmers, students, and scholars by providing guidance on various aspects of rainfed agriculture, dryland farming, and watershed resource management techniques. It aims to optimize the use of irrigation water and foster sustainable agricultural development. Additionally, it caters to the needs of graduate and postgraduate students studying agriculture, offering specific insights relevant to their designated course on rainfed agriculture and watershed management.

This edited book focus on two most emerging areas and covers the different aspects of computer vision and drone technology in the field of agriculture. It comprises various applications including segmentation/classification of plant diseases, monitoring of crops, grade/quality estimation of fruits/flowers/vegetables/crops, surveillance, soil deficiency estimation, crop/plant growth estimation, canopy measurement, water stress management, vegetation indices calculation, weed detection, and spraying, among other. It has 17 chapters contributed by experts in the field of computer vision, drone technology, deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence, image processing, agriculturist, and plant pathologists.The recent development of high-end computing devices and the adaptation of unmanned aerial vehicles has provided a mechanism to automate traditional agriculture practices. The on-field or aerial images captured using cameras are processed with the help of intelligent algorithms, and an assessment is drawn for further recommendations. This practice is efficient in provisioning an accurate, timely, and economical decision-making system to overcome the problems of agricultural field experts and farmers. This process is advantageous in increasing the quality and quantity of crop yields.This book serves as an excellent guide to students, researchers, scientists, and field experts in directing their work toward this domain and developing/designing models. Further, this book is useful for pathologists, biotechnologists, seed production specialists, breeders, market managers, and other stakeholders associated with underlying technology or market development from the public and private sectors.

Faba bean is a species of flowering plant in the Fabaceae family and the fourth most widely grown winter season legume after pea, chickpea, and lentil. The nutritional profile of faba beans is excellent as they contain an adequate quantity of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and various polyphenols. Faba bean seeds are a rich source of carbohydrates and starch. Because of higher amylose content than cereal starches, legume starches provide distinctive properties such as high gelation temperature, fast retro-gradation, high resistant starch and gel elasticity to food systems. Faba bean has been a beneficial source of protein in food products worldwide for centuries and continues to be highly produced and consumed to this day.Faba bean Chemistry, Properties and Functionality studies the global status and production of faba bean food products plus their agronomy, nutritional value and potential medicinal applications. The agrarian conditions are studied in full, as are postharvest practices. The chemical makeup of faba bean is a major focus, especially in relation to nutrient composition and quality. Chapters in this text focus on anti-nutritional attributes, antioxidants and bioactive compounds plus the effects of processing, storage and cooking on their nutritional value. Starch and its modification, structure, properties and industrial applications are covered, as is protein, genetic improvement and functional product formulation. The text also looks at the future perspectives of this valuable plant and food source. To date, no reference works have exclusively covered faba bean. This book provides a much-needed single source reference point for researchers looking to gain knowledge on this important plant and its use in high protein, health-beneficial food products. 

Sustainable food production is a global challenge with respect to climate change and an ever-increasing world population. Conventional crop production using agrochemicals presents human health and environmental challenges. Rising concerns about environmental sustainability have increased attention toward improved, efficient, and sustainable means of crop production. Various strategies are employed in enhancing crop production to adapt and mitigate climate change and ensure food security. The future of food production relies on improving productivity without compromising long-term productivity and environmental sustainability. Feeding the ever-increasing world population would require concerted efforts by all stakeholders to combat the impact of climate change and numerous ecological challenges facing food production. Hence, innovative technologies and methods are indispensable in mitigating the effects on food security. The book looks at the current challenges and solutions, from an African perspective, regarding food safety and health management, food security and nutrition, climate change and sustainable food production, and forest resources and food security. The target audience is scientists, graduate students, researchers, academicians, and professionals in food production for sustainable development and ecosystem management. This book will also be helpful to policymakers and specialists in framing future feasible agro-ecosystem policies.

This book presents recently-developed crop, soil, and management practices that can be used to improve phosphorous use efficiency in agriculture. Food security highly depends on the availability of plant nutrients such as phosphorus, yet rock phosphate reserves are expected to be exhausted in the next 50-100 years. Moreover, about 80% of the phosphorous fertilizers applied to soils become unavailable to plants due to phosphorous fixation in iron and aluminum oxides in acidic soils and with carbonates in alkaline soils. As a consequence, only 10-15% of applied phosphorous is up taken by crops. Therefore, there is a need for advanced practices for improving phosphorus use efficiency.

The year 2022 is the 50th anniversary of Alfred Crosby's celebrated book - The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. In the book, Crosby was the first to discuss the impact that the Spanish and Portuguese colonial period had on world agriculture and human culture. How the crops of the world became homogenized, and how an indigenous culture was destroyed by disease after Columbus landed. His landmark study broke new ground in its broad conceptualization of the Atlantic exchange.Building on what Crosby so succinctly and brilliantly presented, the main goal of this new work is to present the depth of information that has emerged since "e;The Columbian Exchange"e; and to discuss more fully the development of crops and agriculture before and after the Iberian contact. It follows the journey of crops and livestock in the Old and New Worlds and end's with their distribution in today's world.

This book on 'Secondary Agriculture' discusses the goal of doubling farmers' incomes. The term 'secondary' has a bearing on climate change adaptation and its mitigation, small farm viability and profitability, food security, nutrition, sustainable utilization of natural resources, and optimal usage of produce from primary agriculture and farm incomes. Promoting secondary agriculture has implications on attaining sustainable development goals, which aim to connect primary, secondary and tertiary sectors by using slack/idle factors of production, such as land and labour, contributing to primary agriculture production, capturing 'value' in primary agricultural activities, and generating additional income at the enterprise level. In context to same, the chapters of this book have been designed to promote secondary agriculture through low-cost skills and technology applications in agriculture and by upscaling knowledge via integrating primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of agriculture. The motivation behind this book is to address the challenges of biotic and abiotic stresses facing the farming community; to increase farmers income through low-cost skills and technology applications in agriculture; to upscale knowledge by integrating primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of agriculture.   The food processing sector in India is still in a nascent stage with only 8 per cent of the produce being processed as against 80-98 per cent in case of high-income countries (Government of India, 2008, 2010). The food processing sector is now receiving the boost with the annual growth of 13.2 per cent in registered food processing units during 2004-10 (Government of India, 2011). Against this backdrop, there is a strong need to strategically handle the situation in order to facilitate a self-sustainable and long-run growth of the sector, which is felt possible by focusing on Secondary Agriculture. Though not a panacea for all ailments of the primary sector, but it can definitely drive the growth.

Vegetation, soil and climate are the most important components of ecological systems. The book represents a compact synthesis of our current knowledge about the ecology of the Earth and is thus the basis for understanding the major interrelationships in a global perspective. In the first part, with a rich endowment of illustrations and photographic material, the well-introduced book deals with the essential processes and operations on the Earth's surface that lead to the formation of the vegetation cover with its distinctive zonation. In the second part, the individual vegetation zones as large-scale ecosystems (i.e. zonobiomes of the biosphere) are consistently described comparatively according to certain criteria. In a short and compact form, the main characteristics and structures as well as examples of ecosystem processes are discussed. The large-scale ecosystems are at the same time the basis and reference system for all anthropogenic changes that have drastically altered thevegetation in the last millennia, but especially in the 20th century.This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Vegetation und Klima by Siegmar-W. Breckle and M. Daud Rafiqpoor, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2019. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

This book gathers the proceedings of the 32nd Scientific-Experts Conference of Agriculture and Food Industry, held on December 1-2, 2022, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It reports on the application of molecular, nano- and engineering technologies for food sciences, and plant and animal production. It discusses important agricultural economics and social and environmental issues, proposings some answers to current and future challenges. The chapters reflect the special focus of this conference edition, which was on discussing strategies for developing a more resilient and sustainable agrifood systems. Offering a timely snapshot of cutting-edge and multidisciplinary research and methods, this book addresses researchers, professionals, and stakeholders in the broad field of agriculture and food sciences, biotechnology, and bio- and nanoengineering.

This textbook addresses the most recent advances and main digital technologies used in farming. The reader will be able to understand the main concepts and techniques currently used to efficiently manage agricultural production systems. The book covers topics in a general and intuitive way, with examples and good illustrations.

Agriculture is often considered as one of the main threats to ecosystems. Unsustainable farming practices often result in habitat loss, inefficient use of water, soil degradation, pollution, genetic erosion, among other negative impacts on human life, including hunger, low food quality, reduced access to food resources, as well as the abandonment of rural areas. Nevertheless, when agriculture is practiced in a sustainable way, it can contribute to the preservation of many habitats, to the protection of watersheds, to the preservation and improvement of soil health.The use of sustainable and ecological practices is the key feature distinguishing traditional agriculture from intensive one. It may not provide very high yields, but ensures sustainable harvests over time, thanks to time-tested technologies and traditional know-hows and also represent examples of adaptation to harsh environmental conditions. Based on this approach, in 2002, FAO launched the concept of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme, to identify and safeguard agricultural systems that are ensuring food and livelihood security, while maintaining magnificent landscapes, agricultural biodiversity, traditional knowledge, cultural and social values.This book presents 18 examples of these traditional agriculture systems around the world, with a special focus on Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, as a result of the ¿GIAHS Building Capacity¿ project co-funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence (Italy).

This book presents an exploration of linkages among soil-water, agriculture, and climate change with a special focus on thematic areas for assessment, mitigation, and management of natural resources under climate change conditions. This book covers advances in modelling approaches, including machine learning (ML)/ artificial intelligence (AI) applications; GIS and remote sensing; sensors; impacts of climate change on agriculture; subsurface water; contaminants; and socio-economic impacts, which are lacking in a more comprehensive manner in the previous titles. This book encompasses updated information as well as future directions for researchers working in the field of management of natural resources. The goal of this book is to provide scientific evidence to researchers and policymakers and end-to-end value chain practitioners which may help in reducing the overall adverse impacts of climate change on water resources and the related mitigation strategies. This book focuses on the knowledge, modern tools, and techniques, i.e., machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. for soil-water, agriculture, and climate change. Further, nature-based solutions for management of natural resources with special targets on contaminants, extreme events, disturbances, etc. will be targeted. The book provides readers with the enhanced knowledge for application of engineering principles and economic and regulatory constraints to determine a soil-water, agriculture production action strategy, and select appropriate technologies to implement the strategy for a given data set at a site. It would also cover the application of laboratory, modeling, numerical methods for determination and forecasting of climate change impacts, agriculture production, pollution, soil health, etc. Overall, it provides hydrologists, environmental engineers, administrators, policy makers, consultants, and industrial experts with essential support in effective management of soils health, agricultural productions, and mitigation of extreme climatic events.

This book will collate, review and synthesize information on how Organic Agriculture (OA) practices affect and are affected by climate change, in comparison to the more widely used conventional agricultural practices. Pros and cons of OA practices will be discussed separately for croplands, pasture lands, mixed livestock cropping systems, vegetable fields, fruit and tree orchards, and vineyards. The book concludes with an overview on how conventional and OA practices can be prudently and discriminately combined to identify and adopt climate-resilient agro-ecosystems under site-specific conditions.

This work focuses on the potential impact of climate change on soil erosion in a monsoon-dominated sub-tropical region. Water-induced soil erosion due to extreme rainfall during the monsoon period is a major problem worldwide, from different environmental and socio-economic perspectives. This study region covered (South Bengal) is one of the fertile agricultural belts that produces a good amount of produce and contributes to the country's GDP. However, the rate of agricultural output has decreased rapidly in recent times due to a decline in soil fertility.The monsoon-dominated sub-tropical region has unique characteristics in terms of seasonal temperature fluctuations and the availability of rainfall events. The sub-tropical region is densely populated, with the majority of the population relying on rain-fed agricultural production systems. The declining rate of agricultural production has also established that soil fertility is declining and soil erosion is increasing. Numerous studies show that soil erosion is the major cause of the region's rapidly increasing trend of land degradation. A homeostatic mechanism cannot replace soil erosion, and a gap arises between soil erosion and regolith formation. Extreme changes in land use and land cover, population growth and the lacking support for traditional agricultural practices and management practices can accelerate the rate of soil erosion and its associated reservoir sedimentation in most countries of the tropical and sub-tropical environment. Quantitative information with maximum possible accuracy through validation regarding soil loss can be an essential part of the appropriate and sustainable soil and water conservation planning. The precise aspects of modern day management strategies are soil erosion susceptibility mapping using empirical and semi-empirical models in a GIS platform or the use of probability statistics.The main objective of this work is to propose the most suitable development strategies considering the amount of soil erosion for the present and future periods. Extensive field research has been done to identify the support practice factor that the local stakeholders adopt in this region. 

This book highlights the uses for underutilized crops, presenting the state-of-the-art in terms of genome sequencing for over 30 crops, previously understudied and under-researched. In a changing climate and with significant pressure on the land, it is the ideal time to be discussing novel crops, with significant biotic and abiotic tolerances and/or rich nutrient profiles for consumers. Previously, the only species with sequenced genomes were high-profile internationally recognized crops, but in the current era genomes are being sequenced for dozens of crops, including those previously classified as underutilized, now being investigated. This book covers food crops, from fruits to tubers, and from grasses to legumes, as well as crops with non-food applications. Some of these crops have draft genomes, and others have polished genomes with extensive resequencing panels. Each chapter tells the story of an individual crop or crop group, written by experts, focusing on the genome data available, revealing more about crop domestication and genetic variation, and the current and future prospects given that this data is now becoming available. It also highlights how even small sequencing projects can provide draft genome sequences suitable for gene discovery, comparative genomics, and identification of molecular markers for understanding these crops further.

This edited book brings forth comprehensive information on the bioprocessing and biovalorization of root (i.e., cassava, sweet potato, yams, and aroids), tuber (i.e., potato, carrot, turnip, artichoke and beet root), and bulb (i.e., onion and garlic) crop wastes into various products and platform chemicals in a biorefinery approach.The non-edible portion of roots, tubers, and bulb crops, after processing (waste), such as peels, skins, pulps, rejects, and unmarketable tubers, account for about 20¿40% of the total weight of the fresh produce. Tropical tuber crops such as cassava, yams, aroids, and sweet potato generate bagasse, the byproduct of the starch processing industry, which contains about 30¿50% starch and fibrous materials on a dry weight basis. Similarly, the husk is the leading waste from onion and garlic processing. The amount of waste and byproducts of potato industry is estimated to be around 12¿20% of their total production. These wastes pose increasing disposal and potentially severe pollution problems and represent a loss of valuable biomass and nutrients. Roots, tubers, and bulb wastes usually have a composition of sugar, starch, proteins, phenolic phytochemicals, fibers, and minerals. Therefore, they should not be considered as ¿wastes¿ but raw materials for other industrial processes in the biorefinery approach. These wastes provide conditions amenable for the growth of microorganisms and opens up great opportunities for their reuse in fermentation processes to develop value-added bioproducts such as enzymes, single-cell proteins, bio-absorbents, phenolic bioactive compounds, aroma and flavor compounds, organic acids, and biofuels. This book fills the gap in literature about the processes and by-products. The book is composed of 16- chapters deep diving into valorization and bioprocessing of a range of tuber crop waste. The book explores these processes in 11 different crops and highlights the life cycle assessment as well as highlightsthe opportunities about commercialization of technologies used in bioprocessing and bio-valorization of root crop waste.The processes explained in the book are rooted in the principles of circular economy. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, environmentalists, bio-based industrialist, and policymakers.

This book describes the various techniques for nondestructive quality assessment of fruits and vegetables. It covers the methods, measurements, operation principles, procedures, data analysis, and applications for implementing these techniques.The book presents the details of nondestructive approaches focusing on the present-day trends and existing future opportunities in the fresh food supply chain. First, it overviews different nondestructive techniques in food quality detection. Then it presents nondestructive methods: monochrome computer vision, imaging techniques, biospeckle laser technique, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, Raman spectroscopy, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, X-ray computed tomography, ultrasound, acoustic emission, chemometrics, electronic nose and tongue. Selected applications of each method are also introduced. As a result, readers gain a better understanding of how to use nondestructive methods and technologies to detect the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables.With a wide range of interesting topics, the book will benefit readers including postharvest & food scientists/technologists, industry personnel and researchers involved in fresh produce quality detection. The book can also serve as a readily accessible reference material for postgraduate students.

This book puts together all aspects of valorization of vegetable and fruit wastes (VFWs) into different biocommodities and platform chemicals using fermentation and non-fermentation processes. VFWs are a special group of solid waste (biomass) that needs to be characterized to understand the nature of applications as raw materials and to propose an appropriate methodology for bioprocessing into value-added commodities. VFWs provide favorable conditions for the growth of microorganisms, and this opens up great opportunities for their use in fermentation processes. For example, VFWs can be used as a solid support, carbon, and nutrient source in fermentation for the production of a variety of value-added biocommodities such as enzymes, single-cell proteins, bioadsorbents, phenolic bioactive compounds, aroma and flavor compounds, and platform chemicals like lactic acid, bioethanol, and biobutanol. Researchers and academics in the area of environmental science and engineering, chemical engineering, biotechnology, life science, and food science and technology, undergraduate and graduate students, industry professionals, and policymakers will find this publication useful. Bioprocessing of agro-wastes is a recent technology for developing novel bioproducts. This book will also be of interest to the general public as a reference for all those interested in waste management.

This Book covers different areas of soil characteristics and forest research. Importance is given on enabling the reader to understand the concepts and recent approaches to different areas of soil and forest ecology such as soil health, physical, chemical properties, impact of forest on soils, plant diversity, forest fragmentation, conservation and sustainable development etc. In the modern world, where the soil and forest resources are increasingly threatened, ecologist and conservationist are playing a major role in providing scientific inputs in conservation efforts. Therefore, there has been a need to compile and collate the research findings in these areas and link bio sciences research with soil and forest ecosystem conservation and sustainable development. This book entitled "Advances in Soil & Forest Research" is an attempt in this direction. The volume comprises 3 research investigations contributed by eminent scholars of various fields of soil and forest ecology. The book would be excellent references for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

This book explains how a former net food exporting Nepal has become a net food importing country due to a lack of an integrated system-wide approach to planning and governance of agriculture and natural resources. It demonstrates how various components of the food system, such as agronomy, agrobiodiversity, plant health, post-harvest management, livestock and fisheries, and socio-economics including marketing and trade, have been managed in sectoral silos, crippling the very foundations of food systems innovations. The book also explores ways to tackle climate change impacts while considering gender, social equity, conservation agriculture practices, and crop modeling as cross-cutting themes. This book utilizes Nepal as a case study in relation to wider questions of food security and livelihoods facing South Asia and synthesizes lessons that are relevant to the Global South where countries are struggling to harmonize and integrate natural resources management for sustainable and effective food security outcomes. As such, it significantly contributes to the knowledge toward achieving various United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This is meant to be the 10th volume of the series Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the World. Similarly, to the previous volumes, the work will deal -in a monographic form- with MAPs characteristic/famous or simply known of Turkey, a large country that is connecting Europe with Asia. Turkey has extremely rich and varied topographic/ecologic conditions. As a result, the flora of Turkey abounds in an astonishingly great number of endemic MAP species. Traditional, present and possible prospective uses will be discussed. Scientific and technological achievements will be equally presented. Briefly, the volume is aimed to look carefully at our present knowledge of this vast interdisciplinary domain of medicinal and aromatic plants with a focus on Turkey. In the era of global climate change and Covid-pandemics, building on the huge Turkish traditions, the proposed volume of the series is expected to make an important contribution to the better knowledge and understanding of the MAP wealth of the World.

This book presents deliberations on molecular and genomic mechanisms underlying the interactions of crop plants to the abiotic stresses caused by heat, cold, drought, flooding, submergence, salinity, acidity, etc., important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding, and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in technical crops is imperative for addressing FHNEE (food, health, nutrition, energy, and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing in many of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing has provided precise information regarding the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining, and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for 'designing' crop genomes with resistance to abiotic stresses.The ten chapters each dedicated to a technical crop and one chapter devoted to a crop group in this volume elucidate different types of abiotic stresses and their effects on and interaction with the crops; enumerate the available genetic diversity with regard to abiotic stress resistance among available cultivars; illuminate the potential gene pools for utilization in interspecific gene transfer; present brief on classical genetics of stress resistance and traditional breeding for transferring them to their cultivated counterparts; depict the success stories of genetic engineering for developing abiotic stress-resistant crop varieties; discuss on molecular mapping of genes and QTLs underlying stress resistance and their marker-assisted introgression into elite varieties; enunciate different genomics-aided techniques including genomic selection, allele mining, gene discovery, and gene pyramiding for developing adaptive crop varieties with higher quantity and quality of yields, and also elaborate some case studies on genome editing focusing on specific genes for generating abiotic stress-resistant crops. 

This contributed volume explores how plant growth-promoting rhizobacterias (PGPR) provide a wide range of benefits to the plant. Further, it discusses the key roles PGPR play in nutrient acquisition and assimilation, improved soil texture, secreting, and modulating extracellular molecules. The book outlines how plant secondary metabolites are natural sources of biologically active compounds used in a wide range of applications, and surveys the significant role of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in plant communication by mediating above- and below-ground interactions between plants and the surrounding organisms.This volume compiles research from leading scientists from across the globe, linking the translation of basic knowledge to innovative applied research. The book focuses on the following three categories: 1) understanding the secondary metabolites produced by PGPR, the signaling mechanisms and how they affect plant growth, 2) the plausible role of volatile organic compounds produced by PGPR, their role and the signaling mechanism for plant growth promotion, and  3) Applications of VOCs and secondary metabolites of PGPR for seed germination, plant growth promotion; stress tolerance and in-plant health and immunity.

This edited book provides the readers with the concepts and in-depth knowledge of plant disease assessment and conventional and modern technologies that aid in precise and accurate phytomathometery. This book discusses the evolution of plant disease assessment procedures from the primary visual estimation-based assessment to modern approaches, their practical application for reliable disease quantification, yield loss estimation, and the efficacy of disease control strategies for sustainable crop protection. Significant information is provided on the major aspects of the topic, including remote sensing, imaging techniques, molecular phytopathometery, microarray, and immunotechnology. The book helps plant scientists, plant pathologists, practitioners, researchers, and students in disease quantification, developing predictive models for plant disease epidemics, assessing crop losses, and the magnitude of plant disease control methods.This book describes the classical plant disease assessment methods based on visual observations. It Provides information regarding the modern and emerging technologies in Phytopathometery, precision, and accuracy. This book also discusses the application of disease assessments in predictive models, disease warning systems, expert systems, and decision support systems in applied plant pathology.

Estimating evapotranspiration (ET) has been one of the most critical research areas in agriculture because of water scarcity, the growing population, and climate change. The accurate estimation and mapping of ET are necessary for crop water management. Traditionally, researchers use water balance, soil moisture, weighing lysimeters, or an energy balance approach, such as Bowen ratio or eddy covariance towers to estimate ET. However, these ET methods are point-specific or area-weighted measurements and cannot be extended to a large scale. On the other hand, while remote sensing is able to provide spatially distributed measurements, the spatial resolution of multispectral satellite images is often not enough for crops with clumped canopy structures, such as trees and vines. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can mitigate these spatial and temporal limitations. Lightweight cameras and sensors can be mounted on the UAVs and take high-resolution images. Unlike satellite imagery, the spatial resolution of the UAV images can be at the centimeter-level. UAVs can also fly on-demand, which provides high temporal imagery. This book examines the different UAV-based approaches of ET estimation. Models and algorithms, such as mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC), the two-source energy balance (TSEB) model, and machine learning (ML) are discussed. It also covers the challenges and opportunities for UAVs in ET estimation, with the final chapters devoted to new ET estimation methods and their potential applications for future research.

This edited volume covers all major topics related to agri-food transformation towards sustainability in this era of climate change. The topics cover field crops, horticultural crops, livestock sector, nutritional aspects, application of latest field-based technologies, and agriculture related policies and institutions.Some of the key topics are: Innovations for Reconfiguring Food Systems; Transforming High-value Food Commodities; Demand-Supply of Agri-food Commodities; Balancing Human Demand and Ecological Sustainability; International Partnership for Transformation of Agri-Food Systems; Transforming Animal Health and Aquatic Food Systems for Food Security; Climate Resilient Agriculture; Addressing Nutritional Security through Natural Resource Management; Water Harvesting and Improving Water Productivity; Combating Micronutrient Deficiencies; Plant Genetic Resources for Food Security and Nutrition; Genome Editing for Crop Improvement; and Biosafety and Socioeconomic Considerations.Written by experts, this book serves in exchanging and sharing the latest research findings, ideas and experiences on all aspects of agri-food systems to enable the formulation of the ways forward to transform our agri-food system to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations by 2030. The target audience include academicians, researchers, students, farmers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and others.

The book offers an updated perspective on the unique characteristics of millets. Millets are consumed for their health/nutritional benefits, and in the preparation of specialty foods for target groups - from pediatrics to geriatrics. Recent trends suggest the importance of millet in the human diet due to their nutritional importance, ability to grow in high temperatures and drought conditions, and their resistance to pests and diseases. This book highlights different types of millet and discusses their properties as well as nutritional and anti-nutritional values. In addition, the book also provides information on the physiochemical properties, future prospects, current methodologies, and agricultural practices. The last few parts cover the emerging technologies in millet processing, by-products utilization, quality standards, and the current millet industry scenario. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the status of millet processing, quality, and nutraceutical product manufacture.The book is a resourceful read for students and researchers in food sciences, as well as industry experts.