The world population is continuously increasing especially in developing countries.This jeopardises food security and is a serious cause of concern for the governments, policy planners and development fuctionaries globally and in particular countries locally. In order to achieve food security for all, it would be imperative to enhance crop and live stock production and productivity in a sustainable manner. Climate change, and dwindling earth oil resources impact agricultural production and call for more resilient energy alternatives like biomass-energy. This would necessitate identifying fast growing plants adapted to tropical as well as temperate environs, and an efficient bio-fuel production technology. Global agricultural production has registered spectacular growth during past few decades.This has been possible through the expansion of areas under cultivation, the introduction of improved agro-technology, the intensification of cropping patterns, use of high yielding crop varieties and the increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and irrigation. However, this growth has been accompanied by land degradation, salinization, chemical pollution of land and water, over extraction of underground water, deforestation, susceptibility to disease and built up of pest resistance favored by the spread of monocultures.Therefore, research and development efforts are needed for natural resource management forfood and biomass energy as well to ensure adequate agri-based employment and livelihood opportunities for poverty alleviation-all coherent elements of sustainability.
The papers included in this book pertain to plant nutrition, rhizosphere and biofertilizers, integrated natural resource management, crop improvement strategies in wheat, maize, clusterbean and Enset, biodiversity policies and genetically modified cotton hybrids, agricultural production practices, remote sensing, trade policies, pollution control, livestock production and management, livelihood strategies and women empowerment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jaromir Kubat
Jaromir Kubat Born in February 1944, Ing. Jaromir Kubat, graduated in Agriculture in 1968 from University of Agriculture, Prague, faculty of Agronomy and obtained Ph.D. in Soil Microbiology and Plant Nutrition ("Candidate of Agricultural Sciences" degree at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences). He is a senior scientist at the Crop Research Institute (CRI, former RICP), Prague, Czech Republic. Since 1969, he has been working at this institute in various capacities. He served this institute as Head, Department of Soil Biology from 1987 to 2006 as well as Deputy Director for 11 years from 1996 onwards. The main topics of interest are organic C and N dynamics in arable soils, determination and maintenance of the optimum organic C content in arable soils, soil biota and its activities. The recent studies were mainly focused to the soil organic matter content and quality in the long-term field experiments, agricultural land use and soil protection. He has steered several international and national projects in past about 3 decades notably on: Reproduction of the soil organic matter, C and N dynamics in soil; Long-term field experiments; Soil quality and maintenance of the ecological functions of arable soils; Creation, calibration and validation of sustainable and productive cropping systems and Knowledge Assessment and Sharing on Sustainable Agriculture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR R.K. Behl
Dr. R.K. Behl, serving as professor of Plant Breeding at CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hisar, India secured first position in B.Sc. (Agriculture) and M.Sc. (PLant Breeding), has been Editor-in Chief of Annals of Biology for two decades, associate editor of Annals of Agri Bio research, Editorial Board Member of Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science (Germany), International Advisory Board member of Tropics (Japan), has about 200 publications in international and national journals and 16 edited books, has 28 year’s teaching and research experience in plant breeding, has been awarded Bharat Ratna C Subhramaniyam Award for Outstanding teachers by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Honorary DAAD Advisor by German Academic exchange Service, Bonn (Germany), has been founder Secretary of Society for Sustainable Agriculture and resource Management (SSARM), has been nominated as Vice President, International Council of Sustainable Agriculture (Canada), organized eight international Conference in India and abroad, has been associated with the development of plant material with specifically useful traits for stress tolerance and plant microbe interactions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Theo Kleynhans
Theo Kleynhans is an Associate Professor in the Department Agricultural Economics, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He specializes in Resource and Environmental Economics. He often participates in multidisciplinary design of agricultural production systems, including bio-energy systems, cooperating with agronomists, soil scientists, plant pathologists, forestry scientists etc. He is a registered professional property valuer and does research in rural property valuation issues.
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