30 Books found
Springer-Verlag GmbH Books
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Adaptation and Fitness in Animal Populations
Fitness and adaptation are fundamental characteristics of plant and animal species, enabling them to survive in their environment and to adapt to the inevitable changes in this environment. This is true for both the genetic resources of natural ecosystems as well as those used in agricultural production. Extensive genetic variation exists between varieties/breeds in a species and amongst individuals within breeds. This variation has developed ...
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Advances in Integrated Soil Fertility Management in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
Food insecurity is a central concern and a fundamental challenge for human welfare and economic growth in Africa. Low agricultural production, results in low incomes, poor nutrition, vulnerability to risks and lack of empowerment. Land degradation and soil fertility depletion are considered the major threats to food security and natural resource conservation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Investments in technology, policy and institutional reforms ...
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Advances in Plant and Animal Boron Nutrition
Boron is one of the essential micronutrients for higher plants growth and development, and more and more studies have been conducted to establish boron as an essential element in animals and humans. This book reviews all aspects of boron research in recent years and is based on the Third International Symposium on all Aspects of Plant and Animal Boron Nutrition which was held in Wuhan, P.R. China. The following issues are discussed: boron ...
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Applications of Gene-Based Technologies for Improving Animal Production and Health in Developing Countries
Modern Biotechnology has potential for solving many problems associated with animal productivity and health and offers exciting opportunities for enhancing agricultural productivity. At present the focus is, however, on the issues and problems of significance for livestock producers in the developed world. In order to fully realize the benefits of this technology in developing countries, there is a need to identify, characterize and apply ...
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Biological Nitrogen Fixation: Towards Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Agriculture
This volume covers recent developments in both fundamental and applied research in biological nitrogen fixation. It emphasizes the application of biological nitrogen fixation for sustainable agriculture, which should lead to poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and good agricultural practices generally. The roles of, and advances in, plant breeding, plant molecular biology, nodule physiology, and symbiotic and associative interactions ...
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Biosaline Agriculture and High Salinity Tolerance
A major threat to agricultural productivity worldwide is undoubtedly due to environments with stressful factors including drought, salinity, waterlogging, extreme temperatures, non-optimal levels of mineral nutrients etc. Based on contributions presented at the International Conference on Biosaline Agriculture and High Salinity Tolerance in November 2006 in Gammarth, Tunisia, this book reviews the current state of knowledge in biosaline ...
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Natural Disasters and Extreme Events in Agriculture
Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not be possible to prevent the occurrence of these natural disasters, but the resultant disastrous ...
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Physical Control Methods in Plant Protection
Jointly published with INRA, Paris.Pesticide resistance is becoming more frequent and widespread with more than 500 insect species known to have become resistant to synthetic insecticides. On the other hand, consumers increasingly demand agricultural products without any pesticide residues. This book, for the first time, shows the alternative: solely physical methods for plant protection by means of thermal, electromagnetic, mechanical and ...
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Physical Methods in Agriculture
The papers in this book deal with both the physical theories and their applications in the full broad range of agriculture: soils, their parameters and transport processes, soil technology, precision agriculture, agricultural products and their processing, testing and storage and products, genetic modification of agricultural plants. In all those subjects the physical aspects are studied. The majority of the papers belong to the category of ...
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Plant Responses to Abiotic Stress
Environmental stresses represent the most limiting factors for agricultural productivity. Apart from biotic stress caused by plant pathogens, there are a number of abiotic stresses such as extremes in temperature, drought, salinity, heavy metals and radiation which all have detrimental effects on plant growth and yield. However, certain plant species and ecotypes have developed various mechanisms to adapt to such stress conditions. Recent ...
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Sulfur Assimilation and Abiotic Stress in Plants
Sulfur is one of the four major essential elements necessary for the plant life cycle. Its assimilation in higher plants and its reduction in metabolically important sulfur compounds are crucial factors determining plant growth and vigor and resistance to stresses. The range of biological compounds that contain sulfur is wide. The information on sulfur assimilation can be exploited in tailoring for efficient sulfur utilization, and in the ...
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Urban-Rural Interactions
Modern Europe has rural roots. Even today, as much as 90 per cent of Europe (EU25) consists of rural areas in which half of the population lives. While different rural areas often face different challenges, the shift from agricultural production towards a multifunctional landscape and the increasing value assigned to environmental values affect all rural areas. The ambition to develop a more diversified rural economy, as well as the bottom-up ...
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Water Requirements for Irrigation and the Environment
Irrigated agriculture produces about 40% of all food and fibre on about 16% of all cropped land. As such, irrigated agriculture is a productive user of resources; both in terms of yield per cropped area and in yield per volume of water consumed. Many irrigation projects, however, use (divert or withdraw) much more water than consumed by the crop. The non-consumed fraction of the water may cause a variety of undesirable effects ranging from ...
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Agricultural Productivity
Agricultural Productivity: Measurement and Sources of Growth addresses measurement issues and techniques in agricultural productivity analysis, applying those techniques to recently published data sets for American agriculture. The data sets are used to estimate and explain state level productivity and efficiency differences, and to test different approaches to productivity measurement. The rise in agricultural productivity is the single most ...
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Biocontrol Potential and its Exploitation in Sustainable Agriculture
Plant based biotechnology has come to represent a means of mitigating the problems of global food security in the twenty-first century. Products and processes in agriculture are increasingly becoming linked to science and cutting edge technology, to enable the engineering of what are in effect, designer plants. One of the most successful , non-chemical approaches to pest management and disease control is biological control, which seeks a ...
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Climate Change: Significance for Agriculture and Forestry
Societies throughout the world depend on food, fiber and forest products. Continuity and security of agricultural and forest production are therefore of paramount importance. Predicted changes in climate could be expected to alter, perhaps significantly, the levels and relative agricultural and forestry production of different nations over the next few decades. Agriculture and forestry are also likely to influence the rate and magnitude ...
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Economic, Environmental, and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production
Today the goal of designing highly productive, sustainable agricultural production systems is at the forefront of agricultural research agendas around the world. The key to designing sustainable agricultural production technologies is in understanding their economic, environmental, and human health impacts. This volume presents a methodology designed to quantify such impacts and to represent them as tradeoffs. This tradeoff methodology is ...
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Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Agricultural Production Systems
Evidence shows that global climate change is occurring. Research and debate continue on the role of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases in influencing climate change. Many sectors are or will be influenced by changing climate and climate variability, including increasing global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of unusual weather events. Agriculture and the world's supply of food and ...
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Flexible Incentives for the Adoption of Environmental Technologies in Agriculture
Flexible Incentives for the Adoption of Environmental Technologies in Agriculture identifies and structures more flexible economic incentives for the achievement of environmental goals in agriculture. It provides a conceptual framework and presents case studies that analyze how flexible incentives can address environmental problems that are caused by agricultural production. The book brings together economists, agency personnel and ...
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Improved Crop Quality by Nutrient Management
Emphasis in agricultural production has shifted from mere quantity to quality products. Practical experience and scientific investigations have shown that, of the various culture measures, balanced fertilization above all exerts a considerable influence on the quality of agricultural products. Simply adding more of what the crop has already absorbed to capacity is unproductive, expensive, wasteful and damaging to the environment. ...