39 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 Modeling Agricultural Systems
This book presents an up-to-date review of advances in the mathematical modeling of agricultural systems. It covers a broad spectrum of problems and applications based on internet and communications technology, as well as methodological approaches based on the integration of different simulation and data management tools. Using real-world cases, each chapter presents a detailed solution of a problem in a particular field. This book demonstrates ...
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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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Encyclopedia of Soil Science
Soil as the basis of civilization, is the most important resource of the solid earth that we use. It is the source of most of our food and fiber, much of our building materials, and the repository of most of our wastes. Over the last 10,000 years we have learned to manipulate it for our purposes to such a degree that our ecological footprint has notably modified about two thirds of the soils of the Earth. At the beginning of the 21st century, ...
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Encyclopedia of Soil Science
Soil as the basis of civilization, is the most important resource of the solid earth that we use. It is the source of most of our food and fiber, much of our building materials, and the repository of most of our wastes. Over the last 10,000 years we have learned to manipulate it for our purposes to such a degree that our ecological footprint has notably modified about two thirds of the soils of the Earth. At the beginning of the 21st century, ...
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Encyclopedia of Soil Science
Soil as the basis of civilization, is the most important resource of the solid earth that we use. It is the source of most of our food and fiber, much of our building materials, and the repository of most of our wastes. Over the last 10,000 years we have learned to manipulate it for our purposes to such a degree that our ecological footprint has notably modified about two thirds of the soils of the Earth. At the beginning of the 21st century, ...
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Green Manure/Cover Crop Systems of Smallholder Farmers
In the 1980s and 1990s, green manure/cover crop (GMCC) systems became a popular agricultural technology in research and development efforts for smallholder tropical and subtropical farmers. However, few syntheses of these experiences have been conducted. This volume of case studies contributes to bridging this gap by reviewing field-level experiences with these systems. Twelve case studies are included. Eleven of them describe experiences from ...
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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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Oilseeds
Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants presents the current status of the elucidation and improvement of plant genomes of economic interest. The focus is on genetic and physical mapping, positioning, cloning, monitoring of desirable genes by molecular breeding and the most recent advances in genomics. The series comprises seven volumes: Cereals and Millets; Oilseeds; Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops; Fruits and Nuts; Vegetables; Technical ...
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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 ...