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Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences a...

This text offers an integrated, innovative, and comprehensive introduction to agriculture for Australian students. The science and economics of agriculture - production, profit and sustainability - are integrated. The scientific basis, 'on farm', and 'beyond farm' aspects of agriculture in Australia are all covered. The whole-farm or farm-management approach is used throughout. Following an introduction to the subject and to the book, the location of agricultural production in Australia is descr...

Abiotic Stress and Legumes: Tolerance and Management is the first book to focus on the ability of legume plants to adapt effectively to environmental challenges. Using the -omic approach, this book takes a targeted approach to understanding the methods and means of ensuring survival and maximizing the productivity of the legume plant by improving tolerance to environmental /abiotic stress factors including drought, temperature change, and other challenges. The book presents a comprehensive overv...

Genetic modification is one of the most important and controversial issues facing the food industry - nowhere more so than in cereal production and processing. Cereals provide the cornerstone of the world's diet, of which 50% comes from wheat, maize and rice. This major work explains the techniques involved and their enormous potential for food producers and consumers, from cereal breeding to milling, baking and brewing. It also explains how this new technology is regulated, the methods for ass...

While products such as bananas, pineapples, kiwifruit and citrus have long been available to consumers in temperate zones, new fruits such as lychee, longan, carambola, and mangosteen are now also entering the market. Confirmation of the health benefits of tropical and subtropical fruit may also promote consumption further. Tropical and subtropical fruits are particularly vulnerable to postharvest losses, and are also transported long distances for sale. Therefore maximising their quality postha...

"…this book covers a range of algal phyla, specialised algal bioprocessing and application topics that make it very interesting for a broad audience. Each chapter covers a theme in such a way that can easily be read by a non-specialist but, as the authors incorporate recent published papers, the book will also be interesting for experts...I also recommend the book for entrepreneurs and technical staff working in different algal-based operations." (Journal of Phycology) As the global demand for...

This collection features five peer-reviewed literature reviews on using crops as biofuel. The first chapter reviews the key issues and challenges faced when expanding sugarcane cultivation for bioenergy, primarily, competition with food crops, loss of biodiversity, water, air and soil pollution, as well as a potential increase in pest problems. The second chapter describes current technologies and constraints of biodiesel production, including the need for a consistent supply of feedstock to e...

Grain legumes are characterised by their nutritional value, an ability to grow rapidly and improve soil health by fixing nitrogen. This makes them a key rotation crop in promoting food security amongst smallholders in particular. However, yields are constrained by factors such as pests and diseases as well as vulnerability to poor soils, drought and other effects of climate change. This collection reviews the wealth of research addressing these challenges. Volume 2 assesses key research on parti...

There is a growing need for information about soils, their behaviour and their influence on land use. This introduction traces the fundamental contribution that soil science has made to many of the applied sciences associated with management of the environment; this is even more important today than when the first edition was published. Soil scientists are increasingly pressed to find ways of both producing food and fibre crops more efficiently, in terms of both yields per hectare and value of p...

This topic is central to contemporary concerns for more sustainable agricultural development. This is a well-written and clear book, with excellent data, tables and illustrations, addressing issues of water use, climate change, poverty and small farmers. The authors are highly respected and complement each other's acknowledged international expertise.' Professor Jules Pretty, University of Essex, UK 'This useful guide shows that there is great potential for increasing the productive capacity of...

Discusses different types of soil, their composition, formation, uses, and conservation. Includes experiments.