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Scenes of starvation have drawn the world's attention to Africa's agricultural and environmental crisis. Some observers question whether this continent can ever hope to feed its growing population. Yet there is an overlooked food resource in sub-Saharan Africa that has vast potential: native food plants. When experts were asked to nominate African food plants for inclusion in a new book, a list of 30 species grew quickly to hundreds. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 native grains and fruitsâ€""lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation. This volume focuses on native cereals, including: African rice, reserved until recently as a luxury food for religious rituals. Finger millet, neglected internationally although it is a staple for millions. Fonio (acha), probably the oldest African cereal and sometimes called "hungry rice." Pearl millet, a widely used grain that still holds great untapped potential. Sorghum, with prospects for making the twenty-first century the "century of sorghum." Tef, in many ways ideal but only now enjoying budding commercial production. Other cultivated and wild grains. This readable and engaging book dispels myths, often based on Western bias, about the nutritional value, flavor, and yield of these African grains. Designed as a tool for economic development, the volume is organized with increasing levels of detail to meet the needs of both lay and professional readers. The authors present the available information on where and how each grain is grown, harvested, and processed, and they list its benefits and limitations as a food source. The authors describe "next steps" for increasing the use of each grain, outline research needs, and address issues in building commercial production. Sidebars cover such interesting points as the potential use of gene mapping and other "high-tech" agricultural techniques on these grains. This fact-filled volume will be of great interest to agricultural experts, entrepreneurs, researchers, and individuals concerned about restoring food production, environmental health, and economic opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection, Newbridge Garden Book Club
Plant breeding, the domestication and systematic improvement of crop species, is the basis of past and present agriculture. Our so called primitive progenitors selected practically all our present-day crop plants, and the improvement wrought through millenia of selection has so changed some of them that in many cases their links to the past have been obliterated. There is no doubt that this ranks among the greatest of human achievements. Although plant breeding has been a continuous empirical activity for as long as humans have forsaken the vagaries and thrill of hunting for the security and toil of agriculture, genetic crop improvement is now very much of a twentieth-century discipline. Its scientific underpinnings date to the beginning of this century with the discovery of Gregor Mendel's classic 1865 paper on the inheritance of seven characters in the garden pea. If any science can be traced to single event, the best example is surely found in the conception of modern genetics that appears in this single creative work. The relationship of plant breeding progress to advances in genetics has become closely entwined. Mendel himself was concerned with crop improvement and worked on schemes for apple and pear breeding. Plant breeding also has claims on other scientific and agricultural disci plines-botany, plant pathology, biochemistry, statistics, taxonomy, entomology, and cytology, to name a few-and has also impinged on our social, ethical, economic, and political consciousness.
Many advances have been made in the genetic improvement of pearl millet and this text is intended to fill the need for a comprehensive document which brings together principles and research results related to breeding and development activities.
Millets and sorghum are extremely important crops in many developing nations and because of the ability of many of them to thrive in low-moisture situations they represent some exciting opportunities for further development to address the continuing and increasing impact of global temperature increase on the sustainability of the world’s food crops. The main focus of this thorough new book is the potential for crop improvement through new and traditional methods, with the book’s main chapters covering the following crops: sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail milet, proso millet, little millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, tef and fonio. Further chapters cover pests and diseases, nutritional and industrial importance, novel tools for improvement, and seed systems in millets. Millets and Sorghum provides full and comprehensive coverage of these crucially important crops, their biology, world status and potential for improvement, and is an essential purchase for crop and plant scientists, and food scientists and technologists throughout the developed and developing world. All libraries in universities and research establishment where biological and agricultural sciences are studied and taught should have copies of this important book on their shelves.
This book highlights modern methods and strategies to improve cereal crops in the era of climate change, presenting the latest advances in plant molecular mapping and genome sequencing. Spectacular achievements in the fields of molecular breeding, transgenics and genomics in the last three decades have facilitated revolutionary changes in cereal- crop-improvement strategies and techniques. Since the genome sequencing of rice in 2002, the genomes of over eight cereal crops have been sequenced and more are to follow. This has made it possible to decipher the exact nucleotide sequence and chromosomal positions of agroeconomic genes. Most importantly, comparative genomics and genotyping-by-sequencing have opened up new vistas for exploring available biodiversity, particularly of wild crop relatives, for identifying useful donor genes.
Genetic and Genomic Resources For Cereals Improvement is the first book to bring together the latest available genetic resources and genomics to facilitate the identification of specific germplasm, trait mapping, and allele mining that are needed to more effectively develop biotic and abiotic-stress-resistant grains. As grain cereals, including rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, and millets constitute the bulk of global diets, both of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, there is a greater need for further genetic improvement, breeding, and plant genetic resources to secure the future food supply. This book is an invaluable resource for researchers, crop biologists, and students working with crop development and the changes in environmental climate that have had significant impact on crop production. It includes the latest information on tactics that ensure that environmentally robust genes and crops resilient to climate change are identified and preserved. - Provides a single-volume resource on the global research work on grain cereals genetics and genomics - Presents information for effectively managing and utilizing the genetic resources of this core food supply source - Includes coverage of rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, and pearl, finger and foxtail millets
Development of superior crops that have consistent performance in quality and in quantity has not received the same emphasis in the field of genetics and breeding as merited. Specialty trait requires special focus to propagate. Yet basic germplasm and breeding methodologies optimized to improve crops are often applied in the development of improved specialty types. However, because of the standards required for specialty traits, methods of development and improvement are usually more complex than those for common commodity crops. The same standards of performance are desired, but the genetics of the specialty traits often impose breeding criteria distinct from those of non-specialty possessing crops. Specifically, quality improvement programs have unique characteristics that require careful handling and monitoring during their development for specific needs. Adding value either via alternative products from the large volumes of grain produced or development of specialty types is of interest to producers and processors. This work assimilates the most topical results about quality improvement with contemporary plant breeding approaches.The objective of this book is to provide a summary of the germplasm, methods of development, and specific problems involved for quality breeding. In total, fourteen chapters, written by leading scientists involved in crop improvement research, provide comprehensive coverage of the major factors impacting specialty crop improvement.
Can we unlock resilience to climate stress by better understanding linkages between the environment and biological systems? Agroclimatology allows us to explore how different processes determine plant response to climate and how climate drives the distribution of crops and their productivity. Editors Jerry L. Hatfield, Mannava V.K. Sivakumar, and John H. Prueger have taken a comprehensive view of agroclimatology to assist and challenge researchers in this important area of study. Major themes include: principles of energy exchange and climatology, understanding climate change and agriculture, linkages of specific biological systems to climatology, the context of pests and diseases, methods of agroclimatology, and the application of agroclimatic principles to problem-solving in agriculture.
This book examines the development of innovative modern methodologies towards augmenting conventional plant breeding, in individual crops, for the production of new crop varieties under the increasingly limiting environmental and cultivation factors to achieve sustainable agricultural production, enhanced food security, in addition to providing raw materials for innovative industrial products and pharmaceuticals. This Volume 5, subtitled Cereals, focuses on advances in breeding strategies using both traditional and modern approaches for the improvement of individual crops. It addresses important staple food crops including barley, fonio, finger millet, foxtail millet, pearl millet, proso millet, quinoa, rice, rye, tef, triticale and spelt wheat. The volume is contributed by 53 internationally reputable scientists from 14 countries. Each chapter comprehensively reviews the modern literature on the subject and reflects the authors own experience.
Millets and Pseudo Cereals is the first comprehensive resource to focus on the potential crop improvements through genetic enhancements. The choice of food crop for a region is primarily determined by the conditions of climate and soil. Once labelled as orphan crops, millets and pseudo-cereals are now known as miracle grains due to their adaptation to harsh conditions and high nutritional quality. Small millets and pseudo-cereals are now seen to occupy special niches through their ability to adapt to challenging conditions. These crops have a comparative advantage in marginal lands where they withstand stress conditions and contribute to sustainable production. They also contribute to the diversity-richness and production stability of agro-ecosystems. Millets include sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, little millet and kodo millet while the other group which are not cereals but consumed as cereals and generally referred as pseudo-cereals comprises of grain amaranths, buckwheat and chenopods. Millets and Pseudo Cereals presents current information on the genetic architecture of important economic traits and the genomic resources for gene enabled breeding. This compilation contains information on the global status, available germplasm resources, nutritional value, breeding advancements, genomics applications and sustainability of agriculture through millets and pseudo-cereals cultivation. This book is a valuable resource for those conducting research and exploring new areas for advancing crop genetic understanding. - Explores the current challenges of pseudo-cereal production and how that can be overcome by developing genetic and breeding resources using appropriate germplasm - Provides holistic information on millets and pseudo-cereals - Features global perspectives from an international contributing team of authors