Agricultural Sciences : Topics in Modern Agriculture
Contents: Prologue. Contributors. Acknowledgements. Preface. 1. Soil and soilless culture substrates/Juan Jose Lucena and Alberto Masaguer. 2. Nutritional diagnosis in plants/Luis Romero and Juan Manuel Ruiz. 3. Inorganic fertilizers/Juan Jose Lucena. 4. Biofertilizers/Dulce Nombre Rodriguez Navarro and Jose Enrique Ruiz Sainz. 5. Chelates and complexes in agriculture/Agustin Garate and Juan Jose Lucena. 6. Pest and diseases: control substances/Alberto Barba, Jose Oliva and Paula Paya. 7. Introduction to mineral nutrition of plants/Ildefonso Bonilia, Javier Abadia and Luis Bolanos. 8. Photosynthesis and biomass productivity/Francisco J. Florencio, Agustin Gonzalez-Fontes and Miguel G. Guerrero. 9. Assimilation of nitrogen fixation/Cesar Arrese-Igor. 11. Mycorrhizas and agricultural fertility/Jose-Miguel Barea. 12. Bacteria and agriculture/Francisco Javier Gutierrez Manero and Beatriz Ramos Solano. 13. Agricultural production and yield/Roxana Savin and Gustavo A. Slafer. 14. Abiotic stresses: salinity and drought/Francisco Garcia-Sanchez, Francisco Rubio and Vicente Martinez. 15. Protected cultivation/Nicolas Castilla, Teresa Soriano and Joaquin Hernandez. 16. Fruit tree crops/Yolanda Gogorcena, Cella M. Cantin and Sergio Jimenez. 17. Agricultural biotechnology/Catharina Merchante, Fabiana Csukasi and Victoriano Valpuesta. 18. Crop modeling/Salvador Rubio, Carmen Lopez-Berenguer, M. Carmen Martinez-Ballesta and Micaela Carvajal. 19. Alternative cultures: ornamental plants/Silvia Jimenez, Blanca Maria Plaza and Maria Teresa Lao. 20. Future of crop production in the tropics/Federico Sanchez and Claudia Diaz-Camino. 21. Interaction between agriculture and the environment/Berta Lasa, Pedro M. Aparicio-Tejo and Carmen Lamsfus and Ignacio Irigoien. 22. Challenges and prospects for agriculture and food/Manuel Gonzalez De Molina. 23. Agricultural Bioinformatics/Antonio J. Perez-Pulido. Subject index.
“Agricultural Sciences: Topics in Modern Agriculture is an updated textbook that covers the main aspects of modern agriculture. This book comprises 23 chapters covering three major areas of modern agriculture, namely, analysis of soils and plants, physiological basis of sustainable agriculture, and agricultural production and society. The opportunity of the book is not only justified by scientific reasons but also because there is an increasing demand of knowledge over these topics by social communities and individual citizens for which agricultural achievements have become crucial operations factors in social development. According to 2010, 45% the world’s laborers are employed in agriculture making it by far the most common labor occupation.
The book is directed to students of several specialties such as agronomy, agricultural chemistry, environmental sciences, plant physiology, plant biochemistry, and plant molecular biology. It is also suitable for researchers and students in plant nutrition, ecology, social sciences, horticulture, vegetable crops and biotechnology. Each chapter has been elaborated by experts of recognized prestige in their respective fields who have carried out pedagogic efforts to summarize in a clear and accurate way many issues that are not even fully understood yet. This book not only supplies basic information but also a certain level of updated and complex information for a better understanding of the scientific and technological goals to be achieved in the near future. For this purpose, and to strengthen the marked pedagogic strategy of each chapter, the publishers have done all efforts to improve the quality of the edition by adding full-coloured figures and schemes. All chapters share a similar structure with a list of items whose titles, contents, and distribution favors an easy and attractive reading. Each chapter includes a brief list of recommended literature, a questionnaire and a summary of problems with their corresponding answers that students can use to self-evaluate their level of learning. This book also aims to awaken the reader’s interest and encourage them to self-improve their knowledge abut the traditional bases of agriculture, its latest developments, and the environmental problems that could be associated to intensive agricultural practices."
