Terminologies in Agricultural Sciences

"Agricultural production has increased dramatically in India and elsewhere in the past five decades as agricultural practices have evolved. But this success has been costly: water pollution, soil depletion, and a host of human (and nonhuman) health and safety problems have emerged as important side effects associated with modern agricultural practices. Because of increased concern with these costs, an alternative view of agricultural production has arisen that has come to be known as sustainable agriculture. In other words, current agricultural research centers not only on increasing production but also on finding ways for improving the environmental sustainability of agriculture. The swiftness of change in the sector means that terminology is constantly evolving and yesterday\'s buzzword is today\'s jargon and might be tomorrow\'s mainstream term. The rate of evolution of terminology has been such that it has been very difficult to remain abreast of current usages. The idea for such a collection of terminology associated with the rapidly expanding fields related to agriculture. There are numerous publications addressing the terminology of narrow disciplinary areas, it is very difficult to find a single list that attempted to cover the broad swath of disciplines and applications germane to its mandate and competence. Hence, the idea of this glossary game into existence. It tries to provide a consolidated, comprehensive and yet accessible list of terms that are used regularly in agriculture and allied fields. This glossary contains general definitions of over thousand terms related to agricultural production, the environment, and sustainable development. These terms relate not only to important issues surrounding agriculture in India, but to agricultural production (and associated) issues worldwide. Agriculture is after all  a global human enterprise that recognizes few spatial and temporal boundaries. Terms were chosen to increase awareness of major issues for the non specialist and were drawn from various social and natural science disciplines, including ecology, biology, epidemiology, chemistry, sociology, economics, anthropology, philosophy, and public health.

The author anticipate that the book will be of immense use to students of agricultural stream who desire to further devote their career for agriculture and natural ecosystems and for increasing agricultural productivity with sustainability."