Both wheat and barley are two of the most important food and industrial crops in the world. Wheat and barley cultivation has experienced changes in practices due to factors such as methods of conservation agriculture, cropping systems, wheat varieties, changes in weather patterns, and international trade, necessitating new and different approaches for the successful management of emerging diseases and new pathotypes of pathogens. This valuable volume explores a multitude of new approaches and techniques for the effective management of emerging wheat diseases. This new volume presents the latest literature on management technology of diseases that affect the production of wheat and are capable of reducing grain yields as well as grain quality. These diseases include rusts, smuts, other foliar diseases such as blight, spots, blotch, powdery mildew, bunts, etc., as well as diseases such as Karnal bunt of wheat, which is of importance to international trade. This book will be highly valuable to researchers, students, teachers, farmers, seed growers, traders, and other stakeholders dealing with wheat and barley. It also advances our knowledge in the field of plant pathology, plant breeding, and plant biotechnology, agronomy, and grain quality and pesticide industries. The book will serve as a reference on disease management technologies for the containment of losses in wheat and barley yields and will assist in maintaining wheat quality, reducing the cost of cultivation, increasing yield, and thus in helping to ensuring food security on a global level.

This book explores the developments in important aspects of fungi related to the environment, industrial mycology, microbiology, biotechnology, and agriculture. It discusses at length both basic and applied aspects of fungi and provides up-to-date laboratory-based data. Of the estimated three million species of fungi on Earth, according to Hawksworth and coworkers, more than 100,000 have been described to date. Many fungi produce toxins, organic acids, antibiotics and other secondary metabolites, and are sources of useful biocatalysts such as cellulases, xylanases, proteases and pectinases, to mention a few. They can also cause diseases in animals as well as plants and many are able to break down complex organic molecules such as lignin and pollutants like xenobiotics, petroleum and polycyclic aromatic compounds. Current research on mushrooms focuses on their hypoglycemic, anti-cancer, anti-pathogenic and immunity-enhancing activities. This ready-reference resource on various aspects of fungi is intended for graduate and post-graduate students as well as researchers in life sciences, microbiology, botany, environmental sciences and biotechnology.

The future of agriculture greatly depends on our ability to enhance productivity without sacrificing long-term production potential. The application of microorganisms, such as the diverse bacterial species of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB), represents an ecologically and economically sustainable strategy. The use of these bio-resources for the enhancement of crop productivity is gaining importance worldwide. "Bacteria in Agrobiology: Disease Management" discusses various aspects of biological control and disease suppression using bacteria. Topics covered include: fluorescent pseudomonads; siderophore-producing PGPR; pseudomonas inoculants; bacillus-based biocontrol agents; bacterial control of root and tuber crop diseases; fungal pathogens of cereals; soil-borne fungal pathogens; peronosporomycete phytopathogens; and plant parasitic nematodes.

Of the global population of more than 7 billion people, some 800 million do not have enough to eat today. By 2050, the population is expected to exceed 9 billion. It has been estimated that some 15% of food production is lost to plant diseases; in developing countries losses may be much higher. Historically, plant diseases have had catastrophic impact on food production. For example: potato blight caused the Irish famine in 1845; brown spot of rice caused the Great Bengal Famine of 1943; southern corn leaf blight caused a devastating epidemic on the US corn crop in 1970. Food security is threatened by an ongoing sequence of plant diseases, some persistent for decades or centuries, others more opportunistic. Wheat blast and banana xanthomonas wilt are two contrasting examples of many that currently threaten food production. Other emerging diseases will follow. The proposed title aims to provide a synthesis of expert knowledge to address this central challenge to food security for the 21st century. Chapters [5] and [11] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.