In tracing the brilliant career of E. C. Stakman -- one of the founders of modern plant pathology -- this biography describes some of the major events in plant science during the past 100 years.

This reference provides the groundwork, tools, and terminology required when conducting specialized searches for information and resources pertaining to traditional and emerging fields of agriculture. The editors present 16 contributions from librarians and other information workers that offer information on research resources across the academic a

Food was a critical front in the Cold War battle for Asia. “Where Communism goes, hunger follows” was the slogan of American nation builders who fanned out into the countryside to divert rivers, remodel villages, and introduce tractors, chemicals, and genes to multiply the crops consumed by millions. This “green revolution” has been credited with averting Malthusian famines, saving billions of lives, and jump-starting Asia’s economic revival. Bono and Bill Gates hail it as a model for revitalizing Africa’s economy. But this tale of science triumphant conceals a half century of political struggle from the Afghan highlands to the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta, a campaign to transform rural societies by changing the way people eat and grow food. The ambition to lead Asia into an age of plenty grew alongside development theories that targeted hunger as a root cause of war. Scientific agriculture was an instrument for molding peasants into citizens with modern attitudes, loyalties, and reproductive habits. But food policies were as contested then as they are today. While Kennedy and Johnson envisioned Kansas-style agribusiness guarded by strategic hamlets, Indira Gandhi, Marcos, and Suharto inscribed their own visions of progress onto the land. Out of this campaign, the costliest and most sustained effort for development ever undertaken, emerged the struggles for resources and identity that define the region today. As Obama revives the lost arts of Keynesianism and counter-insurgency, the history of these colossal projects reveals bitter and important lessons for today’s missions to feed a hungry world.

This book is about how plants get diseases, from the origins and evolution of parasites to how the great plant epidemics developed. The basic premise of the book is that the conditions favouring disease are inherent in agriculture and that diseases become destructive because of human activities. It also deals with how people have dealt with plant diseases in history. Included in the book are the natural histories of some of the most damaging plant diseases, worldwide, with discussions of why each became destructive. Diseases are grouped according to the most significant factors in the development of epidemics: in every case this is due to a human factor. Discussion of each model disease proceeds from observable facts to more complex concepts; thus, the reader with little knowledge of plant pathology should find the book easily understandable.

Although stem rust has been controlled by means of resistant cultivars, leaf and stripe rust continue as problems for many growing areas of the world. Wheat Rusts: An Atlas of Resistance Genes has been prepared by specialists from one of the leading international laboratories, and illustrates with colour photographs typical resistance phenotypes associated with most known genes for resistance to the three rust diseases of wheat. Relevant details for each gene include chromosome location, aspects of genetics and pathogen variation, the effects of environment on expression, origin, availability in genetic and breeding stocks, and use in agriculture. This atlas includes an introduction to host:pathogen genetics, methodologies for wheat rust research and breeding for resistance.

During the 20th century, two revolutions swept rural Mexico: the Mexican Revolution and the Green Revolution. In both, revolutionaries promised to address the problems of rural poverty and underdevelopment. The Mexican Revolution led to a significant agrarian reform and created the State and elite that governed Mexico since the 1920s. The Green Revolution helped increase Mexican agricultural production substantially, and in 1970 it won a Nobel Peace Prize for Norman Borlaug, who bred dwarf hybrid wheat. Mexican agronomists played significant roles in both revolutions, but neither revolution brought prosperity to peasant farmers. This book examines the history of Mexican agronomy and agronomists to shed new light on the role of science in the Mexican Revolution, the origins of the worldwide Green Revolution, and general issues about the nature of the professions, the impact of professionals' ties to politics and the state, and discourses between members of Mexico's urban middle class and peasantry. Cotter also analyzes the impact of foreign models of science in Mexico, the history of U.S.-Mexican cooperation in the agricultural sciences, and the factors that led Mexico to seek scientific assistance from the United States. In a broad way, he reveals new aspects of the ongoing struggle for the right to define modernity and progress in rural Mexico, and offers new explanations for the failure of many of the State's efforts to assist peasant farmers.

Annotation. "Among the remarkable features of the University of Minnesota are its combination of land grant mission and research focus, its urban and rural campuses, its substantial number of students, and the breadth of its programs, from agricultural extension to organ transplants. This history of the university describes the challenges, triumphs, and accomplishments of Minnesota's premier institution of higher learning during the past fifty years." "The story of the U is told here through recollection by celebrated alumni (including Garrison Keillor, Walter Mondale, and Eric Sevareid); interviews with students, faculty, and administrators such as former president Nils Hasselmo and current president Mark G. Yudof; and reports of campus life from the Minnesota Daily and other publications. Color photographs of all campuses, along with dozens of photographs depicting students life and faculty during these decades, complement the text."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This book describes how genomics has revolutionized our understanding of agriculturally important plant-associated fungi. It illustrates some fundamental discoveries about these eukaryotic microbes with regard to the overall structure of their genomes, their lifestyles and the molecular mechanisms that form the basis of their interactions with plants. Genomics has provided new insights into fungal lifestyles and led to practical advances in plant breeding and crop protection, such as predictions about the spread and evolution of new pathogens. This volume focuses on fungi that are important cereal and other monocot plant pathogens and includes: Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, Cochliobolus sp., Colletotrichum sp., Fusarium graminearum, Mycosphaerella graminicola and Mycosphaerella fijiensis, Magnaporthe oryzae, Blumeria graminis and Puccinia graminis.