Global Tea Breeding: Achievements, Challenges and Perspectives provides a global review on biodiversity and biotechnology issues in tea breeding and selection. The contributions are written by experts from China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Nigeria, and etc., which countries amount to 90% of the world tea production. This book focuses on the germplasm, breeding and selection of tea cultivars for the production of black, green and Oolong teas from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze. It can benefit the tea breeders in the global tea industry, as well as the breeders of other woody cash crops like coffee and other sub-tropical fruit trees. Liang Chen is a Professor and Associate Director at National Center for Tea Improvement, Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TRICAAS), Hangzhou, China. Zeno Apostolides is a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Zong-Mao Chen is the Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a Professor at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.

Digital farming is an approach to farming in which crop yield is maximized while environmental impact is minimized. Integral to this approach is diagnostic sensing of plant disease and stress. This book examines innovative sensing technology such as satellite- and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based RGB and thermography imaging as well as hyperspectral, infrared, reflectance and Raman spectroscopy.

Arnab Dey examines the intersecting role of law, ecology, and agronomy in shaping the history of tea and its plantations in British east India. He suggests that looking afresh at the legal, environmental, and agro-economic aspects of tea production illuminate covert, expedient, and often illegal administrative and commercial dealings that had an immediate and long-term human and environmental impact on the region. Critiquing this imperial commodity's advertised mandate of agrarian modernization in colonial India, Dey points to numerous tea pests, disease ecologies, felled forests, harsh working conditions, wage manipulation, and political resistance as examples of tea's unseemly legacy in the subcontinent. Dey draws together the plant and the plantation in highlighting the ironies of the tea economy and its consequences for the agrarian history of eastern India.

The unruly Brahmaputra has always been an agent in shaping both the landscape of its valley and the livelihoods of its inhabitants. But how much do we know of this river’s rich past? Historian Arupjyoti Saikia’s biography of the Brahmaputra reimagines the layered history of Assam with the unquiet river at the centre. The book combines a range of disciplinary scholarship to unravel the geological forces as well as human endeavour which have shaped the river into what it is today. Wonderfully illuminated with archival detail and interwoven with narratives and striking connections, the book allows the reader to imagine the Brahmaputra’s course in history. This evocative and compelling book will be interesting reading for anyone trying to understand the past and the present of a river confronted by the twenty-first century’s ambitious infrastructural designs to further re-engineer the river and its landscape.

Scientific Perspectives of Tea Plant Horticulture and Productivity is a complete, step-by-step guide on how to maximize tea plant growth, yield and quality. Chapters focus on the methods of cultivation, soil and water management, plant physiology, plant protection and weed control, problems from pollution and climate change, and eco-friendly remedial actions. This is an essential read for plant biologists and tea horticulturalists as the tea industry is struggling due to high production costs, changing climates and diminishing plant yields, with countries in Asia declaring the industry at 'crisis point.' Horticulturalists need solutions to problems with plant productivity, quality, stress management and eco-friendly cultivation practices. There have been several technological advances in the field and horticulturalists need guidance on how best to implement new technologies, hence the importance of this new resource. - Written by a tea industry expert with almost 40 years' of experience - Provides a practical guide on all aspects of tea cultivation, with step-by-step protocols - Includes plantation troubleshooting and other remedial actions