Priority assessment for commodity improvement programmes has received methodological attention, yet innovation is needed for other, newer areas of research which have impact pathways that are harder to predict. Focusing on priority setting practices utilized in different international agricultural research institutes, this book discusses real world experiences and innovations with priority assessment methods. Chapters present approaches that have been used to articulate, explore and assess impact pathways and research priorities, while also considering their strengths and weaknesses and drawing together methodological lessons.

This report presents the life cycle inventories of the five studied crops. Section 2 of the document presents the type of data that can be sourced from the database, the data collection methods, and highlights the data gaps. Section three presents the life cycle inventory providing information on the data and data sources, assumptions and data gaps and how these were addressed. The Annexes provide information on crop yield distributions, data on nitrogen application rates, pesticide use and information on field processes and machinery use.

Maize is the second most important food crop in Vietnam after rice.

Sustainable Crop Productivity and Quality under Climate Change: Responses of Crop Plants to Climate Change explores the physiological, biochemical, and molecular basis of the responses of major crop plants to a range of climate change scenarios. From the development of climate-resilient crop varieties which lead to enhanced crop productivity and quality to better utilization of natural resources to ensure food security through modern breeding techniques, it presents insights into improving yield while securing the environment. Understanding the impact of climate on crop quality and production is a key challenge of crop science. Predicted increases in climate variability necessitate crop varieties with intrinsic resilience to cooccurring abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, and flooding in a future climate of elevated CO2. This book presents a much-needed mechanistic understanding of the interactions between multiple stress responses of plants that is required to identify and take advantage of acclimation traits in major crop species as a prerequisite for securing robust yield and good quality. This book is an excellent reference for crop and agricultural scientists, plant scientists, and researchers working on crop plant ecophysiology/stress physiology and future crop production. - Includes breeding strategies for developing climate-resilient crop varieties - Presents a comprehensive overview of the current challenges, approaches, and best practices - Authored by frontline researchers and experts who work at the fields of climate change impacts on crop productivity

The world population is estimated to reach to more than 10 billion by the year 2050. These projections pose a challenging situation for the agricultural scientists to increase crops productivity to meet the growing food demands. The unavailability and/or inaccessibility to appropriate gene pools with desired traits required to carry out genetic improvement of various crop species make this task formidable for the plant breeders. Incidentally, most of the desired genes reside in the wild genetic relatives of the crop species. Therefore, exploration and characterization of wild genetic resources of important crop species is vital for the efficient utilization of these gene pools for sustainable genetic improvements to assure food security. Further, understanding the myriad complexities of genic and genomic interactions among species, more particularly of wild relatives of crop species and/or phylogenetically distant germplasm, can provide the necessary inputs to increase the effectiveness of genetic improvement through traditional and/or genetic engineering methods. This book provides comprehensive and latest insights on the evolutionary genesis of diversity, access and its utilization in the evolution of various crop species. A comprehensive account of various crops, origin, exploitation of the primary, secondary and tertiary gene pools through breeding, biosystematical, cytogenetical and molecular phylogenetical relationships, and genetic enhancement through biotechnological interventions among others have been provided as the necessary underpinnings to consolidate information on the effective and sustainable utilization of the related genetic resources. The book stresses upon the importance of wild germplasm exploration, characterization and exploitation in the assimilation of important crop species. The book is especially intended for students and scientists working on the genetic improvement of crop species. Plant Breeders, Geneticists, Taxonomists, Molecular Biologists and Plant Biotechnologists working on crop species are going to find this book very useful.

This book focuses solely on the issues of agriculture and forest productivity analysis with advanced modeling approaches to bring solutions to food-insecure regions of South and Southeast Asia. Advanced modeling tools and their use in regional planning provide an outstanding opportunity to contribute toward food production and environments. In this book, leading-edge research methodologies related to remote sensing and geospatial variability of soil, water, and regional agricultural production indicators and their applications are introduced together—a unique feature of the book is the domain of regional policy perspectives and allied fields. In regional policy planning, agriculture and forestry have a key role in food security and environmental conservation that depends on the geo-spatial variability of these factors. Over the years, nature and climate have determined the variability of soil type, soil quality, geographical deviation for habitat, water quality, water sources, urban influences, population growth, carbon stock levels, and water resources with rain-fed or irrigated land use practices. In addition, human nutritional values and dietary habits have brought cultural adaptation of either mono- or multi-cropping patterns in the region. To encompass all these above mentioned factors and classify regional variability for policy planning, satellite remote sensing and geographical information systems have the immense potential to increase agricultural and forest productivity to ensure the resilience of its sustainability. Therefore, the 13 chapters presented in this book introduce modeling techniques using the signatures of vegetation and water indices, land use and land change dynamics, climatic, and socioeconomic criteria through spatial, temporal, and statistical analysis. As well, remote sensing and in-depth GIS analysis are integrated with machine and deep learning algorithms to address natural uncertainties such as flash floods, droughts, and cyclones in agricultural production management.

Maize is a promising substitute crop allowing diversification from the rice-wheat system in the upland areas of India. The crop has high production potential, pr ovided the available improved hybrids and composites reach the farming community. This study found that major biotic production constraints were Echinocloa, Cynodon dactylon, rats, and termites, which reduced maize production levels by more than 50%. Other important abiotic and biotic stresses listed in descending order of importance were: caterpillars, water stress, stem borers, weevils, zinc deficiency, rust, seed/seedling blight, cutworm, and leaf blight. Non-availability of improved seeds, inadequate input markets, inef fective technology dissemination, and lack of collective action were the principal socio-economic constraints.