Advances in machine vision technologies for the measurement of soil texture, structure and topography

This chapter examines advances in machine vision technologies for the measurement of soil texture, structure and topography. It starts by providing an overview of the basic principles of machine vision technologies, focusing on areas such as 3D surface modelling and various methods of soil thin s...

Integrated pest management in tomato cultivation

Pests and diseases contribute to about 40% of tomato yield loss in the field worldwide. This chapter will focus on how to combat pests and diseases using integrated pest management (IPM). The development of an IPM package for tomato involves the combination of multiple management strategies to ad...

Developing varieties of robusta coffee

Coffee is one of the important agricultural commodities, contributing substantially to the national exchequers of growing countries. Coffee is generally obtained from two types of coffee plants, namely Arabica and Robusta; the two species differ from each other in their centre of origin, breeding...

Advances in insect pest management in postharvest storage of cereals: use of controlled atmosphere and temperature control

Oxygen depleted controlled or modified atmospheres (CA/MA) generated by a variety of different methods and alteration of temperature of stored cereals have been used successfully to replace fumigants for insect control and for the quality preservation of stored products. CA or MA have been used ...

Best management practices for maintaining water quality in sugarcane cultivation

Best Management Practices (BMPs) in agricultural crops are farming methods that assure optimum plant growth, profitable yields and minimized adverse environmental effects. This chapter focusses on the achievement of BMPs in maintaining water quality for sugarcane cultivation, drawing on evidence ...

Developments in agrivoltaics: achieving synergies by combining plants with solar photovoltaic power systems

Agrivoltaics are renewable energy systems that combine food production with electricity generation from solar photovoltaics (PV). Research and development on agrivoltaics has increased steadily in recent years to address the questions: "How is crop production affected under PV panels?" and "How c...

Advances in understanding insect pests affecting wheat and other cereals

This collection reviews the wealth of research on understanding insect population dynamics, novel pest invasions, the effects of changing production systems, plant-pathogen-interactions, detection, forecasting and decision support for integrated pest management (IPM) techniques to control major i...

Pathogens in tropical forests: diversity and management

Plants in tropical forests are subject to attack by a wide range of pathogenic organisms, including fungi, bacteria, viruses and parasitic plants, which reduce productivity. In natural forests, pathogens are normal components, arguably driving evolution through attacking susceptible individual tr...

Agroforestry for fruit trees in europe and mediterranean north africa

Although fruit trees are considered as high value for agroforestry and are the primary driver of agroforestry adoption worldwide, they are still underrepresented in agroforestry systems in temperate regions compared to the tropics. This chapter illustrates the large diversity of fruit tree-based ...

Xanthomonas wilt of banana

Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a major banana disease affecting small-holder farms in East and Central Africa. While BXW management practices have been introduced across extensive regions, achieving high levels of disease control and/or eradication has proven difficult. Resurgence of BXW in managed si...

The development of sugarcane cultivation

Sugarcane is considered one of the most efficient plants on the planet given its capacity to transform solar energy into chemical energy with high carbon fixation rates. It has traditionally been exploited for sucrose production, but has now also gained importance for energy and ethanol productio...

Minor fungal diseases of banana

This chapter gives an overview of a number of minor diseases which affects bananas in different parts of the world. It gives an overview of the occurence, causal agent, key disease symptoms, host susceptibility and control of the the following diseases: Cordana leaf spot, Deightoniella leaf spot,...

Encouraging integrated pest management uptake in horticultural crop production

Despite integrated pest management (IPM) practices being taught and researched for over six decades, farmers' adoption of such practices has been limited. Integrated pest management is a comprehensive management approach that utilizes multiple strategies to keep pest populations below economic th...

Instant insights: improving piglet welfare

This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on improving piglet welfare.

Improving soil and crop nutrition management in sorghum cultivation

This chapter provides an overview of the nutrients needed, quantities of nutrients used and concepts of nutrient management commonly utilized in commercial grain sorghum production. The chapter describes how these concepts can also be applied to subsistence production as practised in much of the ...

Instant insights: improving crop disease management

This specially curated collection features four reviews of current and key research on improving crop disease management

The role of good manufacturing practice and hazard analysis and critical control point systems in maintaining the safety of minimally processed fresh produce

Minimally-processed fresh produce items have been implicated in multiple foodborne disease outbreaks. This reiterates the important role of Good Manufacturing Practices and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) to ensure the safety of minimally processed fresh produce. The main eleme...

Instant insights: climate change, insect pests and invasive species

This specially curated collection features three reviews of current and key research on climate change, insect pests and invasive species.

Instant insights: nitrogen-use efficiency

This book reviews recent advances in optimising nitrogen-use efficiency in an era where farmers are required to reduce their on-farm environmental impacts, whilst also maximising crop productivity and yields.

Achieving sustainable cultivation of wheat volume 2

Volume 2 discusses ways of improving cultivation from variety selection to post-harvest storage. It reviews trends in integrated crop management, sustainable intensification and organic cultivation before concluding by looking at ways of supporting smallholders in the developing world.

Innovations in apple tree cultivation to manage crop load and ripening

This chapter is a summary of recent innovation in orchard training system design, pruning technique, thinning, plant growth regulators and fruit finishing, with the specific goal of identifying more sustainable practice. New training systems like the ‘bi-axis’ are described as well as pruning tec...

Trade and marketing of avocado

This chapter describes the global trade in avocado, markets and marketing systems, examples of quality and safety standards and requirements for local markets as well as for export markets, and costs and returns.

Nutritional composition and the value of pig meat

Pork is a commonly consumed protein source which contributes various macro- and micronutrients to the diet of people living in the United States, some positively and negatively influencing indices of human health. This book chapter provides data about the nutritional content and current intakes o...

A question of culture: bringing the gut microbiome to life in the -omics era

Research of the mammalian gut microbiome has in recent years been principally defined by the culture independent analysis of the genetic potential inherent to these microbial communities. However, there has been a renewed interest in culture-based studies of the gut microbiome to increase both t...

Evaluating the economics of integrated weed management

Integrated weed management (IWM) contributes to the reduction of the use of pesticides and the risks of pesticide use. Novel IWM strategies can have economic consequences for farming systems. To develop alternative weed management strategies that maintain productivity while reducing the environme...

Instant insights: optimising agri-food supply chains

This book provides a detailed overview of current agri-food supply chains, as well as the ways in which they can be optimised to mitigate some of agriculture’s biggest challenges, including food loss and waste.

Advances in remote/aerial sensing of crop water status

This chapter examines advances in remote and aerial sensing of crop water status. The chapter first discusses the quantification of plant water status and the various methods used to assess plant water stress. It then moves on to examine the use of electromagnetic radiation and how it can interac...

The role of microbes in tea cultivation

Tea crops can suffer from nutrient deficiencies, attack by a variety of pests and pathogens and climatic stresses, which result in considerable crop losses. However, the application of synthetic chemicals to alleviate crop loss has exerted a detrimental impact on the tea ecosystem. Plant growth–p...

Advances in the generation of insertion-based genome edits in plants

Tremendous progress has been achieved in the field of gene editing in plants, such as with the use of zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR). Because of the potential advantages...

Developing drought- and heat-tolerant varieties of grain legumes

Despite the complexity imposed by the polygenic nature of plant tolerance to drought and to heat, significant strides have been made in understanding the underlying response and adaptation of plants to these stresses. Together with advanced and accessible technologies such as next-generation sequ...

Achieving sustainable cultivation of vegetables

This volume summarises the wealth of research on improving sustainability in vegetable cultivation. Part 1 reviews advances in physiology and breeding. Parts 2-3 summarise advances in cultivation and pest management. The final part includes case studies on the breeding and cultivation of key vege...

Pre- and post-harvest strategies to optimize fruit quality and shelf life

Ensuring a sustainable tree fruit industry with regard to post-harvest quality management involves engaging approaches and technologies that encompass both pre- and post-harvest issues. The adoption of new, non-destructive technologies is important for quantifying and evaluating the challenge of ...

Improving smallholder dairy farming in tropical asia

This chapter reviews the importance of smallholder dairy farmers in Asia. It assesses their needs and the obstacles they face in improving dairy production. The chapter discusses ways of benchmarking performance and examples of initiatives to support smallholders. It identifies both constraints f...

Genome editing for precision crop breeding

Part 1 of this volume reviews advances in gene editing techniques such as insertion-based genome edits, base editing, guide RNAs and CRISPR/Cas off targeting. Part 2 surveys applications of gene editing in key cereal and vegetable crops.

Soil health assessment and maintenance in central and south-central brazil

Brazil has evolved from a food-insecure country in the early 1970s to one of the most important food producers and exporters in the world. Production has increased steadily and productivity gains have fostered a significant land-saving effect. However, wide variations in the landscape, soils, cli...

Molecular approaches in cassava breeding

In cassava, as for other major crops, molecular markers can reveal the genetic basis for both qualitative and quantitative phenotypic changes. This chapter examines the genetic diversity of cassava, the process of marker-assisted selection (MAS) and the application of genome sequencing to cassava...

Weed management of maize grown under temperate conditions: the case of europe and the united states

This chapter reviews the impact of weeds on maize grown under temperate conditions, with a particular focus on the situation in the United States and Europe. It discusses current weed management systems and the herbicide resistance issues that have developed through the continuous use of herbicid...

Developing improved varieties of lentil

Lentil is a popular pulse consumed primarily in Asia. It has a protein content of approx. 28% and also contains high amounts of macro- and micro-nutrients. Lentils are cropped under rainfed conditions and on residual/conserved soil moisture, and their inclusion in rotation benefits succeeding cro...

Advances in cultivation of pistachio

Pistachio is grown most intensively in Iran, Syria, Turkey and the USA. The other pistachio-producing regions are the Near East, North Africa and Southern Europe. The most important characteristics of pistachio nuts from a marketing viewpoint are large size, high percentage of shell splitting, lo...

Advances in understanding plant root anatomy and nutrient acquisition

In this chapter root anatomical traits and trait states, and nutrient acquisition mechanisms, along with the environmental issues affecting nutrient acquisition are summarized. Then, the whole range of adaptations of root anatomical traits, and its impact on nutrient acquisition are discussed. Co...

Food waste at the consumer level

Consumers account for a significant amount of food waste globally. In Europe and North America, for example, half of food losses and waste happens at the consumer level. Researchers have identified a range of causes for consumer food waste. Studies indicate that the social context of food practic...

International genomic evaluation methods for dairy cattle

The primary systems of data recording and genetic evaluation of dairy cattle are managed at a national level, with separate programs being run by each country, or in some cases for a small group of countries. However, international genomic evaluation methods for dairy cattle are needed so that si...

The economics of soil health

Soil health management practices and systems can be important tools for farmers to realize on-farm benefits associated with decreased erosion, improved levels of soil organic matter and improved soil structure and function. This chapter describes existing research on the economics of soil health ...

Poultry welfare monitoring: group-level technologies

Commercial poultry are frequently kept in groups of thousands of individuals where tagging or identifying every bird is logistically impossible. Group, rather than individual, level approaches to assessing their health and welfare are therefore currently the most feasible. This chapter covers the...

Advances in soilless culture strawberry production

The majority of strawberries produced in the world are grown in the open field, and only in the past 50 years has protected cropping become established as a commercially viable system. Soilless culture (hydroponics) is an important component of this form of intensive production because it enabl...

Optimizing insecticide use in integrated management of fruit insect pests

The integrated pest management approach was conceived to reduce grower reliance on pesticides by combining and optimizing pesticide use with biological, physical and agronomical control tools. Natural enemies are an essential component of the agroecosystem and play a valuable role in controlling ...

Production of biodiesel from oilseeds: jatropha curcas

Our earth is on the verge of a severe global energy crisis with less energy reserves which are soon to be named as ‘extinct’. Liquid biofuels such as biodiesel serve as an importance sustainable energy to replace fossil derived diesel fuel. Competition of edible oils for food and fuel make the no...

Pathogens affecting raw milk from cows

The aim of this chapter is to review what is known about pathogens affecting raw milk from cows and dairy products made from raw milk. Milk-borne zoonotic pathogenic microorganisms that can contaminate raw milk from cows or dairy products are described including sources of contamination. The grow...

Conservation agriculture in west and central africa

Individual Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices are not new to the West and Central Africa (WCA) region, though the combination of the three main components of CA is innovative. This chapter describe the main challenges in the adoption of CA while highlighting the diversity of practices relate...

Improving market access for smallholders

This chapter reviews improving market access for smallholders. It begins by highlighting the challenges faced by smallholders when trying to access markets and moves on to review findings from recent studies on policy interventions to improve access to markets. The chapter concludes by addressing...

Violence prevention through transformative mediation in south africa

The book’s primary goal is to propose local solutions for South African communities’ peace and security challenges, emphasising peacebuilding approaches. It aims to publish lessons learned from the real-life experiences of scholars and practitioners regarding solutions for preventing violence in ...

Intimate letters from petrograd

Affordable housing for livable cities

The book addresses current housing affordability challenges and presents innovative planning and design strategies for contemporary communities and homes that are both livable and affordable.

Bernhard lang

A critical guide and introduction to the work of Austrian composer Bernhard Lang (b. 1957) - one of Europe’s foremost leading practitioners in contemporary music. It traces the phenomenon of repetition as it works in and through Lang’s oeuvre and investigates his use of textual quotation and musi...

Tribal and the cultural legacy of streetwear

Tribal Streetwear is a lifestyle streetwear brand that is inspired by a variety of southern California sub-cultures that includes graffiti, street art, skateboarding, surfing, tattoos, hip hop, breakdancing, punk, low-riders, and custom culture. This edited volume uses Tribal as a lens for examin...

From cataloguing to metadata creation

From Cataloguing to Metadata Creation is a cultural and methodological introduction to the evolution of cataloguing towards metadata creation process in the digital era. It is a journey through the founding principles and the objectives of the 'information organisation' service that libraries offer.

Facet analysis

Facet Analysis provides a general overview of facet analysis as a formal methodology for building knowledge organization and search tools and as a general knowledge organization theory.

The no-nonsense guide to born-digital content

A comprehensive, entry-level guide that focuses explicitly on how to collect and manage born-digital content for ‘boots on the ground’ practitioners.

The no-nonsense guide to research support and scholarly communication

This accessible and highly practical book provides an introductory guide to the world of research support in the academic library.

A handbook of history, theory and practice of the dewey decimal classification system

A Handbook of History, Theory and Practice of the Dewey Decimal Classification System is a comprehensive, practical guide to today’s DDC, used by over 200,000 libraries globally. It is an essential companion for DDC classifiers, and reference for students and educators of classification.

Open licensing for cultural heritage

This practical and explanatory guide for library and cultural heritage professionals introduces and explains the use of open licences for content, data and metadata in libraries and other cultural heritage organisations.

Social tagging in a linked data environment

This book, representing researchers and practitioners across different information professions, will explore how social tags can link content across a variety of environments.

Recordkeeping cultures

Recordkeeping Cultures explores how an understanding of organisational information culture provides the insight necessary for the development and promotion of sound recordkeeping practices.

The future of enriched, linked, open and filtered metadata

This practical book uses simple and accessible language to make sense of the many existing and emerging metadata standards, models and approaches.

Social media for creative libraries

This book takes a practical look at the activities that librarians undertake to see how they can be better achieved – more quickly, more efficiently and with more impact – using social media tools.

Community archives, community spaces

This book traces the trajectory of the community archives movement, including development to sites such as historical societies, social movement organisations and community centres, and explores new definitions of what community archives might encompass, particularly in relation to disciplines ou...

The special collections handbook

Based on practical experience and the latest ideas in the heritage sector, The Special Collections Handbook is a no-nonsense companion to help librarians with limited resources care for unique and distinctive collections and share them with wider audiences.

Electronic legal deposit

This edited collection provides a timely account of the social, institutional and user impacts of e-legal deposit.

The new walford guide to reference resources

Part of a three-volume cycle, this book presents a selection of key resources - accessible via the web and in print. Resources within the 12 groupings are divided between 100 generally recognizable subject fields, and then allocated to one of 13 standard resource categories. It is intended for LI...

Copyright

Cornish's Copyright, the standard work in its field, is indispensable for all librarians and information professionals looking for solutions to their copyright problems.

Information governance and assurance

This comprehensive textbook discusses the legal, organisational and ethical aspects of information governance and information security and their relevance to all aspects of information work.

Text and data mining

This book offers a broad and accessible introduction to research based on text and data mining (TDM), focusing specifically on the ways in which TDM has been applied within the humanities.

Information systems

This book adopts a holistic interpretation of information architecture, to offer a variety of methods, tools, and techniques that may be used when designing websites and information systems that support workflows and what people require when 'managing information'.

Taxonomies

Taxonomies is a curated anthology of case studies of taxonomy projects that showcases the incredible breadth and depth of work being done by taxonomists across many different types of sectors and organisations. The book aims to inspire and educate anyone who needs to organise information and data.

Archives

An international perspective on archives management, providing guidance relevant both to collections-based repositories and to organizations responsible for managing their own institutional archives.

Playing games in the school library

'Required reading for anyone with an interest in school libraries or any facet of education. Everyone should have a copy of this wonderful book.'- Christopher Evans

Practical knowledge and information management

This book provides a practical guide to implementing knowledge and information initiatives in the workplace.

Reader development in practice

Who is the reader? How do we reach them, and why? To what extent are readers determining what libraries offer? How has that changed since the birth of reader development? This collection covers various aspects of literature in relation to readership, exploring the chain of events connecting autho...

Essential classification

This new edition offers fully revised and updated guidance on how to go about classifying a document from scratch; reflecting changes to the major general schemes since the first edition, and with new chapters on working with informal classification, from folksonomies to tagging and social media.

Media smart

The most important thing today’s students can learn is how to find and evaluate information. This book provides in-depth discussion of aspects of media literacy and how they can be used to manipulate information. Classroom exercises are provided to help instructors teach vital media literacy skil...

Developing digital scholarship

This book provides strategic insights drawn from librarians who are meeting the challenge of digital scholarship, utilizing the latest technologies and creating new knowledge in partnership with researchers, scholars, colleagues and students.

Read to succeed

Covers various aspects of promoting reading to and with children and young people from birth right through to teenage years. This title is suitable for practitioners and students of librarianship in both the public and school sectors, and for teachers, consultants and educators concerned with lit...

Bold minds

'Bringing together a wonderfully diverse set of international library leaders, Bold Minds: Library Leadership in a Time of Disruption challenges common fears about the future of the library and contemplates how best to bring librarianship into a new era.'-Law Library Journal

Information needs analysis

If you want to provide an information service that truly fulfils your users' needs, this book is essential reading. The book supports practitioners in developing an information needs analysis strategy and offers the necessary professional skills and techniques to do so.

Practical tips for facilitating research

This practical guide offers innovative tips and reliable best practice to enable new and experienced library and information professionals to evaluate their current provision and develop their service to meet the evolving needs of the research community.

Better library and learning space

What are the most important things a 21st-century library should do with its space? This title includes chapters that address this critical question, capturing the insights and practical ideas of international librarians, educators and designers to offer you a 'creative resource bank' that helps ...

The no-nonsense guide to leadership, management and teamwork

This book provides a straight forward and pragmatic guide to leadership, management and team working in contemporary library and information services.

M-libraries 3

This title draws together international authorities to explore the variety of work that libraries are doing across the world to deliver resources to users, via mobile and hand-held devices.

Engaging with records and archives

This new book provides an authoritative and inspiring response to today’s growing fascination with the idea of the archive and contains cutting-edge research articles on the history and theory of archives and records, written by internationally renowned and emerging scholars.

Delivering impact with digital resources

This book investigates how digital values affect our lives provides practical guidance for delivering and sustaining value and impact from digital content.

Successful enquiry answering every time

This book guides the reader step-by-step through all stages of the research process, from finding out what the enquirer really wants, to providing a polished, actionable, value-added answer.

The new professional's toolkit

A handbook for new information professionals wanting to thrive in their careers. Drawing together the experiences and advice of rising stars in the information world, it covers topics such as: utilizing technologies and social media; generating funding and how to do more with less; and managing p...

Information rights in practice

Overstretched professionals in every public authority are grappling with the chalkface implications of a raft of legislation relating to information use. This book offers information about rights law, using relevant case studies to clarify and illuminate these tricky issues.

Evaluating the impact of your library

Outlining a rigorously tested approach to library evaluation and offering practical tools and highly relevant examples, this brand new edition enables LIS managers to get to grips with the slippery concept of service impact and to address their own impact questions in their planning.

Research methods in information

The long-awaited 2nd edition of this best-selling research methods handbook is fully updated and includes brand new coverage of online research methods and techniques, mixed methodology and qualitative analysis.

The no-nonsense guide to archives and recordkeeping

This practical how-to-do-it guide is ideal for professionals involved in the management of archives and records, especially if they are just starting out or without formal training.

The no-nonsense guide to project management

This book provides a ‘no-nonsense’ guide to project management which will enable library and information professionals to lead or take part in a wide range of projects from large-scale multi-organisation complex projects through to relatively simple local ones.

Preparing collections for digitization

Most libraries, archives and museums are confronting the challenges of providing digital access to their collections. This guide offers guidance covering the end-to-end process of digitizing collections, from selecting records for digitization to choosing suppliers and equipment and dealing with ...