Kuldeep Bauddh

Rana Pratap Singh

Due to the diverse properties of Ricinus communis (castor), this book provides a comprehensive account of castor as a ‘climate resilient and value-added crop.’ It explores the morphological variations, various cultivation techniques, genotypic differences, suitable soil types, and the crop’s yield. The book also discusses the phytoremediation efficiency of castor, focusing on its role in restoring degraded lands, abandoned mining sites, and lands contaminated by heavy metals. The application of suitable plants for the restoration of degraded lands is an efficient method due to its ecological and economic viability. Castor is a hardy angiosperm with multiple benefits. It serves the dual purpose of being an excellent phytoremediator and a source of bioenergy. Additionally, castor has proven effective in treating several human diseases. The castor plant's ability to thrive in stressed soils makes it particularly suitable for the phytoremediation of polluted lands in various climatic conditions. Given its wide range of industrial uses, castor has gained significant attention for further exploration of its biology, cultivation techniques, and genotypic variations. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, botanists, capacity builders, and policymakers. It also serves as good reading material for undergraduate and master students of botany, ecology, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists, ecologists, and policymakers will also find it a valuable resource

Ricinus Communis: A Climate Resilient Commercial Crop for Sustainable Environment

Sanjeev Kumar

John Korstad

Rampant industrialization, urbanization, and population growth have resulted in increased global environmental contamination. The productivity of agricultural soil is drastically deteriorated and requires a high dose of fertilizers to cultivate crops. To ensure food security, farmers are compelled to apply excess chemical fertilizers and insecticides that contaminate soil, air, and water. Heavy loads of chemical fertilizers not only degrade the quality of agricultural land but also pollute water and air. Use of chemical fertilizers also accelerate the release of greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide and methane along with nutrient runoff from the watershed in to lower elevation rivers and lakes, resulting in cultural eutrophication. Farming practices globally in developed, developing, and under-developing countries should utilize and promote sustainable methods through viable combined environmental, social, and economic means that improve rather than harm future generations. This can include use of non-synthetic fertilizers like compost, vermicompost, slow-release fertilizers, farmyard manures, crop rotations that include nitrogen-fixing legumes. Organic fertilizers like compost and vermicompost improve soil properties like texture, porosity, water-holding capacity, organic matter, as well as nutrient availability. The purpose of this book is to document the available alternatives of synthetic fertilizers, their mode of action, efficiency, preparation methodology, practical suggestions for sustainable practices, and needed research focus. The book will cover major disciplines like plant science, environmental science, agricultural science, agricultural biotechnology and microbiology, horticulture, soil science, atmospheric science, agro-forestry, agronomy, and ecology. This book is helpful for farmers, scientists, industrialists, research scholars, masters and graduate students, non-governmental organizations, financial advisers, and policy makers.

Ecological and Practical Applications for Sustainable Agriculture

Pawan Kumar Jaiwal

Om Parkash Dhankher

This book presents a detailed overview and critical evaluation of the state of the art and latest approaches in genetic manipulation studies on plants to mitigate the impact of climate change on growth and productivity. Each chapter has been written by experts in plant-stress biology and highlights the involvement of a variety of genes/pathways and their regulation in abiotic stress, recent advances in molecular breeding (identification of tightly liked markers, QTLs/genes), transgenesis (introduction of exogenous genes or changing the expression of endogenous stress- responsive genes) and genomics approaches that have made it easier to identify and isolate several key genes involved in abiotic stress such as drought, water lodging/flooding, extreme temperatures, salinity and heavy-metal toxicity. Food and nutritional security has emerged as a major global challenge due to expanding populations, and cultivated areas becoming less productive as a result of extreme climatic changes adversely affecting the quantity and quality of plants. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop crop varieties resilient to abiotic stress to ensure food security and combat increased input costs, low yields and the marginalization of land. The role of GM crops in poverty alleviation, nutrition and health in developing countries and their feasibility in times of climate change are also discussed. Recent advances in gene technologies have shown t he potential for faster, more targeted crop improvements by transferring genes across the sexual barriers. The book is a valuable resource for scientists, researchers, students, planners and industrialists working in the area of biotechnology, plant agriculture, agronomy, horticulture, plant physiology, molecular biology, plant sciences and environmental sciences.

Rana Pratap Singh

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