ISBN: 9788189304706    Publisher: Satish Serial Publishing House Year of publishing: 2009     Format:  Hardcover Language: English

Legumes are a large, diverse family ranging from herbaceous annuals to woody perennials that, because of their capacity to fix nitrogen, are essential components in natural and managed terrestrial ecosystems. Legumes have been domesticated for the production of food, feed, forage, fiber, industrial and medicinal compounds, flowers, and other end uses. The book covers a wide-ranging survey of all the major legumes from their evolution to their potential for further development and improvement as economically important food crops. The contents of the book have been divided into five themes viz., Crop Improvement, Crop Production, Physiological Bio-Chemical and Bio-Technological advances, Crop Protection and Policies and Programmes. It covers the changes that have occurred in the course of plant domestication leading to our present pulse crops and oilseed legume crops. It also includes reviews on the benefits to be gained from evaluation and improvement of grain legume genetic resources. This book will serve as a suitable study and reference material for postgraduate students and researchers.
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Professor M. Prakash, born in 1966, obtained degrees of B.Sc.(Ag.) and M.Sc.(Ag.) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India in 1988 and 1990 respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. (Agricultural Botany) from Annamalai University, India in 1997. He teaches Genetics and Crop Physiology to both the under graduate and post graduate students at the Annamalai University from 1992. He also guides Ph.D and M.Sc.(Ag.) students in research. Professor Prakash's major area of interest is abiotic stress tolerance and heterosis breeding. He has published more than 58 research papers in referred journals and participated in several National and International conferences. He has organized three National seminars and one National scientific workshop. He has completed three research projects and now operating a DST sponsored Major Research Project and serving as Coordinator for UGC-SAP-DRS-PHASE-I programme in Department of Agricultural Botany.
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