Overview

This book which is edited by Dr Bao-Luo Ma, a senior research scientist from Agriculture and Agri-Food in Canada, includes contributions from more than twenty-eight scientists in this dynamic field from around the world. This book synthesises the latest innovations and integrated knowledge from science disciplines as diverse as agronomy, soil science, ecology, economy, and social sciences. The global population is projected to reach nine billion by mid-century. Questions continue to arise concerning the ability of the agriculture sector to keep pace with the demands for food, feed, fibre and fuel of an increasing population in the near future, as well as finding a way of sustaining both the production system and the environment. Crop rotations, an ancient practice that has gained renewed interest in recent years, involve growing different crop species/varieties on the same piece of land in consecutive growing seasons (years). The direct and indirect benefits of this practice to the production system and the environment have been recognised for millennia. In recent years, it has been documented that crop rotations coupled with conservation tillage has enhanced the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil, improved seasonal nitrogen availability, and provided nitrogen inputs through symbiotic nitrogen fixation by legumes. This strategy can also lead to a better balance of plant nutritional requirements and a shift in soil mycorrhizal populations, interrupt insect populations, increase root activity, reduce disease severity, enhance environmentally-friendly biodiversity, and lower per-area greenhouse gas emissions or per-yield based carbon footprints. This book serves as one of the most recent and valuable reference on these multi-disciplines, and targets audiences at the undergraduate and graduate level, including crop, soil and agronomy scientists as well as environment scientists and policy-makers.

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9781634844963

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Dr Ma, a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, is a recognized international authority in crop physiology, focusing on the crop production systems and nutrient management. He has co-authored more than 150 scientific journal publications and 15 book chapters / review papers. Dr. Ma has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of nitrogen dynamics in the soil-crop-atmosphere system. He also conducted some of the earliest research on the new concept of crop indicators for plant phenotyping and guiding nutrient management, which has been increasingly accepted by the scientific com-munity and crop producers. Dr. Ma has served a 3-year term as a Senior Associate Editor of Agronomy Journal, and is serving a second 3-year team as the Technical Editor of Crop Science journal. He has co-supervised 16 MSc. and PhD students, supervised 8 post-doctoral fellows and 15 international professors/ researchers. Dr. Ma has been awarded the Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy (2007), Fellow of Canadian Society of Agronomy (2011), and Fellow of Crop Science Society of

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