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The tropics are the source of many of our familiar fruits, vegetables, oils, and spice, as well as such commodities as rubber and wood. Moreover, other tropical fruits and vegetables are being introduced into our markets to offer variety to our diet. Now, as tropical forests are increasingly threatened, we face a double-fold crisis: not only the loss of the plants but also rich pools of potentially useful genes. Wild populations of crop plants harbor genes that can improve the productivity and disease resistance of cultivated crops, many of which are vital to developing economies and to global commerce. Eight chapters of this book are devoted to a variety of tropical crops-beverages, fruit, starch, oil, resins, fuelwood, fodder, spices, timber, and nuts-the history of their domestication, their uses today, and the known extent of their gene pools, both domesticated and wild. Drawing on broad research, the authors also consider conservation strategies such as parks and reserves, corporate holdings, gene banks and tissue culture collections, and debt-for-nature swaps. They stress the need for a sensitive balance between conservation and the economic well-being of local populations. If economic growth is part of the conservation effort, local populations and governments will be more strongly motivated to save their natural resources. Distinctly practical and soundly informative, this book provides insight into the overwhelming abundance of tropical forests, an unsettling sense of what we may lose if they are destroyed, and a deep appreciation for the delicate relationships between tropical forest plants and people around the world.

Forest germplasm resources conservation --- Forest products --- Tree crops --- Tropical crops. --- Conservation of forest genetic resources --- Forest genetic resources conservation --- Forest conservation --- Germplasm resources conservation --- Forest production --- Botany, Economic --- Commercial products --- Raw materials --- Forest farming --- Agriculture --- Crops --- Fruit trees --- Nut trees --- Plants --- Trees --- Agroforestry --- Field crops --- Forests and forestry --- Horticultural crops --- Plantation crops --- Tropical agriculture --- Tropical plants

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Irrigation has been used for thousands of years to maximize the performance, efficiency and profitability of crops and it is a science that is constantly evolving. This potential for improved crop yields has never been more important as population levels and demand for food continue to grow. Recognising the need for a coherent and accessible review of international irrigation research, this book examines the factors influencing water productivity in individual crops. It focuses on nine key plantation/industrial crops on which millions of people in the tropics and subtropics depend for their livelihoods (banana, cocoa, coconut, coffee, oil palm, rubber, sisal, sugar cane and tea). Linking crop physiology, agronomy and irrigation practices, this is a valuable resource for planners, irrigation engineers, agronomists and producers concerned with the international need to improve water productivity in agriculture in the face of increased pressure on water resources.

Tropical crops. --- Crops and water. --- Irrigation farming. --- Irrigated agriculture --- Irrigated farming --- Irrigation agriculture --- Agriculture --- Arid regions agriculture --- Irrigation --- Crops and water --- Agrohydrology --- Crop-water relationships --- Water and crops --- Water-crop relationships --- Plant-water relationships --- Water in agriculture --- Irrigation farming --- Plantation crops --- Tropical agriculture --- Crops --- Field crops --- Tropical plants

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Tropical crop plants are one of the natural world’s most valuable assets. However, the genetic resources of tropical plants are underutilized and in danger of being lost due to the destruction of natural habitats, the high costs of conservation programs, and our lack of appreciation of the worth of these precious resources. Considering the tropical origin of much of the biological diversity that is responsible for genes and phenotypes of temperate crops, there is a critical need for assessing the genomics of tropical plant species. Genomics of Tropical Crop Plants summarizes recent progress on genomic research, including the development of molecular markers, genomic and cDNA libraries, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), genetic and physical maps, gene expression profiles, and whole genome sequences for 20 tropical crop plants. It offers background information about the evolutionary origin and environments of tropical crop species, international programs that are addressing the needs of tropical agriculture, and the potential for new technologies to increase the productivity and value of tropical crops. This book provides new dimensions to growing information concerning temperate crops and their morphology, physiology, and parallel evolution in diverse plant lineages. This book will appeal to graduate students, post graduates, researchers, and professionals in plant breeding, genetics, germplasm conservation, and agronomy of tropical crop plants. About the Editors: Paul H. Moore is a world authority on tropical plants with a particular focus on sugarcane, papaya, and pineapple. In his almost 40-year career, he has published over 150 papers in highly reputable scientific journals and is considered the foremost expert in sugarcane. He along with Dr. Ming are co-Editors-in-Chief of the new Springer journal, Tropical Plant Biology. Dr. Ray Ming is an associate professor of plant biology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois and has done extensive research on papaya, coffee, pineapple, and sugarcane. His expertise includes work on evolution of sex chromosomes in plants, and the structure and organization of the papaya genome.

Tropical crops --- Plant genetics --- Genetics. --- Research. --- Plantation crops --- Tropical agriculture --- Agriculture --- Crops --- Field crops --- Tropical plants --- Plants --- Genetics --- Botany. --- Plant genetics. --- Plant diseases. --- Plant Sciences. --- Plant Genetics and Genomics. --- Plant Pathology. --- Botany --- Communicable diseases in plants --- Crop diseases --- Diseases of plants --- Microbial diseases in plants --- Pathological botany --- Pathology, Vegetable --- Phytopathology --- Plant pathology --- Vegetable pathology --- Agricultural pests --- Crop losses --- Diseased plants --- Phytopathogenic microorganisms --- Plant pathologists --- Plant quarantine --- Botanical science --- Phytobiology --- Phytography --- Phytology --- Plant biology --- Plant science --- Biology --- Natural history --- Pathology --- Diseases and pests --- Diseases --- Wounds and injuries --- Plant science. --- Plant pathology. --- Floristic botany

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In the late 1800's American entrepreneurs became participants in the 400-year history of European economic and ecological hegemony in the tropics. Beginning as buyers in the tropical ports of the Atlantic and Pacific, they evolved into land speculators, controlling and managing the areas where tropical crops were grown for carefully fostered consumer markets at home. As corporate agro-industry emerged, the speculators took direct control of the ecological destinies of many tropical lands. Supported by the U.S. government's diplomatic and military protection, they migrated and built private empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Yankee investors and plantation managers mobilized engineers, agronomists, and loggers to undertake what they called the "Conquest of the Tropics," claiming to bring civilization to benighted peoples and cultivation to unproductive nature. In competitive cooperation with local landed and political elites, they not only cleared natural forests but also displaced multicrop tribal and peasant lands with monocrop export plantations rooted in private property regimes. This book is a rich history of the transformation of the tropics in modern times, pointing ultimately to the declining biodiversity that has resulted from the domestication of widely varied natural systems. Richard P. Tucker graphically illustrates his study with six major crops, each a virtual empire in itself-sugar, bananas, coffee, rubber, beef, and timber. He concludes that as long as corporate-dominated free trade is ascendant, paying little heed to its long-term ecological consequences, the health of the tropical world is gravely endangered.

Tropical crops --- Investments, American --- Environmental degradation --- Cultures tropicales --- Investissements américains --- Environnement --- Economic aspects --- History --- Environmental aspects --- Aspect économique --- Histoire --- Aspect environnemental --- Dégradation --- Environmental degradation. --- Investments, American. --- Investments, American - Tropics - History - 20th century. --- Tropical crops. --- Tropical crops-- Economic aspects-- History-- 20th century. --- Business & Economics --- Agricultural Economics --- Investissements américains --- Aspect économique --- Dégradation --- Degradation, Environmental --- Destruction, Environmental --- Deterioration, Environmental --- Environmental destruction --- Environmental deterioration --- American investments --- Plantation crops --- Tropical agriculture --- Natural disasters --- Environmental quality --- Agriculture --- Crops --- Field crops --- Tropical plants --- E-books --- agriculture. --- american history. --- bananas. --- beef. --- biodiversity. --- caribbean. --- central america. --- civilization. --- coffee. --- commerce. --- commodities. --- conservation. --- cultivation. --- ecology. --- environment. --- environmental history. --- environmental impact. --- environmentalism. --- forest. --- free trade. --- land speculation. --- latin american history. --- monocrops. --- nonfiction. --- pacific. --- plantations. --- rubber. --- south america. --- southeast asia. --- sugar. --- timber. --- trade. --- transnational history. --- tropical crops. --- tropical lands. --- tropical ports. --- tropics. --- west africa. --- white mans burden.