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The agri-food chain consumes about one third of the world’s energy production with about 12% of it for crop production and nearly 80% for processing, distribution, retail, preparation and cooking. The agri-food chain also accounts for 80-90% of total global freshwater use where 70% alone is for irrigation. Additionally, on a global scale, freshwater production consumes nearly 15% of the entire energy production. It can therefore be argued that making agriculture and the agri-food supply chain independent from fossil fuel use has a huge potential to contribute to global food security and climate protection not only for the next decades but also for the coming century. Provision of secure, accessible and environmentally sustainable supplies of water, energy and food must thus be a priority. One of the major objectives of the world’s scientists, farmers, decisions makers and industrialists is to overcome the present dependence on fossil fuels in the agro-food sector. This dependency increases the volatility of food prices and affects economic access to sustenance. This book provides a critical review of recent developments in solar, wind and geothermal energy applications in agriculture and the agro-food sector such as processing, distribution, retail, preparation and cooking.

Questions and answers about hydroponic gardening.

The two-volume set LNCS 7066 and LNCS 7067 constitutes the proceedings of the Second International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2011, held in Selangor, Malaysia, during November 9-11, 2011. The 71 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in these proceedings. They are organized in topical sections named computer vision and simulation; virtual image processing and engineering; visual computing; and visualisation and social computing. In addition the first volume contains two keynote speeches in full paper length, and one keynote abstract.

Thousands of secondary metabolites are produced by plants to withstand unfavourable environmental conditions and are important molecules for nutraceutical, agro, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, etc. Harvesting of plants for the extraction of these important metabolites can threaten the plant germplasm, and various medicinally important plants are at the verge of extinction. Based on need, various methods and strategies were developed and followed by researchers from time to time to save the plant germplasm and produce important secondary metabolites efficiently to meet their growing demands. Biotechnological Approaches to Enhance Plant Secondary Metabolites: Recent Trends and Future Prospects provides a comprehensive introduction and review of state-of-the-art biotechnological tools in this field of research at global level. The methodologies are highlighted by real data examples in both in vitro and in vivo level studies. The book: • Highlights and provides overviews of the synthesis, classification, biological function and medicinal applications of the recent advancements for the enhanced production of novel secondary metabolites in plants • Provides an overview of the role of induced mutation, salinity stress and brassinosteroids impact to increase the secondary metabolic contents in plants and suggests an increase in enzymatic activity in plants could be due to various point mutations, which in turn could play a role at transcriptome levels • Discusses the significant role of endophytes to enhance the contents of plant secondary metabolites • Alternatively, suggests the urgent need to set up the standard operating procedures using hydroponics system of cultivation for significant enhancement of secondary metabolite contents • Enlists various in vitro techniques to enhance plant secondary metabolites contents using plant tissue culture approaches • Provides a systematic overview of state-of-the-art biotechnological tools CRISPER Cas9 and RNAi to enhance the plant secondary metabolite contents • Recommends CRISPER Cas9 technology over RNAi, ZFNs and TALENs because of its relatively simple and high precision method with an easily programmable tool This serves as a reference book for the researchers working in the field of plant secondary metabolites and pharmaceutical industries at global level.

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to soilless growing. It is known as the Bible of the industry. It is a methods book in that it provides detailed information on how to design, set up and operate hydroponic culture systems. It also describes the most successful cultures to use with specific crops. Hydroponic Food Production provides an immediatereference for those who are presently growing hydroponically as well as a guidebook to get prospective growers started. The sixth edition contains 450 photographs, drawings and tables. It has directories, addresses, references, bibliography and a complete index.