Chapter 1. Introduction: Frontier Technologies for Crop Improvement.- Chapter 2. Linking of genebank to breeding and food security.- Chapter 3. Bioinformatics for plant genetic and breeding research.- Chapter 4. Evolution in the genotyping platforms for plant breeding.- Chapter 5. Rapid generation advancement for accelerated plant improvement.- Chapter 6. Multiomics for crop improvement.- Chapter 7. Sequence-based breeding for plant improvement.- Chapter 8. Forward Breeding for Efficient Selection.- Chapter 9. Genomic Selection in crop Improvement.- Chapter 10. Genetic engineering: A powerful tool for crop improvement.
Dr. Manish K Pandey completed his PhD in Plant Genetics from Osmania University while working in ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, India. He also had Post-doctoral research experience at University of Georgia, USA for a period of two years. He is currently leading the Groundnut and Pigeonpea Genomics, Prebreeding and Bioinformatics research at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India.
Dr. Alison Bentley completed her undergraduate and post-graduate degrees at The University of Sydney, Australia. She worked at NIAB, Cambridge for 12 years, working on translational wheat research aiming to move fundamental scientific breakthroughs into tangible impacts for the agri-food sector. She is currently Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program. Her work combines genetics and genomics to develop and deliver new tools and technology to improve plant breeding.
Dr. Haile Desmae obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane, Australia in 2007. He worked as a postdoctoral and research fellow at UQ for close to six years before joining ICRISAT in 2013. Currently, he is the Groundnut Breeder at CIMMYT based in Senegal. He develops breeding populations for specific traits of importance, plans and implements field trials to identify high yielding groundnut varieties.
Dr Manish Roorkiwal is Genomic Breeding Lead at Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. (KCGEB), United Arab Emirates University, UAE. He is also associated with Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia as Adjunct Associate Professor. Manish has over 15 years of research experience. At the core of his work is the improvement of crop productivity of legumes in marginal environments using modern genetics and breeding approaches, including genomic selection.
Prof (Dr.) Rajeev K. Varshney is an agricultural research scientist specializing in genomics and molecular breeding with 20+ years of service in international agriculture while working in India, Germany, Australia, Mexico and several countries in Africa. At present, he is serving Murdoch University (Australia) as a Director, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation; Director, State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre; and International Chair in Agriculture & Food Security with the Food Futures Institute.
This edited book is a compilation of information on existing frontier technologies in agriculture, such as driving modernized crop improvement programs via digitalization, mechanization and automation, artificial intelligence, speed breeding. The major focus of the book is on the technologies related to genetic gain, nutrition and food safety. Agriculture is core to industry as well as human civilization and sustainability of the society. Therefore, advancement and investment of technology is essential for enhancing the quality and quantity of the produce for ensuring food and nutritional security. The frontier technologies bring drastic change in the way of functioning leading to multi-fold increase in efficiency and outcome. Chapters in this book addresses a particular enabling technology and forward-looking strategy. Compiled information with successful deployment examples of these technologies is not been made available from a single platform, therefore, this volume is a unified compilation of information from international experts. The book is a relevant reading material for students, researchers, academicians and industry players in agriculture.