As the world's population increases the need to produce greater quantities of major staple crops such as wheat, rice, maize, potato, cassava, soybean, sweet potato, barley, and banana in order to sufficiently feed the people of the world continues to grow. Breeding Major Food Staples covers improving yields and quality of these crops through breeding and the use of molecular biology tools such as gene transfer, genome mapping, biofortification, and bioinformatics. This book will be an important reference for anyone working in crop breeding.

Rubber is an economically important material that occurs naturally and can also be produced synthetically. Many advances have been made in the understanding of the cultivation and biology of the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, and this book covers the essential elements of rubber breeding and physiology to provide a guide for cultivators of and researchers into this vital crop. It provides an in-depth analysis of plant structure and crop physiology, climatic requirements, latex production, genetics and breeding, biotechnology, molecular biology, soil tillage and crop establishment,...

In the second edition of this book, the origin, upkeep and latex harvest from the Hevea rubber tree are dealt with succinctly. New chapters have been included on Propagation Systems and Genetic Resources. The importance of Heterozygosis and Breeding is a new theme for the section on Breeding. A new chapter on Genomics and Molecular Breeding that focuses on the latest advancements on gene mapping, marker assisted selection and stimulation has been added. Lastly, 'textboxes' that highlight points and topics of significant interest are included in the new addition.

Natural rubber...