Stress environment is one of the major limiting factors for the crop productivity. Stress can be classified into biotic and abiotic according to the nature of the responsible factor. Abiotic stress refers to the stress caused by water, salt, oxygen, CO2, light, temperature, nutrients, etc. About 10% of the arable land of the world alone are categorized as free of abiotic stresses. The remaining include, 20% under some kind of mineral stress, 26% affected by drought stress, 15% by freezing stress and the remaining area under other type of stresses. Extensive information on various aspects of abiotic stresses has been generated in the recent past. However, this information remains scattered. Hence an attempt has been made to bring an exhaustive collection of various stresses among different crops. This book provides comprehensive uploaded coverage of key aspects of abiotic stresses and their management. The authors of this book are experts in their own field of specialization and the topics covered in this book include, Global warming, High temperature stress, Drought including molecular approaches, Salt tolerance and abiotic stress on seed quality. This book will serve as a compendium for understanding and management of various abiotic stresses which will be highly useful for scientists and research scholars of agriculture.
Professor Dr. M. Prakash born in 1966, obtained his B.Sc.(Ag.) and M.Sc.(Ag.) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India in 1988 and 1990 respectively. He did his Ph.D from Annamalai University. He was awarded with National Merit Scholarship, Government of India during 1981-1988 and ICAR Junior Fellowship during 1988-1990. He has been awarded with Crop Research Award, 2004 and also serves as member of Editorial Board/Committees in many journals. Professor Dr. M. Prakash’s major area of interest is abiotic stress tolerance. He is having around 20 years of teaching and research experience. He has guided 6 Ph.D. Scholars and 21 PG Scholars. He has published eight books and more than 80 research papers in referred journals. He organized 6 National Seminars. He has completed five research projects. Now he is serving as Professor, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Annamalai University and also as the Programme Coordinator of UGC-SAP- DRS Phase I Programme of Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding.
Professor Dr. K. Balakrishnan is presently working as Professor of Crop Physiology at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai. He was the recipient of ICAR Senior Fellowship during 1983 and obtained Ph.D in Crop Physiology in 1987 from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. He has also obtained Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism in 1988. He has also worked in United Planter’s Association of South India, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. He has been teaching courses on Crop Physiology and Biochemistry to the Under Graduate and Post Graduate students in both Agriculture and Horticulture past 28 years. He served as Principle Investigator of Foliar diagnosis in Horticultural crops in plan scheme funded by Government of Tamil Nadu, Post Harvest Technology of Horticultural crops and Arid zone fruit crops funded by ICAR, AICRIP, New Delhi. He also worked as Assistant Plant Physiologist in ICAR-Tropical fruit crops, AICRIP, New Delhi. He was the member of All India ICAR Syllabus Committee on basic Agricultural Sciences during 2007-2008. He also served as a member of Board of studies, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University during 1997-2000. He has authored and co-authored 10 book chapters and 4 books and published 60 research papers in both National and International journals. He has been the question setter and external examiner for M.Sc.(Ag.) and Ph.D thesis in several Universities.
