Crop Evolution, Adaptation and Yield

A major 1993 review of the domestication, adaptation and improvement of crop plants.

Lloyd T. Evans (Author)

9780521295581, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 May 1996

514 pages, 144 b/w illus. 8 tables
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.5 cm, 0.848 kg

'… impressive volume.' Jim Dunwell, Chemistry and Industry

In this major 1993 work, Lloyd Evans provides an integrated view of the domestication, adaptation and improvement of crop plants, bringing together genetic diversity, plant breeding, physiology and aspects of agronomy. Considerations of yield and maximum yield provide continuity throughout the book. Food, feed, fibre, fuel and pharmaceutical crops are all discussed. Cereals, grain legumes and root crops, both temperate and tropical, provide many of the examples, but pasture plants, oilseeds, leafy crops, fruit trees and others are also considered. After the introductory chapter, the increasing significance of crop yields to the world's food supply is highlighted. The next three chapters consider changes to crop plants over the last ten thousand years, including domestication, adaptation and improvement. Aimed at research workers and advanced students in crop physiology and ecology, agronomy and plant breeding, this book also reaches conclusions of relevance to those concerned with developmental policy, agricultural research and management, environmental quality, resource depletion and human history.

1. Introduction
2. Crop yields and world food supply
3. The domestication of crop plants
4. Adaptation and the ecology of yield
5. Physiological aspects of crop improvement
6. Increases in yield: trends and limits
7. Inputs and the efficient use of resources
8. The future of yield.

Subject Areas: Agronomy & crop production [TVK], Botany & plant sciences [PST]