Increase in world population, extreme weather conditions, decrease in fresh water supplies, and changes of dietary habits are major issues that affect global food security. We are expected to face the challenges of land use by 2050 because population will reach 9 billion while agricultural productivity losses are expected due to overuse of lands. How can we feed the next generations in a manner that respects our finite natural resources? Managing our resources in a sustainable way have only begun for selected crops. Much remains to be done to increase food yield. Cropping practices capable of sustainable production need to be elaborated, especially in fragile ecosystems. Typical applications will include the improvement and use of genetic resources; crop management and diversification; diffusion of improved varieties; development of cropping systems; sustainable cropping systems for areas prone to environmental degradation; use of agro-ecological data for crop production forecasting; and networks for regional coordination, and data exchange. The impetus behind this book is to bring attention to a cropping system that bears direct relevance to sustainable agriculture and food security. "Underutilized" crops are found in numerous agricultural ecosystems and often survive mainly in marginal areas. It is timely to review their status because, in recent decades, scientific and economic interests have emerged which focus on lesser-known cultivated species. Underutilized crops have a great potential to alleviate hunger directly, through increasing food production in challenging environments where major crops are severely limited.
"Global Perspectives on Underutilized Crops" is therefore topical and highlights the unmet agricultural challenges that we face today. This book is an important resource for students and researchers of crop science and agricultural policy makers.
Dr. Münir Öztürk (PhD) has served at the Ege University Izmir, Turkey for 50 years in various capacities. He has been elected as the “Vice President of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences”; has received the fellowships from Alexander von Humboldt, Japanese Society for Promotion of Science and National Science Foundation, USA. Dr. Ozturk has served as Chairman of Botany Department and Founding Director for the Centre for Environmental Studies, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, as Consultant Fellow, Faculty of Forestry,Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia and as Distinguished Visiting Scientist, ICCBS, Karachi University, Pakistan. His fields of scientific interest are plant eco-physiology; conservation of plant diversity; biosaline agriculture and crops; pollution, biomonitoring, medicinal and aromatic plants. He has published 40 books, 50 book chapters,and 175 papers in journals with impact factor.
Dr. Khalid Rehman Hakeem (PhD) is an AssociateProfessor at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He completed his Ph.D. (Botany) from Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India, in 2011. Dr. Hakeem worked as a Post Doctorate Fellow in 2012 and Fellow Researcher (Associate Prof.) from 2013-2016 at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. His speciality is plant eco-physiology, biotechnology & molecular biology, plant-microbe-soil interactions and environmental sciences and so far has edited and authored more than sixteen books with Springer International, Academic Press (Elsevier), etc. He has also to his credit more than 110 research publications in peer reviewed international journals, including 40 book chapters in edited volumes with international publishers.
Dr. Muhammad Ashraf (DSc; Fellow TWAS; Fellow PAS) is a PhD from the University of Liverpool, UK. He did his Post-Doc as a Fulbright scholar from the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. In 2011, he was awarded a DSc degree (a substantive degree) by the University of Liverpool, UK. He is currently working as Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation, Islamabad. In the past, he served as the Vice Chancellor of Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan. He is a Visiting Professor at a number of International Universities of USA, UK, China, Korea, Egypt, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia. His area of research is plant stress physiology. His ISI citation index is now over 14,500 and google citations are over 30,000. He has more than 500 ISI rated publications to his credit. He has also authored a number of books published by different international well reputed publishers including Springer.
Dr. Muhammad SajidAqeel Ahmad (PhD) obtained his degree in Botany in 2011. Currently, he is working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. His research areas include environmental biology and plant ecology. While working with many regional natural and artificial plant communities particularly those located in the Cholistan Desert and Potohar Plateau, he has highlighted significant spatial and temporal variations occurring in these communities along the environmental gradients. Additionally, he also determined the efficiency of various in-situ conservation practices such as fencing on preserving the natural flora of the Natural Reserves of Pakistan. These findings have provided efficient measures to support the endangered flora of the region. Out of his research work he has published 59 papers in ISI-rated journals with h-index of 15. He has published 4 books with Springer and edited two issues of Pakistan Journal of Botany (as a Guest Editor). He is also an author of 4 book chapters published by Springer.
