Sustainable Crop Production : New Research Paradigms in Plant Sciences

This book highlights emerging perspectives in plant science research that promise innovative solutions for sustainable food production. It also identifies the vexing bottlenecks that hinder the translation of new knowledge into crop improvement by way of a unique thematic compilation. This book is organized into seven sections, comprising chapters that span diverse areas ranging from remodeling plant development, enhancing photosynthetic efficiency, environmental stress perception, response and building tolerance, priming plant defense, plant-microbe interactions, engineering male sterility and apomixis for seed production, and the futuristic theme of astrobiology. Contributions from leading authorities in respective fields provide a holistic view of current advancements and opportunities, while also addressing the challenges that orient the readers to road ahead. The chapters emphasize biological and conceptual foundations, with technologies and strategies implicitly integrated. The book is intended for agricultural scientists, plant breeders, research scholars, academicians in universities and research institutes, and students of plant and agricultural sciences. It also aims to support policy makers and regulators in framing science-based policies relevant to crop improvement and sustainable agricultural practices.

Dr. Anandita Singh is currently a Professor at Department of Biotechnology, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India. She teaches courses in molecular genetics and mentors doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. Her special research interest lies in decoding regulatory logic underlying developmental traits and translating fundamental insights into actionable strategies for oil-seed mustard improvement. With over two decades of research experience, including a postdoctoral award from Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology, Tuebingen, Germany, she actively contributes to cross-disciplinary collaborations in functional genomics. Her work on early flowering transgenic Indian mustard was recognized among the top 15 scientific achievements in India.

Dr. Sandip Das, a Professor at the Department of Botany, University of Delhi, is a plant molecular biologist with over 30 years of teaching and research experience. He earned his academic degrees Ph.D. from Jamia Hamdard and TERI, New Delhi (Ph.D), and from the University of Delhi (M.Phil., M.Sc.), specializing in crop genetics and plant breeding. He received post-doctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tuebingen, Germany, and Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. His research focuses on functional and regulatory diversification, regulatory RNAs, and organisation and evolution of polyploid genome particularly in Brassicaceae. His group integrates comparative genomics, evolutionary developmental biology, and functional genomics to understand plant development and adaptation for trait modification and crop improvement. He has published 55+ research articles in leading international journals and has supervised a number of Ph.D., M.Phil., and post-doctoral researchers.

Prof. Rajeev K. Varshney FRS is a renowned agricultural scientist with over two decades of experience in genomics and molecular breeding. Currently, he holds multiple prestigious positions at Murdoch University in Australia, which are Professor, Food Futures Institute; Director, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation; Director, WA State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre and International Chair in Agriculture & Food Security. Prof. Varshney has made a significant impact on global food security by creating genomic resources for major "orphan" tropical crops, using these resources to identify genetic loci and candidate genes for drought and pest tolerance in staple crops in Sub-Saharan Africa and India, and spearheading international programs that deliver superior crop varieties to some of the world's most impoverished farmers. Prof. Varshney is an accomplished author, with more than 600 publications to his name, and has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for ten consecutive years (2014-2024).