Temperate Crop Science and Breeding: Ecological and Genetic Studies PDF

PREFACE

Survival of the individuals of Homo sapiens L., as well as of the species as a whole, since prehistoric times was conditioned during millenniums by the success in hunting on wild animals and in gathering of edible parts of wild plants. Only a little more than 10 thousands year ago, when humans in different parts of the world started cultivation of plants and domestication of animals, our ancestors considerably decreased their dependence on fortuitousness due to consequent agricultural revolution spread, which allowed producing more food with smaller physical costs. Namely primitive breeding, as selection of the best specimens from extremely heterogeneous populations of wild animals and wild plants, unconsciously applied by ancient humans, provided possibilities of the animal husbandry and field-husbandry development in the remote past and, when taking more advanced modern forms, provided food supply of continuously increasing human population of the planet

However, although a field, fully sowed with agricultural crops, gives the possibility to feed more people then forest, where edible plants occur separately, and a herd of cattle can provide more mouth to feed than can bag permanently nomadic hunter, further spread of Agricultural revolution brought up to the mankind new challenges unknown scent agriculture.

The possibility of population food supply under considerably smaller amount of farm workers provided labor resources to the mankind for the development of industry and a set of branch not related with the production of material goods. At the same time, enormous plants and factories, megalopolises, as well as giant orchards, enormous cattle-breeding farms and monocultural fields of several thousands hectares, the continuous cultivation of corn, sunflower, rape or other highly remunerative culture became source of permanent pollution of human habitat. Because of human economic activity the environment is changing more and more under permanently increasing anthropogenic impact, which reaches threatening scale in the conditions of the new globalization wave in 21st century, which swept over much of the developing world and many countries, which keptuntil recent time traditional agriculture. The planetary ecosystem, which was formed and evolved very slowly during centuries, is now exposed to the destruction in the past unknown.

The pages of this book are devoted to the analysis of processes affecting atmospheric, water, soil, mineral and other natural resources, their effect on human gene pool, as well as to the search of agricultural methods in stress conditions of pollution under rational use of recent achievements in plant breeding