This book reports on the current global status of mungbean and its economic importance. Mungbean (Vigna radiata)—also called green gram—is an important food and cash crop in the rice-based farming systems of South and Southeast Asia, but is also grown in other parts of the world. Its short duration, low input requirement and high global demand make mungbean an ideal rotation crop for smallholder farmers. The book describes mungbean collections maintained by various organizations and their utilization, especially with regard to adapting mungbean to new environments. It provides an overview of the progress made in breeding for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses; nutritional quality enhancement including genomics approaches; and outlines future challenges for mungbean cultivation. In addition, genomic approaches to evaluating the evolutionary relationship between Vigna species and addressing questions concerning domestication, adaptation and genotype–phenotype relationships are also discussed

Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops comprises reviews contributed by 47 eminent scientists from 10 countries. The chapters on common bean, pea, cowpea, sugarcane and potato include comprehensive reviews of voluminous research findings. Fundamental aspects and molecular results are also presented for eight ‘orphan crops’ of high agroeconomic importance including mungbean, lentil, chickpea, lathyrus, pigeonpea, sweet potato, cassava and yam. works on quinoa and Bambara groundnut are reviewed for the first time.

The Beans and the Peas: From Orphan to Mainstream Crops presents a comprehensive literature resource on the most important food legume crops previously known as "orphans," but which are increasingly becoming mainstream as their production opportunities have been improved through genetic improvement and biotechnology, and their role as an important nutrient source gains urgency. This book focuses on 12 important food legumes and discusses all relevant aspects on their economic importance, crop statistics, botany, and their general description. It also provides exhaustive information on plant genetic resources and their use, genetic improvement, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, improved varieties, agronomy, seed system, and use of information and communication tools in each individual food legume.Development of innovative biotechnological tools, genetic transformation, and the genome sequencing information has also been covered in each chapter providing the readers with state-of-the-art information on pulses. All chapters have been supported by relevant figures, illustrations, and tables, which make the contents accessible and easy to understand.Each of the chapters has been authored by globally known scientists/researchers presenting up-to-date information on various aspects of food legumes. This book provides a current and comprehensive treatise to the readers and will be tremendously helpful in furthering their academic and research pursuits. - Provides a single-volume resource on the most important food legumes having a prominent role in food and nutritional security - Written by experts with a focus on providing foundational information for further research and development - Presents both theoretical aspects and application-based case studies - Supported by relevant figures, illustrations, and tables

Focusing on one of the developing world's most important food crops, this book brings together information on the classification, production, improvement and utilization of the mungbean. It assembles more than 20 years of research to provide a resource for agronomists, crop scientists and others.

Genetic mapping and marker assisted selection (MAS) is considered as one of the major tools in genetic improvement of crop plants in this genomics era. This book describes basics in linkage mapping, step-by-step procedure to perform MAS, achievements made so far in different crops, and limitations and prospects of MAS in plant breeding. It summarizes all this in a simple but comprehensive mode using suitable examples so as to explain the concept and its historical developments. To summarize, this book describes technologies for identification of genes of interest through genetic mapping, recaps the major applications of MAS to plant breeding; lists examples in which MAS is being applied to various breeding programs, and emphasizes the various difficulties that limit the application of MAS in plant breeding, providing possible solutions to overcome these difficulties, and finally tries to illustrate the future prospects. This book would be a valuable guide to the under-graduates and post-graduates of agricultural universities and institutes that are interested and/or involved in genetic improvement of crop plants using modern tools. Bibliography listed in this book constitutes two parts: literature cited and further reading. Literature cited contains references cited in the text and further information on the given concept/technique can be obtained from these references. Further reading provides a list of suggested readings for in-depth coverage of the topics.