Crop Plants and the Challenge of Drought

Water will be a major limitation to food production in the 21st century, and drought issues are already prevailing in many parts of the world, intensified further by rapid changes of climate. The impact of long-term drought places severe pressure on cropping systems. Worldwide, agriculture accounts for 70% of all water consumption. Next-generation crops need to be water-use efficient and have sustainable yields over a range of environmental conditions. This book provides a multi-disciplinary approach to drought issues with a focus on Africa, a continent particularly exposed to drought issues and climate change. It integrates key subject areas of crop physiology, genetics, agronomy and phenomics. Topics covered include maximizing water access from root systems, increasing water use efficiency with both a crop and farm system focus, interactions with climate change issues, phenotyping plant response to drought with high-throughput methods, finding genetic solutions, and guiding decisions from crop modelling. Providing a broad sample of studies on drought, this book is suitable for researchers and students in plant genetics, breeding, ecophysiology, agronomy and crop modelling.