Crop Science and Technology , Introduction

Population growth in the coming decades will put severe pressure on human food, animal feed, and fiber production. Bioenergy applications are already exerting increasing pressure on agricultural commodities and land use with severe economic consequences, particularly in the developing world. Any crop productivity increases must come necessarily from enhancing crop performance as further land expansion for agriculture is unlikely to take place. Environmental sustainability and social justice issues are becoming increasingly key elements in debates on how to assure adequate food for the ever-increasing global population. It is likely that the efficiency of increasing productivity would benefit by complementing the conventional empirical approaches with opportunities presented by the development of new knowledge and technologies in the field of Crop Science. Therefore, in this section a...