Next Generation Crop Improvement for Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security

Dr. Belaghihalli N Gnanesh is currently serving as Senior Scientist and Head at ICAR JSS Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Suttur, Mysuru, India. He previously held the position of Professor and Dean at the Sampoorna International Institute of Agricultural Science and Horticultural Technology under the University of Mysore. He earned his Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore. With several years of research experience, Dr. Gnanesh has made significant contributions in the areas of germplasm resource management, crop genomics, and disease-resistance breeding. He is a recipient of the prestigious SERB Ramanujan Fellowship and was awarded a Visiting Fellowship by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. During his tenure at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Winnipeg, he developed cost-effective, allele-specific diagnostic markers for oat crown rust resistance genes. Dr. Gnanesh’s current interests span plant genomics, genome survey, SNP discovery, and linkage mapping. He is also deeply involved in agricultural training and extension, focusing on field demonstrations, technology trials and precision farming that promote sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture.Prof. Chittaranjan Kole is an internationally reputed scientist with an illustrious professional career spanning over forty years and original contributions in the fields of plant genomics, biotechnology, and molecular breeding leading to the publication of more than 160 impactful research articles and reviews. He has edited over 200 books for the globally leading publishers. His scientific contributions and editing acumen have been appreciated by seven Nobel Laureates including Prof. Norman Borlaug, Arthur Kornberg, Werner Arber, Phillip Sharp, Günter Blobel, Lee Hartwell and Roger Kornberg. He has been honored with several Fellowships, Honorary Fellowships, and national and international awards including the Outstanding Crop Scientist award conferred by the International Crop Science Society. He was also awarded the Raja Ramanna Fellow by the Department of Energy, Government of India. He has served in all prestigious positions in academia including as Vice-Chancellor of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Project Coordinator of Indo-Russian Center of Biotechnology in India, and Director of Research of Institute of Nutraceutical Research of Clemson University, in USA. He also served as a Visiting Professor at the Pennsylvania State University and Clemson University. He is also heading the International Climate-Resilient Crop Genomics Consortium, International consortium for Phytomedomics and Nutriomics and Genome India International as their Founder President.

• Foreword. Preface. List of Contributors. Abbrevations. 1. Recent Advancements and Insights on Various Stress Management Techniques in Cereals. 2. Advancements in Genome Editing Technologies for Enhancing Crop Improvement. 3. Accelerated Breeding Approaches for Enabling Sustainable Rice Farming. 4. Navigating the Development of Next-Generation Crop Varieties Using Genomic Selection for Food and Nutritional Security. 5. Genetic Innovations in Wheat for Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security. 6. Improvement Strategies Addressing Malnutrition: Augmenting Bioavailability and Biofortification in Food Crops. 7. Millets: An Emerging and Promising Climate-Resilient Nutri-Cereals of the Globe. 8. Underutilized Vegetable Crops for Food and Nutritional Security. 9. Grafting Innovations in Vegetable Crops to Enhance Nutritional Quality for Food Security. 10. Advancements in Plasma Technology for Enhancing Crop Resilience to Environment Stress. 11. Bioengineering Starch and Amylose-lipid Complex: From Genetic to Sustainable Industrial Application. 12. High-Throughput Phenotyping Tools for Sustainable Agriculture. 13. Utilizing Bioinformatics Tools and Machine Learning Techniques to Advance Sustainable Crop Improvement. Index.