Agronomy : Principles And Practices

Early man depended on hunting, fishing and food gathering. Cultivation of crops, notably grains such as wheat, rice, barley and millets, encouraged settlement of stable farm communities, some of which grew into a town or city in various parts of the world. Early agricultural implements-digging stick, hoe, scythe and plough-developed slowly over the centuries and each innovation caused profound changes in human life. Broad-based agricultural development is a key for transformation of a nation economy. Due to the agricultural sector’s important role in the economy and for people’s incomes, accelerating agricultural growth is a must. Economy of most countries is directly or indirectly depend ant on their agriculture. All over the world, farmers work hard but do not make money, especially small farmers because there is very little left after they pay for all inputs. Agriculture being dependant of monsoon, the crop productivity is variable every year. To increase productivity continuous efforts need to be made in conduct of research on different aspects of crop production, post harvest and marketing of the value added products. Hence, agriculture is the most important enterprise in the world. It is a productive unit where the free gifts of nature namely land, light, air, temperature and rain water etc., are integrated into single primary unit indispensable for human beings.

Agronomy: Principles And Practices disseminates knowledge of improved agricultural practices through the release of new plant and animal types and by continuous intensive research into basic and applied scientific principles relating to agricultural production and economics. It presents comprehensive coverage on importance of research, types of experiments, and statistical principles in experimentation, important agronomic field experiments, recording of soil, climate and biometric observations and working out of different indices.

This book will be very useful to the students and scientists of Agronomy. It will provide scientific base for conducting field trials in many disciplines other than Agronomy.