Book Review 2
Review
Title: Agricultural Prairies: Natural Resources and Crop
ISBN 13: 9781771880503
Published: 2015
Pages: 499
Cost: $123.45
Rating (1-5): 5
Submitted By: Chatterjee, Amitava
Date posted: April 08, 2015
Prairie Agroecosystem
Dr. Krishna received his PhD in Agriculture from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India. He has been a cereal scientist in India and visiting professor and research scholar at the Soil and Water Science Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. He retired from the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.
Natural Prairies play an important role in agricultural production system across the World. This book covers the diversity in Prairies based on geology, geographical settings, natural resources such as soil types, water and irrigation, and crop genetic stocks. This book contains eight chapters and the discussion is initiated with Great Plains of North America, followed by the Cerrados of Brazil and the Pampas of South America. Agricultural prairies of Europe found in the French and German Plains, Central Europe and Russian Steppes are discussed in chapter 4. Next three chapters cover Savannahs of West Africa, Prairies of South Asia, and Steppes of Northeast China. The current and future of agricultural Prairies are discussed in the final chapter.
For each chapter, Dr. Krishna grouped the discussion into (i) geological aspects, (ii) physiography and agroclimate, (iii) vegetation and cropping history, (iv) development of farms and farming, (v) population, settlements and migration, (vi) natural resources with particular reference to agricultural crop production, (vii) soil fertility aspects, and (viii) water resources. At the end of each chapter, author also included a discussion on crop productivity and soil management practices like fertilizer application and management and tillage. Accounts of soil loss and erosion, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change issues, and other region specific environment and management factors were also discussed. Overall, he provided a detailed discussion with references about current situation, opportunities and challenges of different Prairies across the world.
This book offers detailed knowledge base on Prairie agroecosystems, its characteristics, crop production and soil management and will be useful for the decision/policy makers, scientists and teachers to get an in depth knowledge of Prairie agroecosystem.