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Plant resources of south-east asia 10 : cereals
Prosea, short for Plant Resources of South-East Asia', is an international programme focused on South-East Asia. Its purpose is to make available the wealth of dispersed knowledge on plant resources for education, extension, research and industry through a computerized data bank and an illustrated multivolume handbook. A thorough knowledge of plant resources is essential for human life and plays a key role in ecologically balanced land-use systems. Extensive information on the plants growing in the region is needed to enable the plant resources of each country to be used optimally. A large international team of experts is preparing the texts on particular species or genera, which are being published in commodity groups. All taxa are treated in a similar manner with details on uses, botany, ecology, agronomy or silviculture, genetic resources, breeding, prospects and literature.
This volume deals with the cereals and pseudo-cereals of South-East seed which is used as
Asia, i.e. grain crops cultivated for their starchy a basic food for humans, as a fodder for domesticated livestock or as a raw material for industrial purposes. Cereal breeding and agronomic research have been very successful and most countries have long succeeded in meeting national needs. In recent years, however, population growth has outstripped the increase in grain production. Research institutes will have a major task in optimizing the yield of cereals, and to promote crop diversification away from rice, so that marginal soils will become useful for energy-food production. It is of the utmost importance for economic and political stability in the world, that sufficient reserves of cereals are maintained.
In this volume 20 important cereal crops including rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, rye, barley, millets, and Job's tears, in addition to the pseudo-cereals grain amaranth, grain chenopod and buckwheat are treated in 16 papers. Nine species of minor importance are described briefly and a further 25 species yielding starchy seed as a by-product are listed. Hopefully, this volume will be an inspiration to all concerned with this important group of food and feed crops in the region.
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