Forage Crops in the Bioenergy Revolution : From Fields to Fuel

This book delves into the popular "Food vs. Fuel" arguments and examines the complicated interplay between biofuel and agricultural markets. It provides information on forage crops as potential third-generation sources of bioenergy, and their cultivation practices. The areas covered include methodologies to enhance production efficiency of bioenergy, metabolism involved in cellulosic ethanol production, influence of policy and technical implementation, and the consequent impact on biofuels. The discussion of current difficulties impeding the expansion of the cellulosic biofuel business, as well as potential solutions are discussed as well. This book also covers case studies describing the present biofuel policies and its consequences on both the energy as well as agricultural sectors, as well as analysis of the current and growing biofuel market.

The gathered information in the book is an excellent source for phenotyping, trait improvement, and developing future crop stress-management strategies and models. Students, scientists, policymakers, and investors in the bioenergy business will find this book to be a useful resource. Also, it serves as an excellent reference book for agriculturists, plant scientists, climatologists, and research scholars.

Dr. Rajesh Kumar Singhal is a Scientist in the Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Uttar Pradesh, India. He received his PhD from Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India. He has eight years of experience in Plant Physiology, covering different aspects such as drought stress, seed priming, artificial night light pollution, and multiple abiotic stresses related to different crops. Currently he is working on the fodder oat and sorghum improvement, oat modeling for climate change, and abiotic stress in forage crops. He has published more than 80 research and review articles, and chapters in reputed journals.

Dr. Indu Bachchan is a Scientist in the Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute. She completed her graduation from Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, post-graduation from Junagadh Agricultural University, Gujarat and PhD from Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India. She has worked on various crops like mung bean, maize, forage sorghum and forage oat. Currently, she is working on the forage sorghum, multiple foliar disease resistance, fodder oat improvement, and abiotic stress in forage crops for climate change. She has published 15 research and review articles in reputed journals and ten book chapters.

Dr. Ayman EL Sabagh is an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siirt University, Turkey. He graduated from Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt, and got his PhD from Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Japan in 2012, under the framework of a channel program of the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education. He studied the physiological approaches for enhancing stress tolerance of crop plants as a postdoctoral fellow at Hiroshima University, Japan. He researched at Cukurova University, Turkeyas a postdoctoral fellow funded by TÜBITAK-Turkey. Recently, he has been awarded as ‘Talented Young Scientist Program (TYSP)’ in Crop Research Institute of Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China . Dr. EL Sabagh works on sustainability, crop productivity and stress management under the current climatic era. He has published more than 100 research and review articles in peer-reviewed reputed journals and has contributed to books with 50 chapters at an international level.

Dr. Krishna Kumar Dwivedi is an eminent scientist of international repute. He joined Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute as a Sr. Scientist in 2011. He has contributed significantly in the research area of forage biotechnology for Crop Improvement, especially in resolving the complexity of agriculturally important traits such as the apomixis. During his postdoctoral work, he isolated several seed and embryo sac specific promoters and submitted to Genbank under the accession (EU605873, HM035541, and GQ906798). Dr. Dwivedi has published more than 35 research articles, both in national and international reputed, peer-reviewed journals, and has contributed to 20 book chapters.