Crop Evolution, Adaptation and Yield

In this major work Lloyd Evans provides an integrated view of the domestication, adaptation, and improvement of crop plants, bringing together genetic diversity, plant breeding, physiology, and aspects of agronomy. Considerations of yield and maximum yield provide continuity throughout the book. Evans discusses food, feed, fiber, fuel, and pharmaceutical crops as well as using as examples cereals, grain, legumes, and root crops, both temperate and tropical. He also considers pasture plants, oilseeds, leafy crops, fruit trees, and others. The crucial roles of input innovation and synergism are illustrated along with examples of how diminishing returns to input energy are avoided. The final chapter hazards some guesses about the way in which agriculture may be transformed over the next fifty years.