Application Of Nitrogen Fixing Systems In Soil Improvement And Management

Biological nitrogen-fixation. Rhizoia-legume symbiosis. Ble-green alge. Free-livin nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Azolla. Nodulated non-leguminous plants. Some costs of biofertilizers.

General information on the symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Isolation, identification and counting of rhizobia. Production of an inoculant and inoculation of legumes. Experiments.

Reprinted from Plant and Soil, v.174, nos.1-2 (1995), this volume is devoted to discussions on the role of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in agricultural sustainability. Papers presented on BNF in crop forage and tree legumes are augmented with discussion of integrated farming systems involving BNF, soil and N management, and recycling of legume residues. BNF by non-legumes is discussed and attempts to transform cereals into nodulating plants are critically reviewed. Also described are advances in the development of new methodologies to understand symbiotic interactions and to assess N-2 fixation in the field; means of enhancing BNF through plant and soil management; breeding and selection; problems encountered in exploiting BNF under farmers' field conditions; and promising approaches to improve BNF exploitation. Lacks a subject index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book is centred on the 'production processes' of crops and pastures - photosynthesis and use of water and nutrients in fields. The book is unique in its combination of great breadth and depth in its treatment of production processes and systems problems. The approach is explanatory and integrative, with a firm basis in environmental physics, soils, physiology, and morphology, in contrast to descriptive or reductionist approaches. Systems concepts are introduced early and expanded as the book proceeds, giving emphasis to quantitative approaches, to management strategies and tactics employed by farmers, and to environmental issues. The systems approach is brought together in the final chapters where production and nutrient cycling are analyzed, for example farms and problems in an uncertain future are considered. The book is based on courses taught by the authors in Australia and the United States and is designed for use as a text for an introductory course in crop ecology (advanced undergraduates and beginning post-graduate level). It is more than a text, however. Given the wide range of subjects, the authors have integrated reference and background material to create a 'stand-alone' reference work useful to a wide audience of agriculturalists.

The symposium's objectives included an appraisal of the most recent studies relating to microbiological nitrogen fixation in tropical soils, consideration of aways and means of improving management of soils and crops in tropical farming systems to increase biological nitrogen fixation, of exploring ways of concurrently improving both legumes and other hosts and their symbionts to enhance nitrogen fixation, and of recommending the research needed and means of collaborating in the research effort.

The second edition of this book, first published in 1991 and intended for students and researchers, contains revised and updated material on the theory and practice of nitrogen fixation in tropical cropping systems. There are 15 chapters in 3 parts. Part I, Introduction, contains 5 chapters on tropical environments (climate, soils and cropping systems), nitrogen fixing organisms, the process of nitrogen fixation, assessment of the role of nitrogen fixation, and cycling of nitrogen in tropical cropping systems. Part II, Tropical crops and cropping systems, comprises 7 chapters on freeliving, root-associated and endophytic nitrogen fixing bacteria of cereal crops and grasses, cyanobacteria and Azolla as green manure for wetland rice, grain legumes, legumes as green manures and cover crops, forage legumes, understorey legumes and shade trees in plantation crops, and nitrogen fixing trees in agroforestry. Part III, optimizing nitrogen fixation, includes 3 chapters on environmental constraints, approaches to enhancement, and future impacts on nitrogen fixation in tropical agriculture. A list of common names and subject index are included.