Foreword

World population has already exceeded seven billion, and further food production is required towards 2060 when the population will be at its peak. Besides this, global climate accompanied with drought across various regions in the world is another big challenge. Also excessive use of ground water and natural resources is drawing towards depletion of these gifts. Currently, food production is unable to meet the increasing demand, and we have failed to compete with the ever increasing food prices. This situation has resulted in a widening disparity between the rich and the poor at both state and personal levels, and consequently has lead to conflicts and political instability.

A combination of wisdoms from different aspects is needed to challenge these global issues, and to avoid periods of tribulations that the humanity may suffer several decades from now. Fortunately, in the last century we could deepen our knowledge of living organisms at the molecular level, which opened a new field of science - biotechnology. This technology expresses great power in medical and agricultural sciences. Many excellent crops have been created by biotechnology and have already appeared in the market. This sharp knife is a key tool to cut out the global issues we are facing.

The eBook edited by Dr. Aakash Goyal and Dr. Priti Maheshwari provides an insight into the current trends in Plant sciences. It gives a broad overview of the implementation of current molecular biology techniques and its increasing role in crop and medicinal plant research. Chapters written by experts in their respective fields will make the reader acquainted with a variety of topics ranging from the plant secondary metabolites, RNAi and its role in crop improvement, biological nitrogen fixation, new trends of micropropagation, medicinal and biological control properties of plants, and the increasing role of plants in phytoremediation. As such, the volume should be particularly useful in getting updates on the given areas of study and will equally help researchers and educators with providing latest advances in Plant Science. The chapters are contributed by up-and-coming young plant researchers, with consideration of plant science applications for agriculture, medical and environmental issues. Great emphases are paid for novel methodologies, use of new crops and undeveloped but promising plant species in the coming decades. I believe that, plant science will strongly contribute to solve the global issues, and hope this century will be named ‘The Century of Happiness’ when our next generations explore the history.