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Eggs are economical and of high nutritional value, yet can also be a source of foodborne disease. Understanding of the factors influencing egg quality has increased in recent years and new technologies to assure egg safety have been developed. Improving the safety and quality of eggs and egg products reviews recent research in these areas Volume 2 focuses on egg safety and nutritional quality. Part one provides an overview of egg contaminants, covering both microbial pathogens and chemical residues. Salmonella control in laying hens is the focus of part two. Chapters cover essential topics such as monitoring and control procedures in laying flocks and egg decontamination methods. Finally, part three looks at the role of eggs in nutrition and other health applications. Chapters cover dietary cholesterol, egg allergy, egg enrichment and bioactive fractions of eggs, among other topics. With its distinguished editors and international team of contributors, Volume 2 of Improving the safety and quality of eggs and egg products is an essential reference for managers in the egg industry, professionals in the food industry using eggs as ingredients and all those with a research interest in the subject.

Consumers demand quality milk with a reasonable shelf-life, a requirement that can be met more successfully by the milk industry through use of improved processes and technologies. Guaranteeing the production of safe milk also remains of paramount importance. Improving the safety and quality of milk provides a comprehensive and timely reference to best practice and research advances in these areas. Volume 1 focuses on milk production and processing. Volume 2 covers the sensory and nutritional quality of cows milk and addresses quality improvement of a range of other milk-based products. The health aspects of milk, its role in the diet and milk-based functional foods are the focus of the opening section of Volume 2. Part two reviews essential aspects of milk quality, including milk microbial spoilage and chemical deterioration, sensory evaluation, factors affecting milk vitamin and mineral content and the impact of packaging on quality. Chapters in part three look at improving particular products, such as organic milk, goat milk and sheep milk. The impact of milk on the quality of yoghurt and cheese is also covered. With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, volume 2 of Improving the safety and quality of milk is an essential reference for researchers and those in industry responsible for milk safety and quality.

Agriculture is the foundation of the civilization, culture and heritage of India. Agriculture in India is a complex mosaic of distinct agro-ecosystems, differentiated by climatic, soil, vegetation and other natural features. About half of the Indians derive their livelihood from agriculture and allied activities. It is one of the oldest systems of the world characterized by its diversity and heterogeneity, unorganized and stressed on account of natural and anthropogenic vagaries from ?seed to market?. Historically, stressed natural resources due to unfavourable weather, monsoon and natural calamities resulted in crop failures leading to food shortage that made serious impacts on the civilization. Post-Independence, the Indian agriculture transformed from a food-scarce to food-exporting country primarily due to science led innovations that caused multifold increase in the agricultural production from 135 million tons in 1950/51 to over 1300 million tons in 2021/22 in spite of increasing abiotic and biotic stresses and depleting alongwith deteriorating natural resources. The book ?Indian Agriculture after Independence? portrays the uniqueness, diversity, vastness and history; and captures the aspirations of Indian agriculture to develop a road-map for agri-food system matching with the 4th Industrial Revolution and the global commitments on food security, nutrition and sustainability. The first chapter provides an overview of Indian agriculture with its achievements and aspirations. The following three chapters detail out the crop and animal husbandry and natural resource management in the pre-independent India starting from the Vedic to British period. The subsequent chapters present the achievements of Indian agriculture after independence in the areas of field crops, horticulture, livestock and poultry, fisheries and aquaculture, crop and animal health, mechanization and postharvest processing, natural resources management, agricultural education and extension, as well as policy, investment, collaboration and organizational leadership.The book is an outcome of a sincere exercise by about 60 leading scientists and science-leaders of ICAR, from a range of disciplines. In the course of preparing the book, the authors and editors have received help and support from different individuals. We are extremely grateful to each one of them. Our sincere gratitude to the distinguished reviewers namely Dr. RB Singh, Dr. SP Ghosh, Dr. JC Katyal, Dr. Mruthyunjaya, Dr. MP Yadav, Dr. SL Mehta, Dr. P Das, Dr. VM Mayande and Dr. AG Ponnaiah for their constructive suggestions and guidance. The editors take this opportunity to express their gratitude to all the authors for developing the chapters in a comprehensive and time-bound manner. We sincerely thank Hon?ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers? Welfare, and Hon?ble Ministers of State of Agriculture and Farmers? Welfare, Govt. of India and Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR for their guidance and support in bringing out this publication. We are thankful to the ICAR-Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture, New Delhi for its support in formating, developing the cover page and printing of the book. We hope that the publication would be useful to the students, researchers, teachers, policy makers, planners, administrators and the farmers.

Plant Physiology, Volume III: Inorganic Nutrition of Plants deals with the inorganic nutrition and metabolism of plants. The book explores the role of elements, other than carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are essential to, or used by, plants in their vital processes. It summarizes the knowledge about mineral nutrition of plants and presents a philosophy of plant nutrition in general. This volume is organized into six chapters and begins with a brief history of mineral nutrition of plants, as well as the media from which plants draw their nutrients, such as the soil and artificial culture medium. The book then discusses the requirements for specific elements, the symptoms incurred by their deficient supply, and the evidence that a given element can be considered essential. The next chapters focus on the inorganic nutrition of microorganisms, general functions of the essential nutrient elements, and the biological situations in which elementary nitrogen is converted to the organic form. The book concludes by analyzing the soil as a complex biological system and its implication for the interpretation of the nutrition of higher plants. This book is a valuable resource for those interested in plant nutrition and plant physiology.

FROM THE PREFACE: The abundance of insects can change dramatically from generation to generation; these generational changes may occur within a growing season or over a period of years. Such extraordinary density changes or "outbreaks" may be abrupt and ostensibly random, or population peaks may occur in a more or less cyclic fashion....The goal of this book is to update and advance current thinking on the phenomenon of insect outbreaks. The contributors have reviewed relevant literature in order to generate a synthesis providing new concepts and important alternatives for future research. More importantly, they have presented new ideas or syntheses that will stimulate advances in thinking and experimentation.