About the Book

The need and demand to feed the ever-increasing global population, pose major challenges for increasing crop productivity in eco-friendly manner. Cultivation of crops under input-intensive conditions resulted in enhanced vulnerability of the high-yielding cultivars to a multitude of pests and pathogens at all phenological stages. Disease spectrum and intensity are continuously changing because of the dynamic nature of crop systems, pests and pathogens. Thus, disease management has become the major functional component of the crop production systems. Topics Covered • Insect Pests / Pathogens of Rice, Sorghum, Chickpea and Castor and their Management • Molecular Marker-assisted Breeding and Transgenic Crops for Disease Management • Management of Forest Insect Pests • Effect of Climate Change on Insects, Pathogens, Plants and Pesticide usage • Botanicals & Microbial Pesticides and Insect Resistance to Synthetic Pesticides • Integrated Pest Management and Bioinformatic Solutions

Contents

1. Insect Pests of Rice in India and their Management 2. Rice Diseases of Importance and the Management Options in India 3. Biotechnological Approaches for Management of Grain Mold Disease of Sorghum 4. Major Biotic Stresses of Chickpea and Strategies for their Control 5. Potential of Transgenic Grain Legumes for Pest Management and Sustainable Crop Production 6. Integrated Pest Management in Grain Legume Crops in India 7. Insect Pests of Castor (Ricinus communis L) and their Management Strategies 8. Biology and Management of Forest Insect Pests 9. Botanical Pesticides for Management of Insect Pests in Field and Stored Rice 10. Botanicals for the Management of Phytonematodes 11. Microbial Chitinases as Potential Biopesticides 12. Insect Resistance to Pyrethroid with Special Reference to the Cotton Bollworm 13. Effect of Climate Change on Insects, Pathogens, Plants and Pesticide Usage 14. Molecular Marker-assisted Breeding for Improving Disease Resistance in Crop Plants 15. Antimicrobial Peptides and Production of Disease Resistant Transgenic Plants 16. Plant Lectins and their Utilization for Development of Insect Resistant Transgenic Crop Plants 17. Insect-Resistant Transgenic Crops 18. Bioinformatics with Solutions in Pest Management Science: An Insight into the Evolving Technologies 19. Concepts and Components of Integrated Pest Management`

About the Author

Dashavantha Reddy Vudem, M.Sc., Ph.D., is working as Professor at the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, Osmania University, and is having more than 27 years of teaching & research experience. His research areas include molecular biology of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. He is elected fellow of The National Academy of Sciences, India, and The Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. Dr. Reddy has been awarded with the Meritorious Teacher Award for 2009 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He was the recipient of Visiting Scientist Award of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York (USA). Nagaraja Rao Poduri, M.Sc., Ph.D., is Professor and Head Department of Zoology, University College for Women, Osmania University. He is actively involved in research, academics and administration for the last 30 years. He pioneered in the division of Entomology with emphasis on insect- Ecology, Physiology, Molecular Biology; Applied Entomology (IPM, Biological control, Botanical pesticides) and Bioinformatics. He has published more than 50 research papers in peer reviewed journals and has guided 11 Ph.D.s. Dr. Rao was conferred with FPPAI, FAEB, FSPPS fellowships, besides Dr. B.V. David award and Dr. Anand Prakash award of AZRA, CRRI. Venkateswara Rao Khareedu, M.Sc., Ph.D., is working as Professor at the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, Osmania University. He is having more than 25 years of teaching and research experience. His research areas include functional genomics and genetic engineering of crop plants for abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. He is elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, and the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. Rao is a member of the Editorial Board of Asian Journal of Plant Sciences. He was awarded with Visiting Scientist and Biotechnology Career fellowships of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York (USA).