This work has been adapted from a series of papers presented at The International Workshop on The Analysis and Exploitation of Plant Adaptation in Agricultural Crop Improvement Programs held at ICRISAT, India, in late-1994. The book contains chapters which consider: theoretical and applied aspects of analyzing aspects of plant adaptation in multi-environment experiments; how information on plant adaptation can be used in plant breeding programmes; selection for plant adaptation; Genotype by Environment (GxE) interactions in plant breeding; methodologies for interpreting the causes of GxE interactions; case studies on how to accommodate the effects of GxE interactions; research strategies for understanding GxE interactions and differences in plant adaptation; and other topics related to crop improvement. There is a particular focus on the opportunities for increasing the efficiency of crop improvement by understanding the basis of variation for plant adaptation in agricultural production systems.
Crop improvement strategies based on combinations of the statistical modelling methodologies used by plant breeders and the crop modelling methodologies used by crop physiologist/agronomists are developed and case studies discussed.