Abstract

During the last 25 years and more, a tremendous amount of research work in agriculture and allied sciences has been done in many countries. Specialists in each branch of study have made valuable contributions to existing knowledge and quite often their results have revolutionised present concepts. The base exchange phenomena in soils, the assimilation of nutrients by plants, the action of different fertilisers on crops under different conditions of soil and climate, the evolution of high yielding varieties, and the efficiency of pesticides and fungicides have all been studied in great detail. Recognis- ing the importance of water as a limiting factor in crop production, special attention has been paid to irrigation agronomy and to problems arising therefrom, like water requirement of crops, salinity, drainage, and the development of diversified cropping under irrigated conditions.

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