Breeding Plantation Tree Crops: Temperate Species S. Mohan Jain l P.M. Priyadarshan Editors Breeding Plantation Tree Crops: Temperate Species 13 Editors S. Mohan Jain P.M. Priyadarshan Helsinki University Rubber Research Institute of India Helsinki, Finland Regional Station
[email protected] Agartala, India
[email protected] ISBN: 978-0-387-71202-4 e-ISBN: 978-0-387-71203-1 DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-71203-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008937489 # Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com Preface Tree species are indispensably supportive to human life. Due to their long life cycle and environmental sensitivity, breeding trees to suit day-to-day human needs is a formidable challenge. Whether they are edible as apple, cocoa, mango, citrus, litchi, pear, dates, and coconut or industrially essential as rubber or beverages like coffee and tea, improving yield under optimal, suboptimal, and marginal areas calls for a unified effort from scientists around the world.