Annals of Botany 93: 477, 2004
© 2004 Annals of Botany Company
Hardarson, G. and Broughton, W. J. Maximising the use of biological nitrogen fixation in agriculture
Maximising the use of biological nitrogen fixation in agriculture.
Hardarson G, Broughton WJ (eds) 2003.
Rome: FAO, Dordrecht: Kluwer.
£49·75 (hardback). 226 pp.
This volume contains invited papers given at an FAO/IAEA technical meeting held in Rome in March 2001. Most have already been published in Plant and Soil 252(1), 2003 and have been reviewed, although the latter is unclear for two papers, those by Cocking and by Jensen et al. In that a great deal of attention has been given recently to problems of excess nitrogen, it is good to see the needs of developing countries, which are generally short of nitrogen, given an airing.
The papers vary greatly in length and quality, but they do cover a wide range of topics. The first (Alves et al.) tells the success story of the soybean industry in Brazil, the first country to develop plant material selected for nitrogen fixation rather than potential yield. The methods used, as the authors point out, are applicable to other important crops and the question of plant breeding is taken up again in a more general paper by Herridge. To reap the financial rewards of soybean production, much of the native Brazilian Cerrado vegetation has been taken over and now there are major incursions into the Amazon region (not mentioned). The environmental consequences of this are not considered, but should not be forgotten and, indeed, the environment is only considered in one paper in this volume. Several papers concern the common bean Phaseolus vulgaris, a vital food for many people, but with severe problems for optimizing nitrogen fixation. In the longest and arguably the most valuable of the papers (73 pp.), Broughton et al. make the case for using bean as a model legume and also give an impressive list of the laboratories that have bought into this idea. Other chapters cover specific areas (West Africa) and problems (inoculant production, covering a wide range of organisms, including rhizobia). Nitrogen fixation in rice systems and the related topic of endophytic nitrogen fixation in various graminaceous crops are covered. These last two groups of papers are useful summaries, but contain little new material.
As far as I can tell, the last three papers have not been published in Plant and Soil. One of these, by Hardarson et al. considers the comparative cost of increasing nitrogen fixation versus using nitrogen fertilizers for developing countries. I was slightly surprised that no mention was made of the recent suggestion that the hydrogen evolved as a result of nitrogenase activity might play a role in soil microbiology and fertility.
The Hardarson et al. paper will be of interest to many, so is it worth buying the book to get it? The other papers not available in Plant and Soil are those by Herridge, mentioned earlier, and the one on inoculant production (by Kannaiyan). There is also a report on the technical meeting, which is largely a wish-list for future work. Although the book is nicely produced, there is no index, which in this computer age is surprising. Many of those working in the field of biological nitrogen fixation will, like me, already have read the papers in Plant and Soil. Unless your library does not have access to this journal, you should think carefully before buying this volume.
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