This book is a handbook covering the whole range of plants cultivated in the tropics and subtropics, and a textbook for students of agriculture, botany, geography, economics and other disciplines. It deals with approx 1000 crop species in 21 chapters. Each chapter gives a summary of the specific features of the group of plants treated (economic importance, chemical characteristics, uses, technology, future developments). The major crops are treated in detail, giving particulars of production, botany, ecology, breeding, cultivation, diseases and pests, harvesting, processing and uses. There are more than 2000 references to recent publications.