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Not AvailableIt has been estimated that agricultural production must be doubled by 2050 in order to meet the predicted demand of growing world population. Achieving this goal poses a serious challenge to plant breeders as the current agricultural production growth rate of 1.3 % per annum is below the population growth rate. In the recent past, research advances have been made in the development of genomic tools and techniques which have the potential to increase the rate of genetic improvement. The whole genome studies have the potential to greatly facilitate genetic dissection of complex traits such as yield and stress tolerance by using technological advances in genotyping and sequencing. However, successful application of genomics towards the genetic improvement of crop plants depends upon our ability of precision phenotyping of these complex traits. Low cost and high-throughput genotyping has paved the way for the development of large mapping populations and diversity panels of thousands of recombinant inbred lines. These genetic resources require precise phenotyping. Marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) and genome-wide selection require phenotypic data, although conceptually selections are made on the basis of genetic information. A single phenotyping cycle is used to identify markers for subsequent selection through generations. In transgenic studies also, phenotyping is necessary for identification of promising events. Molecular breeding populations sometimes include up to 5,000 lines and their accurate characterization simultaneously is a challenging task. Also phenotyping of such complex traits are labor intensive, and many other interesting traits involved in biological processes are currently not suitable for genetic mapping due to the lack of approach to efficient and reliable measurement. The success in development of improved varieties relies on the ability to identify the best genetic variation for advancement. Because breeding is essentially a numbers game, more crosses and environments are required to identify superior variation with greater probability. Therefore, plant breeders want to phenotype a large number of lines rapidly and accurately to identify the best progeny. Advances in phenotyping are essential to capitalize on the developments in conventional, molecular, and transgenic breeding and ensure genetic improvement of crops for future food security. In recent years, there has been increased interest in development of highthroughput phenotyping tools and techniques for screening of agronomic, physiological, and biochemical traits expressing especially under biotic and vii abiotic stresses. These techniques have become much more advanced and have now entered the era of high-throughput field phenotyping. Several phenotyping platforms have been developed around the world, which are fully automated facilities in greenhouses or growth chambers with robotics, precise environmental control, and remote sensing techniques to assess plant growth and performance. Consequently, voluminous literature has been generated on different aspects of phenotyping which is scattered in numerous journals and books. However, no single publication is available to provide a comprehensive insight into this literature with a focus on phenomics of crop plants. This book, Phenomics of Crop Plants: Trends, Options and Limitations, is an attempt in this direction to bring together various high throughput, advanced phenotyping tools, techniques and platforms for directed genetic improvement in crop plants. The present book comprises 19 chapters contributed by renowned scientists in their fields of expertise. The first chapter presents an overview on the recent developments in phenotyping. The second chapter deals with traits that require precise phenotyping. Chapter 3discusses various issues related to phenotyping under controlled and natural environments while the subsequent three chapters (Chaps.4, 5, and 6) deal with the imaging tools in phenotyping agronomic and physiological traits in crop plants. Chapters7,8, and9focus on phenotyping tools available for heat and drought related traits and soil problems. Chapter10deals with screening methods for diseases and possibility of using the recent developments in the field of phenomics. The subsequent three chapters (Chaps.11, 12, and 13) discuss the advances in phenotyping of functional traits, role of florescence approaches for understanding the functional traits of photosynthesis and use of NMR in identification of subcellular structural and metabolic challenges. The next two chapters are on precision nutrient management and identification of nutritional and anti-nutritional factors of seeds (Chaps.14and 15). The subsequent two chapters (Chaps.16and17) discuss the role of experimental designs for precision phenotyping and use of biometrical approaches in data analysis of the complex traits. As vast amount of genomic resources are now available in several crop plants, precision phenotyping can harness the potentiality of these genomic resources for accelerating the genetic improvement through mainstreaming them in the ongoing breeding programs. Therefore, the next two chapters (Chaps.18and19) deal with how the available genomic resources can be utilized in a better way by using the available phenomics platforms worldwide for precise phenotyping of agronomic and physiological traits. Each chapter of this book has focused on the current trends, available options for phenotyping the target traits and limitations in their use for phenomics of crop plants.Not Availabl