By the year 2000, the most critical world problem--as things stand now--will be sustaining the human race. The quality and the availability of food will continue to be central to this issue. However, since the beginning of the final quarter of the twentieth century, few attempts have been made to organize and integrate information applying our knowledge of the regulation of plant growth to the enhancement of the world's yield of food, forage, fiber, and other useful plants. It is appropriate, therefore, to approach a solution to future human needs by combining an area of basic science with a defined and needed application of it. The purpose of this NATO Advanced Study Institute--Plant Regulation and World Agriculture--is reflected in the content of this volume. It covers a wide range of physiological processes including photosynthesis, translocation, seed germination, source sink relationships, water relationships, flowering, fruiting, and adaptations to stress. The identification, chemistry, and bio chemistry of naturally occurring as well as known and new synthetic plant growth regulators are discussed in relation to productivity, growth retardation, and herbicidal activity. Other topics include plant breeding and genetics, tissue culture and its use in the improvement of and the increase in plant varieties, and ecological implications in agriculture. Chapter titles in bold print in the Table of Contents designate keynote presentations for the three major subtopics in Section II.

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II. Plant Growth Regulation and Agricultural Improvement Techniques.- A. Biologically Based:.- 1. Food Plants and Plant Hormones in Our Future.- 2. Agricultural ProductionResearch Imperatives for the Future.- 3. Root Hormones and Overground Development.- 4. The Role of Hormones in Promoting and Developing Growth to Select New Varieties in Sterile Culture.- 5. Somatic Hybridization and Genetic Manipulation in Plants.- 6. Genetic Herbicide Resistance: Projections on Appearance in Weeds and Breeding for It in Crops.- 7. The Problem of Plant Breeders.- 8. Temperature Responses and Yield in Temperate Crops.- 9. Sink-Source Relationships in Fruit Trees.- B. Chemically Based.- 10. Potential for Regulation of Plant Growth and Development.- 11. Chemical Plant Growth Regulation in World Agriculture.- 12. Regulation of Flower Induction and Fruit Development.- 13. The Role and Effectiveness of Stimulative-Inhibitive Regulators on Early and Late Blooming of Fruit Trees.- 14. Structure-Activity Relationships of Some New Growth Retardants.- 15. Plant Growth Retardants: Present and Future Use in Food Production.- 16. Possibilities for Optimalization of Plant Nutrition by New Agrochemical SubstancesEspecially in Cereals.- 17. Growth Regulators and Assimilate Partition.- 18. Stomatal Aperture and the Senescence of Leaves.- 19. Modern Chromatographic Methods for the Identification and Quantification of Plant Growth Regulators and Their Application to Studies of the Changes in Hormonal Substances in Winter Wheat During Acclimation to Cold Stress Conditions.- C. Physically and Environmentally Based:.- 20. A Proposal for the Application of Growth Regulators in Turkey in Relation to Agricultural Potential.- 21. Creative Botany: Its Role in Meeting the Major Temperate and TropicalAgricultural Problems of the Future.- 22. Preconditioning of Seeds to Improve Performance.- 23. Water Stress: A Challenge for the Future of Agriculture.- 24. Water Stress and Its Implication (Irrigation) in the Future of Agriculture.- 25. Biomass, Present and Future.- 26. Reflections on C4 Photosynthesis and Plant Productivity.- III. Planning for the Future.- 27. Agriculture in the Year 2000: A Script for Survival.- 28. Agricultural Management Strategies, Initiatives, and Goals for Survival.- IV. List of Participants.- V. Author Index.- VI. Plant Name Index.- VII. Subject Index.