Plant environmental (abiotic) stress constitutes a major limitation to agricultural production and the farmer's livelihood. Crop production is hardly ever free of environmental stress. The major plant environmental stresses of contemporary economical importance worldwide are drought, cold (chilling and freezing), heat, salinity, soil mineral deficiency and soil mineral toxicity.

While the "green revolution" indeed had an immense impact on agriculture since the 1960's, its benefits were limited mainly to farming under non-stress or moderately stressed conditions. For the farmers in stress prone agriculture that seriously lack in water, soil fertility, nutrient supply, and favorable weather, the "green revolution" had only a moderate impact and in some region no impact at all. A major challenge in agriculture practice and research today is how to cope with plant environmental stress in an economical and an environmentally sustainable approach.

Research to meet this challenge is complex as it involves learning in widely different disciplines such as atmospheric sciences, soil science, plant physiology, biochemistry, genetics, plant breeding, molecular biology, agricultural engineering and computer science. The most successful cases of solution development by research in this area involved close interdisciplinary collaboration and integration. Such collaboration requires extensive exchange of knowledge and ideas pertaining to plants under stress. Regretfully the contemporary trend in agricultural and biological research is increased specialization and reduced wide interdisciplinary collaboration.

Henceforth, the purpose of this web site is to serve as a brokerage of information, a meeting place, a consultation facility and a source for professional update on the most important issues of plant environmental stress. While the site is dynamic and constantly updated it also offers basic educational materials to newcomers into this area who wish to use the site for learning. The most important goal of this web site is to promote interaction among those interested in solving the problem of plants under stress in agriculture, be it scientists, extension specialists, business people, administrators, policy makers or farmers. The site bulletin board is one tool for the exchange of ideas.

Contributed material highly pertaining to the contents and purpose of this web site is welcomed. Please write the curator of the site. The decision to publish any contributed information on this site lies with the curator whereas the final responsibility for the submitted material is with the person submitting it.