This new edition of a bestseller examines plant nutrition's role as one of the most important limiting factors that must be overcome to optimize food production. Extensively revised and updated, the new edition provides comprehensive coverage of topics such as genetic, physiological, and agronomic bases of crop growth. It covers the soil-plant-climate relationships that govern the growth and mineral nutrition of crops in temperate and tropical regions. Offering several new figures, references, and tables, the book contains two new chapters covering remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils and cover crops.