Specialty Crops for Climate Change Adaptation: Strategies for Enhanced Food Security by Using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops including floriculture. The value of specialty crop production in the United States accounted for 18.44 % of the $433.569 billion in agriculture cash receipts collected in 2021. In 2020, that ratio was 21.47% of the $363.464 billion. Specialty crops are gaining increasing attention across nation as demonstrated in the 2018 farm bill (Agricultural Act of the 2018 Farm Bill (P.L. 115-334)) with the increased number of provisions addressing specialty crop issues, reflecting their growing role in the global economy.

The cultivation of Specialty crops, nevertheless, has its own challenges. Specialty crops are generally more sensitive to climatic stressors and require more comprehensive management compared to traditional row crops. Specialty crops face significant financial risks threatening US$1.6 Trillion global market due to their higher water demand.

The mission of the book is to prepare current and future software engineering teams, agriculture students, economists, macroeconomists with the skills and tools to fully utilize advanced data science, artificial intelligence, climate patterns, and economic models to develop software capabilities that help to achieve Specialty crops and economic sustainability, through improved productivity for years to come and ensure enough food for the future of the planet and generations to come!

特色作物被定義為水果、蔬菜、堅果、乾果、園藝和苗圃作物，包括花卉。2021年，美國特色作物生產價值佔農業現金收入4335.69億美元的18.44％。而在2020年，這個比例為3634.64億美元的21.47％。特色作物在全國范圍內越來越受到關注，這在2018年農業法案（2018年農業法案（P.L. 115-334））中得到了體現，該法案增加了處理特色作物問題的條款數量，反映了它們在全球經濟中的日益重要角色。

然而，特色作物的種植也面臨著自己的挑戰。與傳統的行作物相比，特色作物通常對氣候壓力更敏感，需要更全面的管理。由於其對水的需求較高，特色作物面臨著嚴重的金融風險，威脅著價值1.6萬億美元的全球市場。

本書的使命是為現有和未來的軟件工程團隊、農業學生、經濟學家和宏觀經濟學家提供技能和工具，充分利用先進的數據科學、人工智能、氣候模式和經濟模型，開發軟件能力，以實現特色作物和經濟的可持續發展，提高生產力，確保未來的食物供應，為地球和後代子孫做好充足的準備！

Chandrasekar Vuppalapati is a seasoned Software IT Executive with diverse experience in software technologies, enterprise software architectures, cloud computing, big data business analytics, internet of things (IoT), and software product and program management. He has held engineering and product leadership positions at Microsoft, GE Healthcare, Cisco Systems, St. Jude Medical, and Lucent Technologies. Chandrasekar currently teaches software engineering, large-scale analytics, data science, mobile computing, cloud technologies, and web and data mining at San Jose State University (USA).

Chandrasekar Vuppalapati是一位經驗豐富的軟體資訊科技高階主管，擁有軟體技術、企業軟體架構、雲端運算、大數據商業分析、物聯網(IoT)以及軟體產品和計畫管理等多元經驗。他曾在微軟、GE Healthcare、思科系統、St. Jude Medical和Lucent Technologies擔任工程和產品領導職位。目前，Chandrasekar在美國聖荷西州立大學教授軟體工程、大規模分析、資料科學、行動運算、雲端技術以及網路和資料採礦。