Pradeep K. Dubey

• PhD in Environmental Science
• Researcher at IRRI-SARC

Carbon sequestration refers to the fixing of carbon in the soil, vegetation, oceans, etc., out of which soil is considered an important sink for carbon. CO2 flux between the soil and atmosphere has a great impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Earth System models (ESM) are extensively used for the assessment of climate change on regional and gl...

Globally, soil-based emissions such as forest fires (as occurred in Australia and Brazil in the recent past) and biomass burning adversely affect the environment’s biodiversity and cause warming effects. In coalition, anthropogenic emissions also simultaneously augment global temperature. The Paris Climate Change Convention (Nov 2016) held a consen...

Climate change is a global concern and soil organic carbon sequestration is a good strategy for mitigation. Carbon neutrality goals set by different countries still face a lot of challenges to minimize the carbon emission pathways. Soil carbon budgeting for progressing toward low-carbon development has multiple benefits besides addressing food secu...

Terrestrial plant systems are an integral part of Earth’s land resources. Resources are mutually connected via the nutrient exchange phenomena. Thus, plant nutrition is crucial in managing soil fertility and land productivity. Soil organic carbon is one of the critical indicators for assessing the viability of land, and hence soil carbon sequestrat...

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the United Nations promote global crop productivity and crop quality maintenance to minimize the food crisis. Crop cultivation might vary region-wise although rhizospheric soil microbiome similarly plays a critical and inductive role in crop productivity globally. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) a...

Globally, there is a dilemma in using tillage practice1 and here we establish that using tillage is beneficial for maintaining soil quality. Consecutive four seasonal rotations (two wintery and two monsoonal in two years) during rice cultivation in India have compared a tilled field (TF) to a non-tilled field (NTF). The novelty of our study lies in...

Long-term field experiment on the combined effects of irrigation, water management, soil properties, active microbial community and crop response related to the total and available nutrient content in rice fields.

Enhancing the productivity of rainfed crops, especially rice, while coping with climate adversities and saving critical natural resources is essential for ensuring the food and nutrition security of a growing population. With this context, the present study was undertaken to validate promising farm innovation and adaptation practices used by small-...

-Enhancing the productivity of rainfed crops, especially rice, while coping with climate adversities and saving critical natural resources is essential for ensuring the food and nutrition security of a growing population. With this context, the present study was undertaken to validate promising farm innovation and adaptation practices used by small...

The rate of change in the relative amount of active and passive carbon (AC and PC) due to the land management practices (cropping systems combined with tillage) may vary with soil types depending on their level of chemical and/or physical protection from the decomposition but has rarely been directly measured. We have quantified the C storage poten...

Land degradation across the world has resulted in an unprecedented decline of ecosystem services, affecting the livelihood of 3.2 billion people globally. Sustainable land management is essential to protect our finite land resources from over-exploitation and degradation. Therefore, the present article was aimed to analyze the impacts of various na...

Tectona grandis L.f. has considerable potential to restore marginal and degraded lands as it offers multiple co‐benefits during the restoration venture. It provides good quality wood for multipurpose use, including biomass for bioenergy and non‐invasive traits. For this, aboveground biomass (AGB) was assessed along with testing the critical soil pr...

The study aimed to assess the effects of combined application of urea nitrogen (N) and tank silt (TS) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [i.e., carbon dioxide (CO2) and N2O] and agronomic productivity of maize‐horsegram system. A factorial [Urea (0, 60, 120 and 180 kg ha‐1) and tank silt (0 and 30 t ha‐1) replicated thrice] randomized block design (...

Bioenergy production from marginal and degraded lands is getting worldwide attention due to its potential for renewable energy, land restoration, soil carbon sequestration, and also for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, the majority of the literature reported the bioenergy production prospect based on a single bioen...

Agroecological interventions are imperative for boosting agricultural productivity and soil fertility while increasing profitability of subsistence farmers in low-income countries by replacing synthetic fertilizers. With this context, the present study was aimed to evaluate the impact of animal manures (sheep and poultry manure) and plant residue-b...

Soil is a living and dynamic body, which is prone to degradation under conventional agricultural practices. Healthy soil is one of the most important pillars of sustainability as it delivers several ecosystem services along with its control on microbial activity, nutrient recycling, and decomposition. Nature-based solutions can play an important ro...

Soil is a living and dynamic body, which is prone to degradation under conventional agricultural practices. Healthy soil is one of the most important pillars of sustainability as it delivers several ecosystem services along with its control on microbial activity, nutrient recycling, and decomposition. Nature-based solutions can play an important ro...

Global warming and associated climatic changes due to rapidly increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission majorly by various anthropogenic activities led to negative impacts on various natural resources including the land and forest systems. Biomass production has been continuously suggested to address these issues, as it not only assists in environme...

This editorial article provides a brief overview of various articles published in the Special Issue: Managing Agroecosystems for Food and Nutrition Security.

Assessing the impacts of unprecedented biodiversity loss on planetary resilience, The Economics of Biodiversity: the Dasgupta Review (“Dasgupta Review”) asserts that sustainable engagement with nature is crucial for sustaining the livelihoods of present and future generations. It further urges the integration of biodiversity into national accountin...

Excessive use of synthetic chemicals in conventional agriculture largely degraded the agroecosystems that constitute ~40% of the global terrestrial ecosystems. Moreover, changing climate results in a substantial loss in agricultural productivity (both in quantity and quality) majorly due to diverse abiotic and biotic stress. This draws public aware...

News and Views Article on Recent Blue Planet Prize winner for year 2021 (Prof. Mohan Munasinghe)

Rapidly increasing global human population has led to the intensive land use change, and the over exploitation of soil resources resulting in the diminished soil health, ecosystem services, and human well-being. Depriving nutrients from the soil systems due unsustainable practices has further led to low productivity and quality of the crop yields....

Agriculture is central to overall development of humankind and plays a decisive role in the timely realization of several UN-Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, agriculture is the largest nonpoint source of pollution primarily due to rampant use of agrochemicals, and contributes ~34% of the annual greenhouse gases emission globally. Agricu...

Global agricultural production is accountable for the emission of ~30% of greenhouse gases. Therefore, the wide-scale adoptions of low-input, soil-friendly, and resource-conserving agronomic practices are imperative for the ‘planet healthy food production’ and also for reducing the carbon emissions from agricultural soil. In this context, the prese...

Agroecosystems are the largest human-natural coupled production system covering ~40% of the planet earth and provide essential ecosystem services for a good quality of life and human wellbeing. The sustainable management of agroecosystems are therefore essential for meeting the food, fuel, fiber, and fodder demands of the rapidly growing human popu...

Maximizing food production for feeding a rapidly growing human population while minimizing critical resource use and soil quality degradation is a major challenge for global sustainability. Sustainable agricultural practices based on low-external input is of paramount importance for reducing environmental trade-offs and planet healthy food producti...

Managing agroecosystem via innovative agricultural practices and climate adaptive strategies is indeed a much-needed intervention to maximize the food production for feeding an ever-increasing human population. Also, such practises are essential for overcoming macro/micro nutrients deficiencies, hidden hunger and malnutrition. In this backdrop, the...

Sustainable agronomic practices are being implemented worldwide to promote the cleaner and planet friendly crop production. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the effect of agro-waste derived biochar and vermicompost on soil quality and yield in Cicer arietinum L. Field experiment was carried out at three different agro-climatic regio...

In the search of ways to conserve biodiversity and ensure human well-being, there has already been a growing interest towards implementing Nature based solutions (NbS). Various global agencies works are dynamic in bringing international calls, decades, goals and action into perspective. However, having only ten more years in hand to achieve the 17...

Maximizing agricultural production for ensuring the food and nutritional requirements of a rapidly growing human population is a major sustainability challenge of this twenty-first century. This introductory chapter briefly address the various environmental challenges faced by agricultural system such as overgrowing human population, climate change...

Agronomic practices play a major role in enhancing the productivity of agricultural crops. However, such agronomic practices under changing climatic condition is not adequate to enhance crop production as the changing climatic conditions are reported to negatively affect crop growth, yield, soil quality and thereby the nutritional quality of agricu...

Increasing the resilience of agricultural crops towards various biotic and abiotic stresses is a promising method for maximizing the crop production under adverse conditions. In this chapter, we briefly discussed various integrated strategies for conferring drought, flood, salinity, pests, and diseases resistance in agricultural crops including the...

Adaptive agricultural practices are essential for maintaining the agricultural production under changing climatic conditions. While most of the farmers have already developed many field-level innovations, its validation and scaling-ups are essential for large-scale exploitation. Current chapter describes various policy measures for the wide-scale a...

Adaptive agriculture practices are stemmed from various eco-friendly and ecological agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture (CA), climate-resilient agriculture (CRA), climate smart agriculture (CSA), sustainable agriculture (SA), sustainable agriculture intensification (SAI), and sustainable agriculture extensification (SAE) etc. an...

An 148 pages Activity Manual on Water, Ecological resources and renewable energy entitled "Water: Motivational Power of Nature/ जल: प्रक्रिति की प्रेरक शक्ति”

Ensuring the food and nutritional demand of the ever-growing human population is a major sustainability challenge for humanity in this Anthropocene. The cultivation of climate resilient, adaptive and underutilized wild crops along with modern crop varieties is proposed as an innovative strategy for managing future agricultural production under the...

The present study was undertaken to evaluate various adaptive agronomic practices employed by indigenous farmers of eastern Uttar Pradesh in North India. For this, extensive field survey was conducted in selected districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and various practices done by farmers were noted for further studies. The promising practices were cla...

This book explores several adaptive agricultural practices from around the world to fulfill current and future agricultural demands for food security due to the challenges posed by climate change and growing global population. Readers will discover how farmers adapt to environmental changes by adopting various agronomic practices at crop, farm and...

Exploration and sustainable utilization of wild crops are essential for the dietary diversification and also for ensuring the nutritional requirements of growing human population. In this background, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the occurrence, distribution and habitat characterization of two underutilized perennial leafy vegetables...

Ever-increasing population demands for increased production of food, fibre and biofuels. This puts tremendous pressure on the arable land systems leading to increased use of synthetic agrochemical to enhance agricultural productivity. However, use of natural biological inputs instead of synthetic agrochemicals can increase the food production witho...

This book includes 25 contributions from vastly experienced, global experts in PGPR research in a comprehensive and influential manner, with the most recent facts and extended case studies. Also, the chapters address the current global issues in biopesticide research.

Sustainable food production for a rapidly growing global population is a major challenge of this century. In order to meet the demand for food production, an additional land area of 2.7–4.9 Mha year−1 will be required for agriculture. However, one-third of arable lands are already contaminated; therefore, the use of polluted lands will have to feat...