Rakesh S.

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Rakesh verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Ph.D. (Agriculture) in Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry
• Associate Scientist at International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics

Mineralization of carbon (C) is a burning issue that is regulated by soil attributes. It has direct impacts on crop productivity and quantification of organic residue addition in soil. For better understanding and achievement of potential tillage benefits, a comprehensive scientific understanding of C mineralization is very important. Therefore, a...

Comparison of the carbon (C) stocks among different soil orders allows us to explore the role of various soil characteristics in long‐term C storage and their vulnerabilities. This study quantified and compared the accumulation rates of soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions (in 0–60 cm soil profile) in an Alfisol of Malda (25°27′33.9″N, 88°19′10.2″E)...

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...

Soil degradation is a pervasive, systemic phenomenon and an urgent priority in order to ensure human well-being, protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Agriculture sector is frequently affected by soil loss resulting into unproductive soil and lowered crop yields. This article focuses on critical sustainable challenges of Indian agriculture,...

The field of nanotechnology is rapidly developing with diverse applications in medicine, biotechnology, electronics, energy, agriculture, and environmental remediation. Agroforestry is emerging as a viable option for managing the land-use systems. The use of nanomaterials or nanoproducts is undoubtedly increasing to manage the resources of modern a...

Agroforestry (AF) is a popular farming technique and a perfect scientific approach that can help to manage resources sustainably and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Using an agroforestry system (AFS) greatly increases Soil organic carbon (SOC), and in many cases, it also enhances farm diversity, microclimate, and many other factors. This hap...

The properties of nanoparticles synthesized from green synthesis are determined by the combined effect of many factors involved in the process of green synthesis. Despite the significant growth in the plant-extract-mediated synthesis of nanoparticles, the issue of optimization of process parameters in biosynthesis still needs to be addressed. The o...

Introduction Vegetable grafting is a recent innovation in vegetable cultivation that has a great potential for enhancing crop productivity and profitability under climate change scenarios, besides its potential to reduce the cost of cultivation. Methods The present strategic research focused on assessing the performance of grafted and non-grafted...

With the growing importance of adopting biofertilizers management and crop residue addition to combat sustainability issues and carbon (C) sequestration, the present study was conducted in a 12 years long-term rice–wheat cropping system. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of tillage, crop residue, and biofertilizers on C sequestration and diffe...

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...

Key soil parameters, organic matter, soil pH and plant nutrients determine the capacity of a soil to sustain plant and animal productivity. Conservation agriculture (CA) and crop diversification or intensification may change these soil parameters positively or negatively, which eventually affect long-term sustainability. We monitored these key soil...

The current diagnostic agronomy study of the Bankura region of West Bengal, India, examined the variations in crop yields through a socio-ecological analysis of multiple production system components. Envirotyping for root cause analysis was employed to delve into the variables that affect the performance of rainfed production systems. Mother Earth,...

Storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions in the soil profile is a current global challenge. Despite greater attention to research investigating the buildup of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the surface soil layer (0-0.2 m), information on C sequestration rates in subsoil layers (0-1.0 m) is scanty in tropical upland crop production sy...

Drought Proofing by improving water storage in rest zone with enhanced soil organic matter is dealt in this chapter

Stomata are crucial structures in plants that play a primary role in the infection process during a pathogen's attack, as they act as points of access for invading pathogens to enter host tissues. Recent evidence has revealed that stomata are integral to the plant defense system and can actively impede invading pathogens by triggering plant defense...

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the World Bank have collaborated on a project entitled the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) to improve agricultural higher education in India, paving the way for sustainable higher education in agriculture. As part of this project, the present investigation was carried out...

Water storage in soil with improving soil organic carbon under rainfed dryland ecosystems are presented; Critical in crop management during mid season droughts or intermittent droughts periods.

Boron (B), a micronutrient of fundamental importance, serves as an indispensable element in nurturing the growth and vitality of higher plants. Yet, in India, relentless crop cultivation and the widespread adoption of high-yielding varieties during the green revolution have triggered a gradual depletion of B reserves in the soil, exacerbated by the...

Stomata are crucial structures in plants that play a primary role in the infection process during a pathogen’s attack, as they act as points of access for invading pathogens to enter host tissues. Recent evidence has revealed that stomata are integral to the plant defense system and can actively impede invading pathogens by triggering plant defense...

The present study was carried out with the objective of understanding the stated interest of agricultural students in entrepreneurship and to provide an accurate research report for decision-makers, for developing entrepreneurship in India. In the present investigation, a two-stage sampling procedure was employed. In the first stage, cluster sampli...

Critical potassium requirements of crop plants, soil potassium fertility status, K role in plant stress management, K recommendation and management strategies are presented in the review paper

The Government of India has initiated several programs to provide timely inputs to farmers with special subsidies on regular inputs such as seed material, fertilizers, irrigation, animal purchase, etc. These inputs are supplied through various mechanisms such as government departments, agricultural universities, KVKs, NGOs, local shop owners, produ...

Purpose To determine the factors influencing the dietary habits of the varied groups among adults in India. Design/approach Data on food habits such as choice of diet, preference toward meat, spicy food, sugar/calorie etc., were collected from the participants (from several higher education institutions) of different training programmes and events...

This study investigated the effect of bioinoculants (Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens) as biopriming agents under varied sulphur (S) fertilizer levels (0, 20, 30, and 40 kg S ha⁻¹) to enhance sulphur use efficiency (SUE) in Indian mustard. The experiment was conducted during the 2018–19 and 2019–20 winter seasons at the research farm o...

Global warming, threats to humankind as driven by the emissions of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) including carbon dioxide (CO 2), is becoming a great concern to deal with the vagaries of climate. Plantation ecotypes with greater carbon(C) sink capability are leading among the potential abatement strategies for sequestration of terrestrial C. Th...

Agricultural and Forest Research and Environmental Management entail significant decisions that can impact research findings. Better findings come from well-managed research. In the research and management, a practical methodology approach is used to improve decision-making and prioritise numerous possibilities and research programmes. However, mos...

The Government of India is promoting natural farming (NF) which is evolved from our ancient heritage and traditional cultivation practices. Though NF has many advantages, it is facing several challenges like low yield in initial years, expecting high outputs from low cost of cultivation, lack of local cultivars and livestock, less availability of t...

Profitability, risk analysis and farmers perception were worked out for the Eucalyptus and Subabul based agroforestry growers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. A total of 465 farmers were considered under the survey in both states. Establishment cost of Subabul was considerably lesser but the maintenance cost was almost similar as compared to Eucaly...

A field experiment (2017–2019) was undertaken to study the short-term effects of tillage [zero tillage (ZT), conventional tillage (CT), and alternate tillage (AT)] and sources of organic and mineral fertilizer N [NS0—control, NS1—recommended doses of fertilizer (160:50:100), NS2—recommended level of fertilizer and crop residue (6 Mg·ha⁻¹), NS3—75%...

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is severely depleted in rainfed dryland ecosystems of India and World. Depletion of SOC further aggravates to Land Degradation and Sustainability of Ecosystems. Sequestration of carbon in soil contributes to soil health, nutrient use efficiency and climate change adaptation with co-benifits of mitigation of GHGs. Current c...

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

Due to the introduction of zero-till wheat in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) in India, irrigation and fertilizer nitrogen (N) management needs to be modified from that followed under conventionally tilled fields. A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of irrigation and N levels on yield and N uptake by zero-till wheat, fertilizer N-us...

The field experiments were conducted for two consecutive rabi seasons (November –March) of 2017–18 and 2018–19 at the Wet land farm of S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati to calibrate leaf colour chart (LCC) for increasing growth yield, nitrogen uptake under varied plant density to establish and evaluate threshold leaf colour greenness as a guide...

Agriculture is the largest contributor to the global economy and only source for the food and nutritional security; which also generates large amount of waste materials. Agricultural waste (AW) is usually comprised of food processing waste (about 20% of maize is canned and 80% is waste), crop waste, animal waste, and toxic waste used in farming ope...

Improvement of physicochemical status of soil always should be of major concern before adopting any practices. In the present investigation, we assessed tillage, crop residue and biofertilizer on some physicochemical properties of soil. Results revealed that pH and bulk density both observed to get higher in their level proportionally with depths....

Purpose A conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) practices have been proposed as a potential alternative management strategy for achieving the food, water and energy security while sustaining the soil health and climate resilience. In this study, we evaluate the performance of CASI technologies under two cropping systems...

Since the Green Revolution era, the farming sector exploited the soils for food, fiber, fodder, etc., with high input responsive varieties that excavated vast amounts of chemical fertilizers. The burgeoning population of the country calls for a commensurate increase in food production to satisfy the demands of its inhabitants. Further, due to innov...

Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) in agriculture systems is emerged as an important technology in India. The current paper deals with economic and environmental benefits of INM in Field and Horticulture Crops in India towards food security, nutrition, soil carbon sequestration and mitigation of Green House Gas (GHGs).

Productivity of cropland soils, especially in arid and semi-arid tropics of India rigorously declined due to increasing losses of soil organic carbon (SOC) over the past decades. In the present study, we examined a 16-years long term experiment with continuous mono cropping rainfed groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) to quantify the influence of fertiliza...

Accumulation of mineral nitrogen (min-N) in soil profile (0-90 cm) was significantly (p<0.05) higher in conventional tillage (CT) than zero tillage (ZT) treatment plots both at 42 days after sowing (DAS) and 84 DAS of wheat, the increase over ZT being 58% and 44% respectively; but at the harvest stage an opposite trend was noted. Min-N accumulation...

Two biochars were produced from the rice and wheat residues by slow pyrolysis (at 400°C) in muffle furnace with an aim to study the effect of their application on some chemical properties of acidic soil such as pH, exchangeable acidity and cation exchange capacity (CEC) as well as their effect on phosphorus uptake by wheat in a greenhouse experimen...

Potassium (K) is regarded as a key player in plant growth. It has a significant role in crop productivity as one of the major nutrients. Thus, the addition of K fertilizers has supreme importance in supplying K to the plant requirement. Present K demand is satisfying by highly soluble and concentrated mineral salts; when those salts suddenly introd...

Nutrient management is a major factor governing soil health status and crop productivity as most of the Indian soils are multi-nutrient deficient. The intensity of nutrient deficiencies in Indian soils under diverse ecosystems is increasing. Benefits accruing from the efficient nutrient management systems include reduced cost of cultivation, and im...

The fundamental role of soil organic carbon (SOC) in maintaining soil quality and regulating Earth’s carbon cycle generates renewed interests of scientists to track its status in the ecosystem. Changes in SOC dynamics is a resultant of soil’s complex interactions with vegetation, climate, and land-use practices. Even a small variation in SOC conten...

A study to assess the profile distribution of important soil attributes in Alfisols and Entisols of West Bengal was conducted during 2016-17. Purposefully selected random sampling was carried out to collect the soils from different locations of two study sites, viz., Kalinagar (25º27'33.9"N, 88º19'10.2"E) from Malda district and Durganagar (26º09'6...

Plant nutrition is a source of nutrients for consumers who relied on plant products and food grains.

Hydrogels are superabsorbent polymers, also called as water gels, is a synthetic water absorbing polymer material. These cross linked polymers have a great amount of capacity to absorb water without dissolving itself in water. The unique character of hydrophilic functional groups in it resist the dissolution. Hydrogels can absorb 400 times its weig...

Agriculture is facing constant challenges with a growing population and climate change. The sector is very fragile and risk-prone. In order to maintain sustainability in crop production, we must be prepared to adopt all climate-smart technologies that can reduce the adverse effects of a warming climate. There is an urgent need to assess climate cha...

Key soil parameters, organic matter, soil pH and plant nutrients determine the capacity of a soil to sustain plant and animal productivity. Conservation agriculture (CA) and crop diversification or intensification may change these soil parameters positively or negatively, which eventually affect long-term sustainability. We monitored these key soil...

This article as a mini review, gives concise information on Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) effects on various growth and yield attributes of wheat crop and its nutrient uptake rate by influencing the nutrient status in soil system. Soil as a source of nutrients, must be protected from all kinds of external factors, especially from the additio...

Widespread incidences of sulphur (S) deficiency in agricultural crops and soils have been reported globally. To meet this gap, various new forms of S fertilizers are available in the market, and they are in the process of testing for their validations in varied type of crop species and soils. A current global trend of using these advanced S formula...

A field experiment was conducted using Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss.] as a test crop with S levels (15, 20, 25, 30 kg ha-1) each from two sources (bentonite-S and single superphosphate) to evaluate the effect on the yield parameters during rabi season of 2013-2014. Results revealed that the most of the growth parameters and yie...

Information about the phosphorus (P) forms in soils of Terai agro-ecological region of Cooch Behar (where P fertilizers have been applied for a long time), and their influence on the availability of P in soils is meagre. A study was undertaken to evaluate the status of different P forms in twenty five soils (0-0.15 m; acidic Entisols) collected fro...

The present paper is a mini review of the increasing soil pollution in the environment and the possible handy options available, to curb its rate. Soil being a non-renewable resource, must be protected from all types of pollutants. The health of all life forms is associated with the health of soil. Any degradation in the quality of soil can signifi...

A field experiment was conducted growing Indian mustard with added doses of sulphur in the form of bentonite-S and single super phosphate (SSP) to evaluate effect of S addition on different forms of S in an acid soil under mustard cultivation during 2013- 14. The preponderance of S in initial soil followed the order : Total sulphur> organic sulphur...