Sunita Kumari Meena

How effective are climate resilient agricultural technologies (CRATs) in overcoming barriers faced in agri-food system by farmers across the different agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of Bihar? This study examines the barriers that hinder farmers in Bihar from adopting CRATs amidst the growing impacts of climate change on global agri-food systems. It foc...

What are the key factors influencing yield in winter maize cultivation under adverse climatic conditions? How can on-farm experimentation reveal innovative strategies to improve production in these challenging environments? Four year (2020-21-to-2023-24) on farm experimentation at 160 farmers in the districts of Purnia and Katihar were consider for...

The agricultural sector is witnessing a transformative shift with the advent of advanced biofertilizer formulations and innovative delivery systems. These cuttingedge technologies are addressing the longstanding limitations of conventional biofertilizers, such as short shelf-life, low microbial viability, and inconsistent field performance. By leve...

Maize is an economically important cereal crop, whose adaptability to a variety of agroecological zones and uses as a food, feed, and input in various industries has ensured its global importance. In this study, the implications of the raised bed planting (RBP) system on smallholder maize farming in Bihar, India, for four consecutive Rabi seasons w...

The management of red rot in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) poses a significant challenge to growers due to its detrimental effects on yield and quality. The present study was carried out during 2021-22 and 2022-23 at Kalyanpur farm, Sugarcane Research Institute, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar aim...

Sugarcane wilt disease, caused by Fusarium sacchari, is a major constraint in sugarcane production, with its incidence strongly influenced by weather parameters. This study aimed to evaluate the role of climatic factors in disease progression under field conditions during the 2023–24 cropping season. Meteorological data, including maximum and minim...

This study critically examines the impact of intensive nitrogen fertilizer use on nitrate contamination in groundwater within sugarcane-dominated cropping systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India, with a focus on Samastipur district, Bihar. The region's sugarcane cultivation, characterized by high nutrient demand, necessitates substantial ferti...

How effective are climate resilient agricultural technologies (CRATs) in overcoming barriers faced in agri-food system by farmers across the different agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of Bihar? This study examines the barriers that hinder farmers in Bihar from adopting CRATs amidst the growing impacts of climate change on global agri-food systems. It foc...

This study investigates the macronutrient, soil sulphur availability, and micronutrient dynamics across different land use types in Samastipur District, Bihar: mango orchard, forest land, sugarcane field, dhab land, and uncultivated land. Soil samples were collected from two depths (0-20 cm and 20-40 cm) to assess nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), pota...

Sugarcane is a versatile crop with significant potential for carbon sequestration in both soil and plants. This study assessed the carbon sequestration in planted sugarcane and rhizospheric soil under various nutrient management practices. According to the IPCC, rising global temperatures due to GHG emissions are a primary cause of global warmi...

Introduction: Sugarcane is a critical cash crop, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, contributing significantly to the global supply of sugar and bioethanol. However, increasing the yield of sugarcane is a constant challenge for farmers and researchers due to various biotic and abiotic stresses (Kumar et al., 2024a). Bio-priming, a no...

What nutrient supply options can ensure maximum productivity and optimize the nutrient uptake of rice–wheat system (R-W system)? an experiment started in the year 1998 (19-year-old) to examine the impact of optimal nutrient supply (NS) strategies to maximize crop productivity and nutritional security in R-W system. To determine the best nutrient ma...

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is a significant crop in Bihar, providing a critical source of income and employment for the rural population. Bihar's calcareous soils, which are characterized by high calcium carbonate content, present unique challenges and opportunities for sugarcane cultivation. These soils often exhibit poor nutrient availa...

Introduction:Potassium is one of the essential macronutrients for plant growth and development, playing a crucial role in various physiological processes such as enzyme activation, photosynthesis, and nutrient transportation. However, a significant portion of soil potassium exists in insoluble forms, making it inaccessible to plants. Enter Potassiu...

Sugarcane is a multi-purpose crop. The capability of sugarcane crop to sequestrate carbon into soil and plant is of great importance. Under this study the carbon sequestration in planted sugarcane and their rhizospheric soil under different nutrient management practices was assessed. As IPCC reported, that the rising temperature of earth surface re...

Since over the past 50 years, soils are under strain conditions, it is the result of improvements in agricultural technology, and growing population brought greater demand. In many nations, intense agricultural production has depleted the soil, endangering its ability to produce enough food for current populations as well as future ones. A better u...

The study focused on the isolation and characterization of , an endophytic bacterium obtained Gluconacetobacter diazotrophocus from various parts of a native sugarcane cultivar in India's middle Gangetic plains. Using conventional culturing methods, isolated and screened 115 isolates, ultimately selecting 15 highly efficient isolates based on their...

The study focused on the isolation and characterization of , an endophytic bacterium obtained Gluconacetobacter diazotrophocus from various parts of a native sugarcane cultivar in India's middle Gangetic plains. Using conventional culturing methods, isolated and screened 115 isolates, ultimately selecting 15 highly efficient isolates based on their...

Sugarcane's growth is heavily influenced by climate conditions, and its distribution across the world depends on various climatic factors. Climate change, driven by both natural processes and extensive human activities altering the atmosphere, is now occurring at an accelerated rate. Predictions from various climate models suggest concerning increa...

India's sugarcane cultivation is geographically divided into tropical and subtropical regions. The tropical area, spanning 45% of the total cultivation space, remarkably contributes 55% to the country's sugarcane output. For optimal growth, sugarcane requires temperatures between 28-32°c, annual rainfall ranging from 75-120 cm, and specific humidit...

The sugarcane is important crop because of its multiple uses: it is used around the world for forage for animal feed or as raw material for the manufacture of brown sugar, molasses, alcoholic beverages, sugar and ethanol. Processing its waste also has great economic importance, especially for vinasse, which is transformed into organic fertilizer, a...

Sugarcane is a significant crop with a multitude of applications, from animal feed and alcoholic beveragestotheproductionofsugar,ethanol,andotherproducts.Itsgrowthprimarilyoccursintropicaland subtropical climates, with two crucial seasons dictating its development and sucrose accumulation. While geneticallyimprovedsugarcanevarietiesnowexist,withhig...

In agro-ecosystems, soil organic matter plays many important roles contributing towards functions like sustaining biological activity along with improving nutrient availability and crop productivity and environmental quality. Better crop management practices including incorporation of organic sources of nutrients have the potential to reduce the CO...

Nitrogenous fertilizer is one of the dominating fertilizers, having indirect negative effect on soil health. The concept of nitrogen fixation through endophytic bacterium has been gaining popularity among farming as well as scientific community. Sugarcane which is known as high nitrogen input crop, so here its supplementation plays very promising r...

Sustainable management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is the utmost importance not only because of the health and environmental concerns but also due to its disposal issues of large quantities of waste generated and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Improper management of MSW causes hazards to inhabitants. Environmental and econo...

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a commercially important food and energy crop in tropical and subtropical climates. Sugarcane productivity is largely dependent on nutrient management. Sugarcane responds well to split nitrogen and potassium applications. A field experiment carried out at Sugarcane Research Institute, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricu...

An assessment of soil status of Hasanpur and Rosera blocks of Samastipur district of Bihar was carried out to determine the basic physico-chemical properties of the soil, based on which site-specific nutrient recommendations can be made so that problems of nitrate contamination in water of that area may be minimized. The study was carried out in fo...

Agricultural Soil Sustainability and Carbon Management presents long-term research in the field of sustainable soil use and management to guide in the prioritizing the multifunctional value of soil health and addressing interdisciplinary links between major issues such as biodiversity and climate change. As soil is the largest terrestrial carbon po...

The nutrient management options have been contemplated to be sustainable strategies to sustain rice-wheat production systems and a conceivable option to maintain soil organic carbon (SOC) in soil systems. We hypothesized that carbon fraction could be a critical factor in improving carbon storage in cereal-based production systems. The results sugge...

In the last few decades, the deficiency of sulfur (S) has been noticed in the agricultural soils of India. Meanwhile, researchers reported that S plays a significant role in the productivity of the rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS). For the quantification of S response, a long-term field experiment was started at the Indian Council of Agricultural...

Two-year field experiments were conducted to study the effect of different levels of inorganic fertilizers, farmyard manure (FYM), and bio-inoculants on wheat productivity and profitability. Results specified that judicious application of inorganic fertilizers, FYM, and bio-inoculants significantly increased the productivity and profitability of wh...

Continuing soil degradation remains a serious threat to future food security. Soil aggregation can help protect soil organic matter from biodegradation; it affects soil physical (aeration), chemical (water infiltration), and biological (microbial) activities. The integrated plant nutrition system (IPNS) and organic farming (OF) options have been co...

The Stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni), belongs to the Asteraceae family (Sunflower family). It is a perennial herb cultivated for its high economic value due to its sweetness. It is a natural sweetener plant known as “Sweet Weed”, “Sweet Herbs”, and “Honey Leaf”, which is estimated to be 300 times sweeter than cane sugar. It is one of the 15...

The indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers can deteriorate soil, grain, and environmental quality; still, these can be restored if integrated nutrient management options with inclusion of legumes in the cropping system are adopted. A long-term (19 year) rice-wheat system experiment was examined to find out the best nutrient management practices...

Despite the growing importance of soil and water conservation and watershed development projects as an approach to rural development and natural resource management, there has been relatively little research on devising site-specific best management practice (BMP) to check the soil erosion losses within permissible limits, especially in hilly regio...

Carbon management is a serious concern confronting the world nowadays. Several summits have been organized on this subject. The current level of carbon within the atmosphere is 375 ppm. It is calculable that if the carbon increases in the atmosphere at the present rate and no positive efforts are pursued, the level of carbon in the atmosphere would...

Results of the experiment conducted at Sugarcane Research Institute in early maturing variety Rajendra ganna-1 in year 2020-21 in split plot design having 2 factor in main plot (Broadcasting and Band Placement) and 4 sub-plot factor(RDN + RDK in five splits, six splits, 7 splits and RDF) replicated thrice. The results revealed that cane yield was i...

Excessive use of synthetic chemicals in conventional agriculture largely degraded the agroecosystems that constitute approximately 40% of the global terrestrial ecosystems. Moreover, changing climate resulted in a substantial loss in agricultural productivity (both in quantity and in quality) mainly due to diverse abiotic and biotic stresses. This...

Sugarcane crop is constrained by many biotic and abiotic stresses in which diseases are one of them. In Bihar, about 20 diseases have been reported affecting its quality as well as quantity. It was noticed that unrestricted movement of unreleased seed materials from other zones and planting of the cane without testing posing a threat to cane cultiv...

Exponential upsurge in the global population growth rate claims sustainable means to fulfill their food requirements. Therefore, the collaboration of beneficial microorganisms with their host plants have been of interest for years as these associations can be helpful in the development of sustainable agriculture. However, the endophytic microorgani...

Sugarcane industries are age-old industrial practices which contribute a significant amount of press mud as waste. Handling and management of this by-product is huge task, because it requires lot of space for storage. However, it provides opportunity to utilize in crop production as organic nutrient source. Application of press mud to soil improves...

Sugarcane industries are age-old industrial practices which contribute a significant amount of press mud as waste. Handling and management of this by-product is huge task, because it requires lot of space for storage. However, it provides opportunity to utilize in crop production as organic nutrient source. Application of press mud to soil improves...

During the green revolution, India became self-dependent for food production. The major outbreak of green revolution is deterioration of soil quality due to excessive use of agrochemicals to maximize crop yield. Nowadays, sustainability and health of soil are of great concern and that is why people are looking for alternatives of agrochemicals. Org...

Soil is the most important component of biosphere. Maintaining soil health and agricultural (crop) productivity is must in the present scenario. Excessive and imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers, contaminated irrigation water increases the level of heavy metal in soil and crop. Heavy metal content in soil above the permissible limit causes serio...

Soil is the most important component of biosphere. Maintaining soil health and agricultural (crop) productivity is must in the present scenario. Excessive and imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers, contaminated irrigation water increases the level of heavy metal in soil and crop. Heavy metal content in soil above the permissible limit causes serio...

The energy consumption in production of sugarcane is higher than the other crops like maize, potato, wheat, rice, etc. The crop requires about 375 man-days/ha for different agronomic practices. Now days, scarcity of labour is more due to industrial development and globalization. Non-availability of labour during peak period of season forces the sug...

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is one of the most important industrial crops in Bihar.Sugarcane is used as raw materials for sugar mills and main product is white sugar. Itgenerates employment opportunities for over six lakh families and fifty thousand skilled and unskilled workers. The cane growers of the Bihar in getting more than 600 crore as priceo...

The impacts of land use and topographic position can be evaluated through the carbon management index (CMI) that conceptualizes the carbon lability and soil aggregation. Soil aggregation patterns, carbon pools, and carbon management of the soil system not only affect the distribution of the mineral fraction of the soil but also the organic componen...

Organic farming, extensively considered to be a more productive and sustainable approach has also won much accolade for its diversified applications, techniques and above all its eco-friendly aspect. This system that categorically casts away the use of chemical fertilizers, growth regulators, soil and feed additives, pesticides and other similar sy...

Liquid biofertilizer formulation is an encouraging and upgraded technology of the traditional carrier-based production technology which, despite several benefits over the agrochemicals, left a considerable conflict among the farmer community in terms of many grounds. The major one being the viability of the organism.

Biofertilizer has been identified as an alternative source of chemical fertilizer to increase soil fertility and crop production in sustainable farming. The high cost of fertilizer production and environmental pollution initiated to use other sources especially biofertilizers. The Grampositive, aerobic, rod-shaped endospore-forming bacteria of the...

Plant beneficial rhizobacteria (PBR) is a group of naturally occurring rhizospheric microbes that enhance nutrient availability and induce biotic and abiotic stress tolerance through a wide array of mechanisms to enhance agricultural sustainability. Application of PBR has the potential to reduce worldwide requirement of agricultural chemicals and i...

Plant beneficial rhizospheric microorganisms (PBRMs) are rhizospheric microbes that are able to colonize rhizosphere and to improve plant growth, development and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) by means of a wide variety of mechanisms like organic matter mineralization, biological control against soil-borne pathogens, biological nitrogen (N) fixation...

There is increasing interest in the use of beneficial microbes as alternatives to chemical fertilizers and plant growth promoters in agricultural production. Judicious application of Trichoderma sp. with chemical nitrogenous (N) fertilization to seeds will be an efficient mechanism for placement into varied soil type (alluvial, red and black) where...

Microorganisms that sustain the fertility of soils, resulting in improved plant nutrition, have continued to magnetize attention because of the increasing cost of agricultural inputs and some of their negative impacts on environmental sustainability. The continuous increase in the world population at an alarming rate requires more food for nutritio...

Plant beneficial rhizospheric microorganisms (PBRMs) are rhizospheric microbes that are able to colonize rhizosphere and to improve plant growth, development and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) by means of a wide variety of mechanisms like organic matter mineralization, biological control against soil-borne pathogens, biological nitrogen (N) fixation...

Increasing cost of the fertilizers with lesser nutrient use efficiency necessitates alternate means to fertilizers. Soil is a storehouse of nutrients and energy for living organisms under the soil-plant-microorganism system. These rhizospheric microorganisms are crucial components of sustainable agricultural ecosystems. They are involved in sustain...

Nickel (Ni) and cadmium (Cd) are two important environmental contaminants and have detrimental effects on ecosystems and are a risk to human health as they can enter the food chain via agricultural products or contaminated drinking water. Agricultural soils in many parts of the world are moderately contaminated by Ni and Cd due to mining and smelti...

This study was aimed to investigate an impact of bio-priming by Trichoderma harzianum BHU51, varied N doses (100, 75 50 and 25% RDN) along with varied soils types (alluvial, red and black) on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under greenhouse conditions. Results revealed that significantly enhanced plant height, chlorophyll content, root length, effecti...

One major challenge for the twenty-first century will be the production of sufficient food for the global human population. The negative impacts on soil–plant–microbes–environmental sustainability due to injudicious use of chemical fertilizer, pesticide, insecticide, etc. by the unaware farmers deteriorate soil and environment quality. One possible...