Sarita Biswal’s scientific contributions

The worldwide increase in human population every year raises a major threat to the food security of the people as the land for agriculture is restricted and even drastic reduction with time. Therefore, it is essential that agricultural productivity should be enhanced significantly within the next few decades to meet the large demand of food by emerging population. Due to dependence on chemical fertilizers for more crop productions damages both ecosystem and human health with great severity. Biofertilizers are one of the greatest nature gifts of our agricultural science as partial replacement for chemical fertilizers. Biofertilizer contains microbes which encourage the adequate supply of nutrients to the host plants and ensure their proper development of growth and regulation in their physiology. Living microbes are used in the preparation of biofertilizers. Biofertilizers being essential components of sustainable farming play vital role in maintaining long term soil fertility and sustainability of crop production.

Ipomea batatas (L.) commonly known as Sweet potatoes are considered as the second most staple food crop in many developed and underdeveloped countries due to its immense role in human diet. The different coloured flesh of sweet potatoes found naturally as white, yellow, purple, and orange are rich of nutrition. The orange-fleshed sweet potato has been set as a centre of attraction among many food technologists and nutritionists due to its high content of carotenoids and pleasant sensory characteristics with color while the purple fleshed sweet potato is full of anthocyanin content. Due to various health benefits reported in orange sweet potato, most of the countries like Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya, and Nigeria use orange-fleshed sweet potato used as their staple food. Sweet potato is the most amply grown tuber crops in Africa. Sweet potato is considered to be the principal source of natural products and development of medicines against variable diseases including production of industrial products