Soil Management for Sustainable Agriculture: New Research and Strategies

Taking a sustainable approach, this volume explores the various soil management techniques. It begins with an overview of the elementary concepts of soil management and then delves into new research and novel soil management tools and techniques.

Topics include:
- Clays as a critical component in sustainable agriculture with respect to carbon sequestration in conjunction with its interaction with soil enzymes
- The potential utilization of microbes to mitigate crop stress
- Resource conservation technologies and prospective carbon management strategies
- The use of smart tools for monitoring soils
- Effective nutrient management approaches
- Nanotechnological interventions for soil management
- Techniques for the remediation of soils contaminated by metals and pesticides

Nintu Mandal, PhD, is an Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India. He has published 20 research/review papers in national and international journals and has authored one book, Agricultural Nanotechnology: Basics and Practicals. He also co-authored several book chapters. He has field one patent for "A Superabsorbent Polymer (NSP) and Process for Preparing the Same." His current research areas are nanoformulations for increasing input use efficiency, soil chemistry, and clay mineralogy. He earned his MSc and PhD degrees from the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. During his MSc, he received an ICAR Junior Research Fellowship, followed by ICAR Senior Research Fellowship, IARI Merit Scholarship and UGC Junior Research and DST INSPIRE Fellowship during his PhD tenure. He received an Indian Society of Soil Science (ISSS) Zonal Award (North Zone) (2011) for best presentation of an MSc dissertation. Other awards include the Indian Society of Soil Science (ISSS) Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2015 for Outstanding Doctoral Research and Dr. S. P. Raychaudhary Gold Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Research.

Abir Dey, PhD, is an Agricultural Research Scientist in the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India. He published 19 research/review papers in national and international journals. He also co-authored one book and several book chapters. His current research areas are conservation agriculture, soil carbon dynamics, quality of soil organic matter, soil fertility, and plant nutrition. He earned his MSc and PhD degrees from the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India.. During his MSc he received an ICAR Junior Research Fellowship, followed by an ICAR Senior Research Fellowship, IARI Merit Scholarship, and UGC Junior Research Fellowship during his PhD tenure. He received the Indian Society of Soil Science (ISSS) Zonal Award (North Zone) for best presentation of MSc dissertation. He received the Golden Jubilee Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research in Fertilizer Usage by the Fertilizer Association of India and the ISSS Commendation Certificate for Best Presentation of Doctoral Research Work done in Soil Science.

Rajiv Rakshit, PhD, an Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India. He has published 25 research/review papers in national and international journals and has co-authored five book chapters. He has also reviewed many research papers for internationally reputed journals. His research interest is focused on soil quality, soil microbial interactions, soil carbon, and nutrient dynamics. His aim is to improve the understanding of how fertilization affects nutrient cycling and microbial interactions in soils. Dr. Rakshit received his MSc and PhD degrees from the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India. During his MSc, he received an ICAR Junior Research Fellowship followed by IARI merit scholarship during his doctoral program.