RESOURCE CONSERVATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR FOOD AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY
authored by: Sunil, Kumar, D.R.Singh, Anil Kumar Singh & Sushanta Sarkar
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Natural resources are vital for meeting the food, livelihood and environmental security. It is now widely accepted that future of food, livelihood and environmental security depends upon the attention paid to conservation, sustainable development and management of natural resources. Natural resource management ties in with applied concepts such as maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and optimum utilization. Every natural resource has its optimum utilization, or acceptable levels of use, which are established scientifically and according to which management authorities regulate its exploitation. Degradation of natural resources has been caused by a variety of social, economic, institutional and technological factors. Rapidly growing population, urbanisation and industrial activities have all resulted in considerable deterioration in the quality and quantity of natural resources. This book discusses both the principles and applications of an integrated approach to natural resources management. This book is compilation of various topical issues on the prime concerns of natural resource conservation in arable and non-arable lands, suitable land utilization planning soil-water resource conservation, diversification of crops and farming systems to ensure sustainable management
Sunil Kumar is the Scientist working in the Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour. His education was completed from B.H.U., Varanasi as B.Sc. (Ag) and from Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar as M.Sc. (Ag) in Agrometeorology. He accomplished his Ph.D. in Agrometeorology and Environmental Sciences from SHUATS, Prayagraj, U.P. He availed ICAR-Junior Research Fellowship in Physical Sciences for pursuing his M.Sc. (Ag) and CSIR-Junior Research Fellowship in Earth Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences for Ph.D. He was honored with several awards like Young Scientist Award for outstanding contribution. He was awarded with Excellence in Teaching Award for outstanding contribution in Teaching. He was also awarded with best presentation award in the National Conference CAGSAS-2022 at BAU Sabour. He has been actively involved in teaching, research and extension at BAU Sabour since 2012. He has published several research papers in national and international journals of repute. He had also a significant contribution in the field of Aerosol and its impact on Crop productivity, Crop Simulation, Agromet Advisory Services, Remote Sensing and GIS at Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour.
D. R. Singh, born in the year 1964 completed his graduation from Gorakhpur University in 1986 and earned his post graduate and doctorate degree in the field of horticulture with specialization in Floriculture from Agra University in the year 1989 and 1992, respectively. He started his career as an Assistant Professor at ANGRAU, Hyderabad in the year 1994 and later joined ICAR as Senior Scientists in the year 2001. Dr. Singh has been known for his exemplary research work for Noni, an under-utilized horticultural crop during his vast tenure as Principal Scientist, Head and Director at ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair and Director, NRC for Orchids, Sikkim. Apart from developing various situation-based technologies, concepts, products and methodologies, he has given 22 varieties of horticulture crops, which has created a big impact on area and production and livelihood of farming community. During his service period of about 32 years, he has experience of working in various capacities such as Head of the Department, Director and Vice Chancellor. Dr. Singh has been chairman, vice president, and member of various national and international executive bodies, professional societies and task forces. During his tenure as Vice Chancellor of CSAUAT, Kanpur he brought laurels to university by getting NAAC B+ accreditation and 30th rank in NIRF 2023 among the agriculture and allied sector groups.Presently, as the Vice Chancellor of Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour; Dr Singh is committed to the development of the farming community of the state in days and years to come and shall focus on the improvement in the standards of agricultural education, research, extension and training so as to make it a state-of-art university.
Anil Kumar Singh is an accomplished agricultural scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of agricultural research. He started his career as a Scientist at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Regional Station Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir). Dr. Singh has held several key positions during his career, including Principal Scientist at the ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna. He has served as the Head (Acting) of the Research Programme at Pusa, Bihar and as the Officer In-charge at NBPGR RS Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir). Dr. Singh has an impressive publication record, with over 150 research articles, 10 books, and 196 other publications. Dr. Singh has taken on editorial responsibilities as the Editor-in-Chief of the 'Journal of AgriSearch' and e-kheti (an online publication). He has also served as the ?????? ?????? of '???? ??????,' demonstrating his commitment to disseminating agricultural knowledge. Dr. Singh has received several prestigious awards and recognitions, including the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Hindi Patrika Purskaar for 'Akshay Kheti' from ICAR, New Delhi. He is a recipient of the Fellow of the Indian Society of Agronomy, Fellow of the Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources, and an Associate of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. Dr. Singh has also been honored with the Rajbhasha Gaurav Award by the Department of Official Languages, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, for his outstanding technical book in Hindi. Dr. Singh has demonstrated his organizational skills by serving as the Chief Organizing Secretary for various conferences, including the International Conference on Rural in 2018 and National Conference in 2016.
Sushanta Sarkar has been working as Technical Officer under GKMS Project (Agrometeorology), Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour, Bhagalpur since November 2019. He received his M.Sc. degree in Agricultural Meteorology from the Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Mohanpur (WB) and ICAR-NET in 2017. He published more than 15 publications (research papers, journal articles, book chapters) and more than 10 Hindi bulletins.
1.Resource Conservation Technologies (RCTs): Needs and Future Prospects
2.Resource Conservation Technologies for Soil Health Management
3.Resource Conserving Technologies in Rice Cultivation
4.Application of Resource Conserving Technology (RCT) in Wheat
5.Resource Conservation Technology in Pulse Based Copping Systems
6.Weed Management in Conservation Agriculture Systems
7.In situ Soil Moisture Conservation Techniques
8.Conservation Agriculture for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in India
9.Rainwater Harvesting as an Alternative Water Supply in the Future
Natural resources are vital for meeting the food, livelihood and environmental security. It is now widely accepted that future of food, livelihood and environmental security depends upon the attention paid to conservation, sustainable development and management of natural resources. Research carried out over the last five decades have clearly demonstrated that resource conserving technological interventions, water harvesting and improved cultivation practices have the potential to improve utilization of natural resources and significantly enhance crop productivity in the country.
1.1 Introduction Broadcasting seed and harvesting meagre yields was a common method of ancient agriculture. High use of developed crop varieties, irrigation, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and farm mechanization is the main thrust of modern agriculture. Therefore, modern agriculture is an energy intensive farming system (Khan et al., 2010). Though modern technology based agriculture is achieving success to meet food demand of increasing global population, yet it creates many environmental issues such as loss of soil fertility, salinization and water scarcity.
2.1 Introduction Present day agriculture is facing more challenges like negative impacts of climate change, depletion of natural resources, increase of input costs etc. The major causes for steady decline in agricultural sustainability include intensive cultivation with conventional tillage practices, reduction of soil organic matter, soil loss by water and wind erosion, reduction in infiltration rate, formation of soil crust and continuous practice of mono-cropping. Over the years, soil and water resources are continuously overexploited leading to reduction in use efficiency of irrigation and energy.
3.1 Introduction Rice is the main staple food for most of the world’s population and plays a key role to maintain food security of many countries. More than 90% of the rice production globally comes from Asia and also more than 90% of rice consumption is done in Asia (IRRI, 1997). In Asia, more than two billion people get almost 60-70 percent of their daily energy requirement from rice and its products (Yogeswari and Porpavai, 2018). As for India, since independence the country has witnessed a remarkable progress in rice production.
4.1 Introduction Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a major food security crop in South Asia, with 42% of the wheat in this region grown following rice (Oryza sativa L.) on 13.5 million hectares of land. Resource-conserving technologies offer considerable potential for improving the sustainability and productivity of wheat in the rice-wheat system of South Asia. These include raising input use efficiency, cutting costs, providing various environmental benefits, and ultimately improving farmer livelihoods and helping to reduce poverty.
5.1 Introduction Indian agriculture is now at crossroads. We have come a long way. Over the past five decades our strategies, policies and actions were guided by goals of ‘self sufficiency’ in foodgrain production with main focus on rice and wheat. Indian agriculture has been successful in achieving higher production of food grains to secure food security of the nation. While, the success for increasing food grain production has been achieved without major jump in the production and productivity of pulses in the country, this was accompanied by widespread problems of resource degradation, which now poses serious challenges to meet the demands of an increasing population and lifting our people above the poverty line.
6.1 Introduction The birth of modern conventional agriculture coincides with industrial revolution. The identification of N, P and K as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers. While chemical fertilizers and pesticides have existed since the 19th century, their use grew significantly in the early 20 century with the invention of Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonia. The rapid farm mechanization, especially in the form of tractor and combine harvester coupled with science-driven innovative management methods and resources led to the efficiency of enabling outputs of high quality produce per unit area and time.
7.1 What is Soil Moisture Conservation Technique? In situ soil moisture conservation means capturing rain water and retaining it in soil for utilization by plants for better growth and increase in biomass and grain yield. This is achieved through rain water harvesting on farm or field where crops are planted to get benefit from the conserved rainwater. It reduces rainwater loss through runoff and increases rain water infiltration time, thereby increasing the amount of rain water in the soil that will be useful for crop production.
8.1 Introduction Conservation agriculture (CA) is an approach to regenerative agriculture and land management practices based on three interlinked principles: (1) continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance using no-tillage or reduced tillage based crop cultivation, (2) maintenance of permanent soil cover using crop residues and cover crops and (3) diversification of cropping system using economically, environmentally and socially adapted crop rotation including legume crops and cover crops coupled with other complementary agronomic management practices (FAO, 2014).
9.1 Introduction Water is essential for all life and used in many different ways. It is an important part of the ecosystem in which the reproduction of the bio diversity also depends. Fresh water scarcity for agriculture, industry and household purpose is not only limited to the arid climatic regions, but also in areas having high rainfall. Water scarcity is caused by low water storage capacity, low infiltration rate, high evaporation demand and larger inter annual and annual fluctuations of precipitation.
natural resources, food security, livelihood security, environmental security, conservation, sustainable development, management, maximum sustainable yield, optimum utilization, degradation, social factors, economic factors, institutional factors, technological factors, population growth, urbanization, industrial activities, integrated approach, arable lands, non-arable lands, land utilization planning, soil-water resource conservation, diversification, sustainable management