Eco-friendly Agro-biological Techniques for Enhancing Crop Productivity

As the world population is exploding and alongside fluctuations in climate is also prevalent, there is an increasing stress on the food requirements of the population.

We have an urgent necessity to produce more food in the limited agricultural land. Further, to feed 7 billion people there is a requirement of high yielding crops, without harming environment and limiting the use of unnecessary pesticide and chemical fertilizers. Therefore it has become crucial to develop agri-bio-techniques which are environment friendly and also give high crop productivity.

Many countries are evaluating the utility of biotechnology and its role in addressing problems of food security and poverty.

Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing and production of materials by utilising biological agents. These agents are exploited to provide goods and services.

Agricultural biotechnology encompasses a growing list of techniques that range from simple probes to determine a relevant gene from the complete genome to manipulating genes for a desired outcome. Many other popular methods used in the realm of agricultural technology are – gene integration, Marker-assisted breeding, Tissue culture, Gene profiling or association mapping, Metabolomics etc.

The fundamental challenge facing the scientific community is how to devise innovative strategies that will bring all developed as well as developing countries into the “biological fold” and to do so in ways that will take full advantage of advances in the biological sciences to curb poverty, improve public health, and promote human development.

This book contains information on eco-friendly techniques for high crop productivity and it is a myriad of different techniques and technology used to sustain productivity in crop plants.

There are fewer books focusing on large-scale organic farming, molecular farming etc. Multidisciplinary research and literature is needed to deliver knowledge and products into the marketplace which fulfil these requirements.

The present book is a collection of literature contributed by experts, scientists, professors, and researchers from around the world, it emphasizes work of concerned scientist and his choice of techniques used for enhancement of agricultural production. This book analyses the use of modern techniques to increase crop yields, production, and risk of hunger linked to socioeconomic scenarios.

Professor R.S. Sengar the author of the book is Professor and Head, Dept. of Ag. Biotechnology, College of Agriculture in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut. Dr. Sengar has 24 years teaching, research and extension experience to his credit. He remained associated with the teaching for a period of about 10 years at G.B. Pant University of Agri. & Tech. Pantnagar, U.S. Nagar (Uttarakhand). Prof. Sengar posses a career of leadership in improving agrarian livelihood, food, nutrition and ecological security in cutting-edge research and technology development, in higher education and human resources development and in policy and programme formulation, execution and appraisal each pursued in national and global capacities He has supervised 11 Ph.D. students and published more than 98 research papers in India and foreign journals of repute. Dr. Sengar contributed more than 115 abstracts/ papers to different conferences/symposiums/workshop organized at National and International forums. He also participated in several international programmes seminar/conferences as chairperson of technical sessions, group leader, invited speaker and delegate. He has published 885 popular articles in Hindi and English languages in important journals and magazines. He has also published 11 books for scientific community and farmers. Dr. Sengar has delivered more than 205 talks at All India Radio and Television at Delhi, Lucknow, Rampur and Bareilly centers. Dr. Sengar is life member of several professional societies. He is a member of the editorial boards and review committees of few journals. He has been the Principal and Co-Investigator of 10 projects financed by various government departments, while he has honor of mentorship of two national projects under Department of Science and technology, Govt. of India and has a wide exposure to international programmes and also in handling international projects. He has widely travelled and has visited United Kingdom, Nepal and Dubai under various programmes. Dr. Sengar recipient of the 'Best writer' award from Vishwa Agro Marketing and Communication Kota Rajasthan, 'Kunwar Saxena Bahadur SRDA' award from society for Recent Development in Agriculture, Meerut, 'Man of the Year' & 'Research Board of Advisors' awards from American Biographical Institute, Inc. U.S.A., 'Aryabhat' award from Vigyan Bharti, New Delhi. Dr. Sengar is also received Gold medal 2011 from Hi-tech Horticulture Society, Meerut and Dr. J.C. Edward Medal 2012 from Bioved Research Society, Allahabad and "Scientist of the Year - 2013" from The Academy of Environmental Biology, Lucknow; Life Time Achievement Award - 2014 from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar National Institute of Social Sciences, Dr. Ambedkar Nagar (Mhow) M.P.; Dr. R.B. Lal Vishisht Sikshak Puruskar- 2015 from Uttar Pradesh Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lucknow, Farm and Food Award-2016 from Farm and Food, New Delhi and Young Achiever Award - 2016 from Society of Plant Research, Bareilly. He is fellow of the Society of Plant Research, Bareilly; Society for recent development in agriculture, Meerut; Gramin Vikas Avam Siksha Prasar Samiti, Agra and Technical Society for Basic and Allied Sciences, New Delhi. Dr. Sengar has made significant contribution in the fields of Plant physiology, Biotechnology and Crop production and management systems besides providing leadership in shaping up national level research institutions and agricultural universities. Dr. Sengar has assisted several developing countries in enhancing their human resource, research and technology development capacities, in augmenting productivity, sustainability to enhance farmer's income and to alleviate hunger and poverty, crisis.

Ashu Singh was born in Allahabad, India. She received the B.Tech. Degree in Genetic engineering from the Allahabad Agricultural Deemed University, Allahabad, India, in 2008, and the M.Tech. degree in Biotechnology engineering fromthe Sardar Vallabhai Patel University of Agri. & Tech (State Agriculture University) Modipuram Meerut, in 2011. In 2013, she joined the Department of Ag. Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhai Patel University of Agri. & Tech (State Agriculture University) Modipuram Meerut, as a Women Scientist (WOS-A). Since April 2013, she has been with the Department of Ag. Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, where she is working on varietal improvement of Aromatic Rice. Her current research interests include Molecular characterization and gene mapping of salinity and drought resistance of aroma rice (Oryza sativa L.). Miss Singh is a National Woman Scientist Fellow of the Department of Science & Technology New Delhi, India. She has a long experience of eight trainings of more than three months at different reputed institutes and research laboratories with technical expertise in Molecular breeding and also has made significant contribution in the vast arena of Stress physiology, Biotechnology and Basmati rice production while exploring the applicability of research in enhancing productivity, she also holds Diploma in 'Industry programme in Bioinformatics' (BII, Noida.) Submitted research study on "importance of Protein folding for protein structure." Apart from this she is also an Associate editor at Biotech Today Journal published under the Society of Green world for sustainable Environment along with being an active reviewer at many reputed journals. Miss Singh contributed 12 research papers in reputed indexed journals worldwide and attended different conferences/symposiums/workshop organized at National and International forums.