Input Use Efficiency for Food and Environmental Security

Ending hunger, achieving food security and promoting sustainable development are at the top of the list of United Nations (UN) sustainable global development priorities. In the times of high population growth and increasing pressure of agricultural systems, efficiency in use of natural resources has been at the epicenter of sustainable agricultural. The concept of 'Input efficiency' implies production of high quantity and quality of food, from using only finite natural resources as inputs, in the form of mainly land, water, nutrients, energy, or biological diversity. In this book, editors provide a roadmap to the food, nutritional, and environmental security in the agricultural systems. They share insight into the approaches that can be put in practice for increasing the input use efficiency in the cropping systems and achieve stability and sustainability of agricultural production systems. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, climate change scientists, capacity builders and policymakers. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, agroforestry, agroecology, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists, policymakers will also find this to be a useful read.

Dr. Rajan Bhatt is working as Senior Soil Scientist at PAU-Regional Research Station, Kapurthala, Punjab, India, and the author or co-author of more than 85 scientific papers, 03 books, 33 book chapters and several extension articles. Dr. Bhatt acquired B.Sc. (Agriculture) from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, India while M.Sc. and Ph.D. (both in Soil Science) degrees from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Dr. Bhatt was awarded > 16 awards at state and national level, and reviewed 52 research articles after receiving invitation from high impact journals. He is handling three projects as PI and two projects as CO-PI. He is an editorial board member for several journals and a life member of numerous societies.

Dr. Ram Swaroop Meena is working as an Assistant Professor (S-3) in the Department of Agronomy, I.Ag. Scs., BHU, Varanasi (UP). Dr. Meena has been awarded Raman Research Fellowship by the MHRD, GOI. He has completed his postdoctoral research on soil carbon sequestration under Padma Shari Prof. Rattan Lal, World Food Prize 2020 Laureate, Director, CMASC, Columbus, USA. Dr. Meena has supervised 25 PG and 7 PhD students, and have11 years of research and teaching experience. He is working on the three externally funded projects (DST, MHRD, ICAR) with one patent. Dr. Meena has published more than 110 research and review papers with total impact factor 230.43 and have H-index 45 as well 4 published books at the national and 17 books (Springer, Elsevier, etc.) at the international levels, and contributed in the books with 20 chapters at national and 50 at the international levels. Dr. Meena working in 12 journal as an editor. He has worked as an expert for the school education in NCERT, MHRD, GOI. Dr. Meena is contributed in several agricultural extension activities, trainings, meetings, workshops, etc.

Dr. Akbar Hossain is currently working as a Principal Scientist, Soil Science Division, Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), Dinajpur 5200, Bangladesh. Dr. Hossain has been awarded Russian Government Research Fellowship for Ph.D study in Russia. He has completed his postdoctoral research on 'Isolation, characterization and purification of Rhizobium strain to enrich the productivity of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)' in BCKV, WB, India through DST-India fellowship. Dr. Hossain has supervised 15 post-graduate students in HSTU, Dinajpur and BAU, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. He has been working with several international research projects funded by CIMMYT, CSISA, ACIAR, CSIRO-Australia, the University of Queensland, Australia, OCPF-BARI-ICARDA and Tufts University, USA. Dr. Hossain working on climate change, plant physiology, defence mechanisms against stress, conservation agriculture, crop modelling, nanotechnology, etc. Dr. Hossain is authored more than 250 national and international journal articles. He has edited two books of 'Intech Open, UK.