Microbial Interventions in Agriculture and Environment

Microbial communities and their multi-functionalities play a crucial role in the management of soil and plant health, and thus help in managing agro-ecology, the environment and agriculture. Microorganisms are key players in N-fixation, nutrient acquisition, carbon sequestration, plant growth promotion, pathogen suppression, induced systemic resistance and tolerance against stresses, and these parameters are used as indicators of improved crop productivity and sustainable soil health. Beneficial belowground microbial interactions in the rhizosphere help plants combat abiotic challenges in the unfavourable environmental conditions of native soils. These microorganisms and their products offer potential solutions for agriculture in problematic areas since they are able to degrade xenobiotic compounds, pesticides and toxic chemicals and help remediate heavy metals in the rhizosphere and so make deteriorated soils suitable for crop production. 

This book compiles the latest research on the role of microbes in the rhizosphere and agro-ecology, covering interaction mechanisms, microbe-mediated crop production, plant and soil health management, food and nutrition, nutrient recycling, land reclamation, clean water systems, agro-waste management, biodegradation, bioremediation, biomass and bioenergy, sanitation and rural livelihood security. It is a comprehensive reference resource for agricultural activists, policymakers, environmentalists and advisors working for governments, non-governmental organizations and industries, helping them update their knowledge of this important, but often neglected, research area. 

Dhananjaya Pratap Singh is a Principal Scientist in Biotechnology at ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Maunath Bhanjan, India. He holds a Masters' degree from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. His research interests include plant-microbe interactions, bioprospecting of microbial and plant metabolites, microbe-mediated stress mitigation in plants, metabolomics-driven search for small molecules and bioinformatics in microbial research. He has alsobeen working on the societal implications of microbial biotechnology for microbe-mediated crop production practices and rapid composting of residual agricultural wastes at the individual farm  level to promote large-scale applications. He was involved in the development of the supercomputing infrastructure for agricultural bioinformatics in the microbial domain at ICAR-NBAIM under the ICAR’s National Agricultural Bioinformatics Grid (NABG) program in India. He is an Associate of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), India and has received several prestigious awards, including the Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Award for Scientific Excellence. He has published more than 150 papers in respected national and international journals and has also edited six books on microbial research.

Ratna Prabha is currently working as DST Scientist at ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, India.  With a Doctorate in Biotechnology and a Masters in Bioinformatics, she is actively involved in research in various fields, such as microbe-mediated stress management in plants, database development, comparative microbial analysis, phylogenomics and pangenome analysis, metagenomics data analysis, and microbe-mediated composting technology development and dissemination. She has particpated in developing various digital databases on plants and microbes, and has edited and authored a number of books and book chapters, and has published several research papers and review articles in respected international journals.