Advances in Nutrient Dynamics in Soil-Plant System for Improving Nutrient Use Efficiency

Dr. R. Elanchezhian was born on 1971 in Vandal village in Sivaganga Distt. of Tamil Nadu. He studied B.Sc. (Agri.) during 1988 to 1992 from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (Coimbatore), and M. Sc. (Plant Physiology) and Ph. D. (Plant Physiology) in 1995 and 1998, respectively, from IARI, New Delhi. He joined ARS (ICAR) in 1998 and started his career at ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands as a Scientist/ Scientist Sr. Scale (1998-2006). Then as a Sr. Scientist he worked at ICAR-RCER, Patna (2006-2012). Presently he is working as Principal Scientist at ICAR-IISS Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, since February 2012. During his scientific career at ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair he worked on physiological and biotechnological management of abiotic/biotic stresses in rice, solanaceous vegetables with emphasise on salinity, drought and insect resistance. He has generated promising somaclones of rice and solanaceous vegetables with improved agro-morphological traits besides having moderate tolerance towards salinity and bacterial wilt and insect borer. He was involved in sustainable management of plant biodiversity of A&N Islands including collection, characterization, conservation and enhancement of ecologically and economically important plant species. He has got registered several indigenous germplasms of rice with NBPGR New Delhi. At ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna he continued the work on biotechnological and physiological management of abiotic stress tolerance with special reference to submergence and drought stress conditions. Four drought tolerant rice lines with yield potential of 3.2 tons/ha have been identified for drought prone areas of eastern region of India. Besides three promising rice lines suitable for aerobic conditions with yield potential of 3.5 tons/ha were also identified. He has been associated with an ICAR network project on climate change and worked on modeling plant growth of major agricultural crops viz rice, wheat, maize and chickpea with respect to climate change in eastern region of India. He has undergone an international training on marker assisted selection at Clemson University, USA, wherein the genome of bitter melon has been mapped using AFLP and SSR markers. Besides the isolation and sequence characterization of anti-HIV (Map30) and anti-diabetic (Insulin) gene from bitter melon have also been done. Presently at ICAR-IISS, Bhopal, he is working on Nanoparticle delivery and internalization in plant systems for improving nutrient use efficiency of agricultural crops. Besides, he has been associated with projects on management for improving nutrient use efficiency of crops. Dr Elanchezhian has contributed more than 100 publications, including 46 peer reviewed research papers, 8 research bulletins, 2 edited books, 9 book chapters, 7 popular articles, 24 conference proceedings and 4 training manuals which has been widely cited throughout the scientific community. He is a recipient of Dr. GS Sirohi Award (2002) and Dr. RD Asana Award for Young Scientist (2005) given by the Indian Society for Plant Physiology. He is bestowed with Fellowship of Indian Society for Plant Physiology for contribution in the field of Plant Physiology and Cognate sciences in the year 2008. He has guided several M.Sc. students for their thesis work. He has served as expert of several important committees

Dr. A.K. Biswas was born in village Bagna in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on May 5, 1963. He obtained his B.Sc. (Ag.) Hons. degree in 1984 from B.C.K.V., Mohanpur, W.B. He received his M. Sc. (Gold Medalist) and Ph. D. Degrees from I.A.R.I., New Delhi and is presently working as Head of the Division of Soil Chemistry & Fertility at the Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal; Madhya Pradesh. The major areas of work of Dr. A.K. Biswas have been concerning the development of farmers' resource-based integrated plant nutrient supply system in soybean-wheat system, farmers' participatory technology development of integrated nutrient management coupled with soil moisture conservation for rainfed pulse-based cropping systems, environmental impact and risk assessment of recycling of distillery and sewage effluents in agriculture, determination of sink capacity of mineralogically and physico-chemically variant soils for some heavy metal pollutants and phyto-remedial efficiency of some flowering plants to decontaminate Cd, Pb and Cr contaminated soils, delineation of nitrate contamination of groundwater in heavily fertilized and intensively cultivated districts of the country, evaluation of the effect of climate change on soil carbon stock in different agro-ecoregions of the country, development of soil organic C and N turnover model in light of C saturation and stabilization theory, development of methodology to estimate relative soil quality index to assess soil health under different agro-ecoregions of the country, and development of nano-rock phosphate for commercial utilization of low-grade indigenous rockphosphates of the country and modified urea products like oleoresin coated urea, zeoliteimpregnated and biochar coated urea. He is part of the team who developed Mridaparikshak - A Soil Testing Minilab for which patent has been applied. Dr. Biswas has contributed more than 200 publications, including 90 research papers, 20 review papers, 20 popular articles, 3 edited books, 40 book chapters and several other publications which has been widely circulated throughout the scientific community. Dr Biswas has been elected to the prestigious "Fellowship of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)" in 2016. He is also the recipient of the "Jawahar Lal Nehru Award" from ICAR for outstanding doctoral research in the field of Soil Science in 1992 and "The ISSS- Dr. J.S.P. Yadav Memorial Awards for Excellence in Soil Science- 2012" from the Indian Society of Soil Science, New Delhi. He has delivered lecture on "Maintaining soil health for evergreen revolution in the Agriculture and Forestry section of centenary Celebration of Indian Science Congress in Kolkata and got several best paper/ poster awards to his credit. He has guided several M.Sc. and Ph. D. students. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science since 2011, and a scientific reviewer of the Bioresource Technology, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science, Agropedology, Legume Research, Annals of Soil and Plant Research and Journal of the Indian Society of Pulse Research and Development since 2003

Dr. K. Ramesh was born on 1974 in Trichirappalli, Trichy Distt. of Tamil Nadu. He studied B. Sc. (Agri.) during 1992 to 1996 from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture, Karaikal (UT of Pondicherry) under Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (Coimbatore), and M. Sc. and Ph. D. in Agronomy in 1999 and 2002, respectively, from AC&RI, Madurai and AC&RI., Coimbatore under TNAU, Coimbatore. He served as Assistant Professor (Agronomy) in an Agricultural college in Tamil Nadu during 2001-2004 and has introduced innovative teaching methods in agronomy. Later joined as Scientist Gr.IV(2) (Agronomy) in 2004 at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and started his career at CSIR - Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh (2004-2008). Thereafter he moved to Indian Council of Agricultural Research as a Sr. Scientist at ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal. Presently, he is working as Principal Scientist at ICAR-IISS Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, since September 2014. During his scientific career at various institutions he has worked on the management of cropping systems for enhancing income of the farmers as well as soil health. He has developed promising Sesbania roastrata based cropping systems for sustaining rice yields under double cropped wet lands of western region of Tamil Nadu. As a cropping system agronomist at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, he has developed promising food crop+ natural sweetener (Sesbania rebaudiana) based cropping systems for Dhauladhar range of Kangra district of Palampur (HP). He was also involved in sustainable management of hilly areas with the introduction of Lavender (a medicinal aromatic perennial) in Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. He has developed molecule specific farming technology Tagetes minuta in western Himalayas. Presently at ICAR-IISS, Bhopal, he has been working on zeolites for enhancing nutrient use efficiency as well as Nanoparticle delivery in plant systems for improving nutrient use efficiency of agricultural crops and developing organic farming practices for agri-horticultural crops. Besides, he has been associated with projects on evaluation of new fertilizer products. Dr K. Ramesh has contributed more than 80 publications, including 39 peer reviewed research papers, several book chapters, 20 popular articles, 25 conference proceedings and 4 training manuals which has been widely cited throughout the scientific community. He is a recipient of NAAS Young scientist award (1997-98), besides awards for bachelor and master's degree programs. He has served as Councilor of Indian Society of Agronomy for Madhya Pradesh state. He has served as expert of several important committees