Biostimulants: Exploring Sources and Applications

This edited book is a comprehensive compilation highlighting sources of biostimulants, their production, influence on plant growth and development, and regulatory status of plant biostimulants for better understanding and opening new vistas for future research. Biostimulants, the biological formulations are known to meliorate the plants growth and vigour, improve nutritional efficiency along with maintaining their well-being mainly via providing protection against a wide range of infections. Both horticultural as well as agricultural crops involve the utilization of the biostimulants. Fulvic and humic acids, nitrogen-containing compounds, protein hydrolysates, favourable bacteria and fungi, and extracts of seaweed are the chief active components of these. The major driving force for these materials is the organic farming industry and demand for sustainable crop production. This book will be of great interest to researchers, teachers, climate change scientists, capacity builders, and policy makers. Moreover, this book does the work of a supplementary reading for students in various fields such as agriculture, soil science, ecology, environmental science and forestry at undergraduate as well as graduate level. This will be a gainful read for national and international agricultural scientists and the policy makers.

Dr. Naleeni Ramawat is working as Associate Professor (Agronomy), College of Agriculture, Agriculture University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Earlier she has worked as a Director at Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India. She has to her credit meritorious service of over 17 years in teaching, research, and administration in the discipline of agricultural crop production and management. She has a doctorate in agronomy with specialization in crop production and crop modeling. Her primary area of research is crop modeling, plant nutrition, organic agriculture, and abiotic stress management. She is extensively involved in academics, research and extension, and institution building activities, such as being the director of Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture for the past one decade. She has been recipient of BIRAC―Grand Challenges India Award as Co-PI for Agri-Nutrition and also Young Scientist Award in 2016. Her excellence is reflected in her more than 60 peerreviewed national/international publications. Also, she has delivered a plethora of oral and poster talks. She has also experience in handling research projects sponsored by MoA, GOI, DST, BIRAC, and Nanomission on zinc biofortification, agri-voltaics, and organic agriculture

Dr. Vijay Bhardwaj, PhD, MBA, is director of Bioatlantis India who received his PhD degree in Agriculture Entomology from the Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University. He was a recipient of an Indo-Israel Research fellowship in the year 2006. He has been associated with the area of biostimulants since the last 10 years, having worked across various geographies to grow biostimulant acceptance among growers and businesses. He has been member of the Board of Studies of Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture and has been an industry expert and a mentor to post graduate students in food and agriculture.