Enhancing Nutrient Use Efficiency : Concepts, Methods and Management Interventions

Dr. K. Ramesh was born on 28th Jun 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 Senior Scientist at ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal. Presently, he is working as Principal Scientist at ICARIISS 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 western Himalaya as well as strategies 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 for Tagetes minuta in western Himalayas. Presently at ICAR-IISS, Bhopal, he has been working on zeolites for enhancing nutrient use efficiency, 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 90 publications, including 42 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.