Browsing by Author "Saikat Saha"

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Carbon and Nitrogen Footprints Management for Environmental and Food Security
(Springer Singapore, 2020) Sukamal Sarkar; Akbar Hossain; Saikat Saha; Indranil Samui; Sayan Sau; Ram Swaroop Meena
To promote the advance food security for the increasing population, environmental security is important to the sustainable future. Agriculture is a major sector to interfere on the planet, and emitting a huge amount of the greenhouse gasses (GHGs) emission to the atmosphere, it is due to the imbalance and excessive use of chemical substances, electrical energy and high consumption of the fossil fuel. Various agricultural activities including ploughing, irrigation, crop cultivars, livestock rearing, application of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and associated equipment also emit a significant amount of GHGs. The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGPs) of the South Asia (SA) are a food basket of the world population. It is due to harvesting of the number of diversified cropping systems/crops in a year in same land with higher crop productivity. Where the rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) is covering ~26 M ha in the IGPs of SA, and it is solely the major contributor to anthropogenic GHGs productions, particularly methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, and volatilisation of ammonia (NH3). The excessive production of GHGs is directly linked to carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) footprints, which are the key element for balancing the many components in the nature directly and indirectly. Therefore C and N of various forms regulate the fauna and flora activities, soil and crop productivity, energy consumption, atmospheric gaseous concentration, etc. Among them, N2O is responsible for ozone depletion and global climate change and has a global warming possible to 265 times than that of carbon dioxide (CO2). To reduce the GHGs emissions, it is important to users of balanced chemical fertilisers particularly N-fertilisers, improvements of the operation efficiencies of farm machinery and changes in regional allocation the RWCS. The present study is concentrated on the aspect of C and N footprints in the farming systems, which are linked to the GHGs-emission through pre-, on-and post-farm activities. Several alleviation approaches concerning to the agricultural practices are also suggest a roadmap to the policymakers, land managers and researchers, and help to the modeling for footprints of C and N for environmental, food, nutritional and economics security under the changing climate. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.
Cost-Effective and Eco-Friendly Agricultural Technologies in Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems for Food and Environmental Security
(Springer Singapore, 2021) Akbar Hossain; Rajan Bhatt; Sukamal Sarkar; Manashi Barman; Debjyoti Majumder; Saikat Saha; Mst. Tanjina Islam; Sagar Maitra; Ram Swaroop Meena
Both rice and wheat in the “rice-wheat cropping systems” (RWCS) of South Asia and China feed more than 3.1 billion people. It is the most productive and vital agricultural systems worldwide to meet the food safety of the growing population.Although the RWCS have great concern for food security, however, one of the foremost complications in the systems is that soils are puddled with repeated tillage by the traditional way for transplanting rice seedlings which lead to alteration in soil physical and chemical properties. Besides these, repeated tillages for puddling create a hard plow pan layer at the root zone of the rice plant that creates poor infiltration and waterlogging for the next dry season crop particularly wheat. Farmers in the systems generally use excessive synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for getting higher yield for both rice and wheat. As a result, repeatedtillage and also imbalance application of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides increase the production cost as well as influence greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Since the systems have several hostile effects on the environment due to traditional farming, it is already confirmed that the systems are the key source of food production for more than 3.1 billion people in the countries of South and Southeast Asia. Therefore, it will not be a wise decision to replace the system from the regions. In the meantime, researchers have recommended numerous advanced technologies in the RWCS for sustainable rice and wheat production. The chapter discusses cost-effective and ecological-friendly technologies for RWCS of South Asia for food and environmental security. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.
Ecological Intensification for Sustainable Agriculture in South Asia
(Springer Singapore, 2021) Akbar Hossain; Sukamal Sarkar; Atikur Rahman; Rajan Bhatt; Sourav Garai; Saikat Saha; Mst. Tanjina Islam; Ram Swaroop Meena
In South Asian countries huge population pressure, foster urbanization and industrialization lead to dwindle the agro-ecological resources like land, water, agroforestry, human and climatic stability. Agricultural intensification has been accompanied by a set of innovations, collectively referred to as the Green Revolution, which has increased food production significantly. However, the intensification poses a major threat to the physical environment such as the loss of natural resources, genetic diversity, land degradation and non-judicious application of water and nutrient. Recent evidence recommends that ecological intensification (EI) of distinctive agriculture particularly in rice-based cropping systems of South Asia can preserve the food production in addition with environmental welfares. Since EI of sustainable agriculture could organize the precise constituents of biodiversity and can be used to either balance synthetic-input as well as expand the productivity without adverse effect on agricultural production. Besides, it is also reported that the performance of organic and agro-ecological farming system is much better in case of ecosystem services relevant to climate change, carbon sequestration from a soil depth of 30 cm and other parameters like soil water holding capacity, etc. Therefore, scientists and policymakers consequently and progressively have emphasized the welfares of ecological-intensifying agriculture to a sociable way towards food, nutritional, environmental and livelihood security by assisting biodiversity and enhance the ecosystem services. This chapter highlights the available agro-ecological resources for improving crop productivity to obtain the goal of sustainable agricultural intensification without negotiating the agricultural outputs. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.