Browsing by Author "Shikha"

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Carbon mineralization rates and kinetics of surface-applied and incorporated rice and maize residues in entisol and inceptisol soil types
(MDPI, 2021) S. Rakesh; Deepranjan Sarkar; Abhas Kumar Sinha; Shikha; Prabir Mukhopadhyay; Subhan Danish; Shah Fahad; Rahul Datta
Mineralization of carbon (C) is a burning issue that is regulated by soil attributes. It has direct impacts on crop productivity and quantification of organic residues addition in soil. For better understanding and achievement of potential tillage benefits, a comprehensive scientific understanding of C mineralization is very important. Therefore, a laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to investigate the C mineralization rates and kinetics of crop residues (rice and maize) when applied on the surface (as zero-tillage, ZT) and incorporation (as conventional tillage, CT) in four different soil types (S1 and S2 of Entisol; S3 and S4 of Inceptisols) of West Bengal state, India. Results showed that after 7 days of incubation, there was a rapid phase of decrease in CO2-C. It continued up to day 14 followed by a sluggish nature of CO2 emission up to day-42, and after that almost levelling off in all subsequent periods up to the end of 126 days of incubation. It was evident from the kinetic models that C mineralization from the residues followed the exponential model: C = C0 (1 − e−kt ). Similar rate constant (k) values were recorded in both placement methods, but the rate of maximum potential mineralizable (C0k) residue C was higher under residue incorporation treatments for both rice and maize residue. However, the rice and maize residues showed almost similar amounts of C mineralized over time when applied on the surface. The future prediction analysis using the equation C = C0 X e−kt suggested that the residues incorporated into the soil release a maximum C irrespective of residue type. We conclude that the residues when incorporated into the soil significantly increase the C footprints through maximum C mineralization; leaving the crop residues on the soil surface reduces the C footprints which helps in achieving sustainability from an environmental perspective. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Enzymes and Its Nano-scaffold for Remediation of Organic Matter in Wastewater: A Green Bioprocess
(Springer International Publishing, 2022) Saumya Khare; Shikha
In the past few decades, remediation and management of water resources has been a major challenge. Global increase in population and industrialization has burdened the water resources. The organic pollutants discharged in wastewater from industries and anthropogenic activities have been major driving force that causes a threat to water resources. By 2050, around 5.7 billion people are expected to have a residence in the area with water scarcity for more than a month in a year. The urge is to achieve environmental sustainability by adopting sustainable alternatives for treating and managing organic pollutants using clean and eco-friendly alternatives. Enzymatic bioremediation is a green bioprocess that provides efficient detoxification of organic waste using myriad of enzymes. In this context, chapter gives an overview of organic pollutants present in wastewater and its impact on the environment and human health. This encompasses enzymatic bioremediation strategies to detoxify organic pollutants with an attempt to highlight the role of diverse range of enzymes, and the key challenges of enzymatic bioremediation. The emerging role of nanotechnology integrated with conventional bioprocess is amalgamated to provide sustainable, green, and energy-efficient bioremediation. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
Low input sustainable agriculture: A viable climate-smart option for boosting food production in a warming world
(Elsevier B.V., 2020) Deepranjan Sarkar; Saswat Kumar Kar; Arghya Chattopadhyay; Shikha; Amitava Rakshit; Vinod Kumar Tripathi; Pradeep Kumar Dubey; Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash
Maximizing food production for feeding a rapidly growing human population while minimizing critical resource use and soil quality degradation is a major challenge for global sustainability. Sustainable agricultural practices based on low-external input is of paramount importance for reducing environmental trade-offs and planet healthy food production. Therefore, a critical assessment was made on viable low-input technologies aimed to reduce the negative effects of agricultural production as well as the use of various crop simulation models for forecasting the agricultural production under changing climatic scenario. While crop simulation models are helpful for predicting the growth and yield of individual crops under current as well as futuristic scenarios, it is difficult to model the response of multiple cropping systems under changing climatic conditions. As a matter of fact, the developing countries, majorly dependent on agriculture are most vulnerable to climate change. The increasing price of agrochemicals is another setback for subsistence farmers in resource-poor nations. In this backdrop, the current review aimed to assess the impact of climate change on agriculture, and the role of low input sustainable agriculture (LISA) for ensuring the food security while safeguarding the critical natural resources for human-wellbeing and also for attaining UN-Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, evidence-based impacts of LISA in emerging economies from Africa and South Asia are highlighted and suitable ecological indicators for measuring the sustainability of such LISA are addressed in brief. We conclude that the large-scale implementation of LISA will facilitate agricultural sustainability, and therefore, suitable policy frameworks are imperative for its worldwide adoption. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Optimizing nutrient use efficiency, productivity, energetics, and economics of red cabbage following mineral fertilization and biopriming with compatible rhizosphere microbes
(Nature Research, 2021) Deepranjan Sarkar; Ardith Sankar; O. Siva Devika; Sonam Singh; Shikha; Manoj Parihar; Amitava Rakshit; R.Z. Sayyed; Abdul Gafur; Mohammad Javed Ansari; Subhan Danish; Shah Fahad; Rahul Datta
Conventional agricultural practices and rising energy crisis create a question about the sustainability of the present-day food production system. Nutrient exhaustive crops can have a severe impact on native soil fertility by causing nutrient mining. In this backdrop, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of bio-priming intervention in red cabbage production considering nutrient uptake, the annual change in soil fertility, nutrient use efficiency, energy budgeting, and economic benefits for its sustainable intensification, among resource-poor farmers of Middle Gangetic Plains. The compatible microbial agents used in the study include Trichoderma harzianum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Bacillus subtilis. Field assays (2016–2017 and 2017–2018) of the present study revealed supplementing 75% of recommended NPK fertilizer with dual inoculation of T. harzianum and P. fluorescens increased macronutrient uptake (N, P, and K), root length, heading percentage, head diameter, head weight, and the total weight of red cabbage along with a positive annual change in soil organic carbon. Maximum positive annual change in available N and available P was recorded under 75% RDF + P. fluorescens + B. subtilis and 75% RDF + T. harzianum + B. subtilis, respectively. Bio-primed plants were also higher in terms of growth and nutrient use efficiency (agronomic efficiency, physiological efficiency, apparent recovery efficiency, partial factor productivity). Energy output (26,370 and 26,630 MJ ha−1), energy balance (13,643 and 13,903 MJ ha−1), maximum gross return (US $ 16,030 and 13,877 ha−1), and net return (US $ 15,966 and 13,813 ha−1) were considerably higher in T. harzianum, and P. fluorescens treated plants. The results suggest the significance of the bio-priming approach under existing integrated nutrient management strategies and the role of dual inoculations in producing synergistic effects on plant growth and maintaining the soil, food, and energy nexus. © 2021, The Author(s).
Organic interventions conferring stress tolerance and crop quality in agroecosystems during the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2021) Deepranjan Sarkar; Pradeep Kumar Dubey; Rajan Chaurasiya; Ardith Sankar; Shikha; Neha Chatterjee; Sabuj Ganguly; Vijay Singh Meena; Sunita Kumari Meena; Hanuman Prasad Parewa; Amitava Rakshit
Excessive use of synthetic chemicals in conventional agriculture largely degraded the agroecosystems that constitute approximately 40% of the global terrestrial ecosystems. Moreover, changing climate resulted in a substantial loss in agricultural productivity (both in quantity and in quality) mainly due to diverse abiotic and biotic stresses. This draws public awareness about depleting natural resources, viz., soil, land, and water due to unsustainable agricultural practices and equivalently concerns for food-related animal and human health risks. Modern organic agriculture has shown positive impacts in terms of food/biomass production, climate resilience, soil health, biodiversity, nutritional security, and good quality of life; and is of prodigious demand for nutrient-rich organic food products. In the ensuing decade, owing to the principal focus for the quality aspects or health benefits of organic agriculture, this review explores how organic interventions affect the nutritional value and yield quality in a production system; enable plants to adapt to adverse futuristic environmental conditions, and address the global food and nutritional security challenges. The chronological emergence, current global status, public perceptions, and key components of organic agriculture with their attached health benefits are inextricably synthesized herein. Fostering the ethos of organic agriculture under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) is highly imperative for agroecosystem restoration and its sustainable management. Moreover, the multidimensional paybacks of organic agriculture help in attaining important global goals and targets such as the Bonn Challenge and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) by the year 2030. Therefore, invigorating the escalation of organic farming as a concurrent strategy of soil, land, and ecosystem restoration is the need of the hour. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Studies on seed mycoflora of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) treated with potassium nitrate and its effect on germination during storage
(2011) Janmajay Singh; Seweta Srivastava; Shikha; Asha Sinha; Bandana Bose
The main aim of the present study was to enumerate the fungal species and their effect on germination associated with wheat seeds. Seeds of two cultivars viz., Kundan and HUW-234 of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were collected after harvesting from agriculture farm, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. These seeds were treated with potassium nitrate and examine for seed mycoflora by agar plate method and blotter method. Total sixteen fungal species were isolated from test cultivars by the standard techniques. Fungi isolated and identified were Alternaria alternata, Alternaria solani, Aspergillus candidus, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium roseum, Fusarium semitectum, Penicillium citrinum, Penicillium rubrum, Rhizopus stolonifer, Trichoderma harzianum, Dark sterile mycelium and White sterile mycelium. During isolation, the blotter method yielded the higher number of fungi as compared to agar plate method. Germination of infested wheat seeds was determined by three methods viz., blotter method, multi-pot tray method and plastic pot method. Germination was decreased during storage period because fresh seeds showed better germination percent i.e., from 95 to 100% than stored seeds. Nitrate treated seeds show better germination percent than untreated seeds of both cultivars. © 2011 Academic Journals Inc.
Underutilized edible fruit species of the Indo-Gangetic Plains: a systematic review for food security and land degradation neutrality
(Turkiye Klinikleri, 2024) S. Dinesha; S. Rakesh; Deepranjan Sarkar; Prakash Kumar Jha; Raghupathi Balasani; Shikha; Saswat Kumar Kar; Vishal Seth; Amitava Rakshit; Rahul Datta; Sezai Ercişli
Many underutilized edible fruit species (UEFS) are found in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), which support food security (FS) for both indigenous people and other dependent communities. Unfortunately, there is little study and fragmented information available about these naturally edible products. The UEFS of the IGP was the subject of a systematic review utilizing the PRISMA protocol, which produced implications for FS and land degradation neutrality (LDN). This review aims to survey, summarize, and annotate the published information about the angiosperms native and naturalized UEFS of IGP to identify and make use of this species, particularly for the sustainable development of this region. A systematic review confirmed that 371 species of UEFS, of which 62 species were threatened and near threatened (TNT)-UEFS. Among the TNT-UEFS, 41 species were threatened, while 21 species were NT. The threatened species were further categorized as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in the IGP as vulnerable (21 species), endangered (16 species), and critically endangered (four species). This systematic review suggests integration of the native and naturalized UEFS in afforestation and reforestation programs to aid in various ecosystem services. Calamus inermis, Corypha taliera, Licuala peltata, and Saurauia punduana are examples of multipurpose species that require immediate sustainable conservation and cultivation initiatives to save them from extinction in the near future. Multipurpose species such as Aegle marmelos, Buchanania lanzan, Manilkara hexandra, Syzygium cuminii, Tamarindus indica are immensely constructive and climate-smart by surviving in harsh agroclimatic conditions and have great potential for establishment on marginal and wastelands throughout the IGP region. These resilient fruit species enhance biodiversity, ecosystems, and landscapes in addition to providing food for humans. It progressively advances India’s commitment to LDN, combating climate change, and achieving the UN-SDGs, which call for reducing hunger and raising FS by 2030. As a result, the study will offer baseline data for the next investigations and be helpful to policymakers in creating sustainable and scientific policies for the IGP. © TÜBİTAK.