Browsing by Author "Sumita Pal"

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Addressing stresses in agriculture through bio-priming intervention
(Springer Singapore, 2018) Deepranjan Sarkar; Sumita Pal; M. Mehjabeen; Vivek Singh; Sonam Singh; Subhadip Pul; Jancy Garg; Amitava Rakshit; H.B. Singh
Concurrent occurrences of different stresses, i.e. biotic and abiotic, are very common in the environment of plants which consequently reduce yield. As cost-effective options are very limited, bio-priming is a suitable tool to address the numerous challenges associated with agriculture. Plant growth benefits are easily attainable through this technique while managing the natural resources and enhancing the environmental sustainability. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved.
Bio-priming Mediated Nutrient Use Efficiency of Crop Species
(Springer India, 2015) Amitava Rakshit; Kumai Sunita; Sumita Pal; Akanksha Singh; Harikesh Bahadur Singh
Soil contamination and environmental hazard from the indiscriminate and excessive application of agrochemicals on crops have been key issues for the present-day agriculture. Additionally, the risk to human health has also led to stringent regulatory framework around the use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture. Bio-inoculants have emerged as the most feasible eco-friendly solution to these issues and have been gaining considerable consumer acceptance since the time they were first introduced. Bioagents are substances containing living microorganisms which promote plant growth and maintain the soil and crop health by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant. Bio-priming which involves seed priming in combination with low dosage of beneficial microorganisms is becoming a potentially prominent technique to induce profound changes in versatility of plant performance, encourage desired attributes in crop growth, and stabilize the efficacy of biological agents in the present fragile setup of agriculture by reducing dependency on chemical inputs and offers an attractive option for resource-poor farmers being an easy and cost effective method. The most prominent contributors in fungi and bacteria which are used extensively in bio-priming include Trichoderma, Pseudomonas, Glomus, Bacillus, Agrobacterium, and Gliocladium. Here in this review, we discuss the potential of bio-priming for improving crop growth and nutrient use efficiency and provide an assessment of bioagents currently used with crop species and key limitations involved. © Springer India 2015.
Bioremediation of soils contaminated with Ni and Cd: An overview
(Springer Singapore, 2017) Amitava Rakshit; Sumita Pal; Manoj Parihar; H.B. Singh
Environmental pollution due to heavy metals (HM) is a concern globally since this may lead to geoaccumulation, bioaccumulation, and biomagnifications in ecosystems as they can penetrate the food sequence via anthropogenic actions such as continuous addition of waste water, sewage sludge application, and purification of metals. These metals have been widely studied and their effects on soil-plant-animal continuum regularly reviewed with varied perspective. In the present review, we sum up contemporary knowledge about bioremediation of heavy metals in particular nickel (Ni) and cadmium (Cd) which are potential soil and water pollutants. Among the different bioremediation options available phytoremediation emerges as a sustainable and inexpensive technology. On the other hand, as phytoremediation is a dawdling process, enhancement of efficiency and for augmented stabilization or removal of HMs from soils arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi afford a smart system to press forward plant-based environmental clean-up. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017. All rights reserved.
Commercialization of arbuscular mycorrhizal technology in agriculture and forestry
(Springer Singapore, 2016) Sumita Pal; Harikesh Bahadur Singh; Alvina Farooqui; Amitava Rakshit
The ecto- and endomycorrhizal fungi are commonly occurring mycorrhizas and are very significant in relation to the growth of agricultural crops and forest trees. Mycorrhizal technology can advantageously be applied in agricultural and horticultural crops as well as forestry for better nutrient utilization offsetting ecological and environmental concerns by reduced chemical input use, disease management by reducing biotic stress by pathogenic fungi, and more effective land use management. However, even though the inoculation of plants with mycorrhiza is a familiar practice, the formulation of inocula with a dependable and steady effect under field situation is still a bottleneck for their wider use. The option of the technology for inocula production and of the carrier for the formulation is key to their booming application. In this review, we focus on the status of commercialization of mycorrhizal fungi as a gadget for enhancing plant growth and productivity. © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016.
Mycorrhizoremediation of nickel and cadmium: A promising technology
(Technoscience Publications, 2016) Barun Kumar Manjhi; Sumita Pal; Sunita Kumari Meena; Ranjeet Singh Yadav; Alvina Farooqui; H.B. Singh; Amitava Rakshit
Nickel (Ni) and cadmium (Cd) are two important environmental contaminants and have detrimental effects on ecosystems and are a risk to human health as they can enter the food chain via agricultural products or contaminated drinking water. Agricultural soils in many parts of the world are moderately contaminated by Ni and Cd due to mining and smelting of metalliferous ores, industrial waste, mineral fertilizers, pesticides, vehicle exhausts and municipal sewage sludge. The remediation of heavy metals contaminated environments is a challenging task because these elements are not degradable and once entering the soil, they can persist for a longer time. Traditional methods used for the removal of heavy metals from the environment are, in general, expensive and potentially risky due to the possibility of the generation of hazardous by-products. Phytoremediation, a sustainable and inexpensive technology based on the removal of pollutants including Ni and Cd from the environment by plants, is a burning issue in plant research. However, as phytoremediation is a slow process, improvement of efficiency and thus increased stabilization or removal of these heavy metals from soils is an important goal. Efficiency of removal can be improved by mediation through arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) associations which are integral and functioning parts of plant roots, as enhancing plant growth on severely disturbed sites, including those contaminated with heavy metals in particular Ni and Cd. They are reported to be present on the roots of plants growing on heavy metal contaminated soils and play an important role in metal tolerance and accumulation. AM fungi act as a filtration barrier against transfer of heavy metals to plant shoots. The protection and enhanced capability of uptake of minerals result in greater biomass production, which is an important criteria for successful remediation. Isolation of the indigenous and presumably stress-adapted AM fungi can be a potential biotechnological tool for inoculation of plants in order to guarantee the effectiveness of AM symbiosis in the restoration of contaminated soils. Ni and Cd tolerant AM fungi like Glomus mosseae, Glomus tenue and Gigaspora spp. could protect plants against the harmful effects of metals.
On-farm seed priming interventions in agronomic crops
(University of Ljubljana, 2018) Neha Chatterjee; Deepranjan Sarkar; Ardith Sankar; Sumita Pal; H.B. Singh; Rajesh Kumar Singh; J.S. Bohra; Amitava Rakshit
Priming techniques are gaining importance in agriculture with the increase in environmental stresses. Resource-poor farmers are in urgent need of such techniques as they are simple, economical, and value-added intervention associated with low-risk bearing factors. Seed enhancement methods are key to improve seed performance and achieve a good stand establishment. Worldwide beneficial effects of priming are recorded. But these technologies have still not reached most farmers. This review highlights the importance of on-farm priming strategies in modern crop production system to yield better productivity and obtain higher economic returns. Stimulation of the pre-germination metabolic changes by priming is necessary to overcome the environmental challenges that a plant can encounter. Thus, the study also focuses on mechanisms associated with priming-induced stress tolerance of crops. Various safe practical methods of seed priming can be easily adopted by the farming community to alleviate the levels of different stresses which can hamper productivity. Simultaneously they can produce good quality seeds and use them further for the next crop cycle cutting the costs of seed purchase. © 2018 University of Ljubljana. All rights reserved.
Potential of different crop species for Ni and Cd phytoremediation in peri-urban areas of varanasi district, india with more than twenty years of wastewater irrigation history
(Page Press Publications, 2013) Sumita Pal; Harikesh Bahadur Singh; Amitava Rakshit
Heavy metals introduced into soil by indiscriminate dumping along with irrigating with sewage effluent often lead to toxic accumulation of heavy metal ions, which not only impair soil productivity but also cause health hazards by entering into food chain via soil-plant-animal-atmosphere continuum. To evaluate the potential of different crop species for Ni and Cd phytoremediation, fifteen crop species comprising of cereals, vegetables and flowers were collected from differentially contaminated soils (DTPA-Cd 5.7-6.75 mg kg-1, DTPA-Ni 16.50-20.85 mg kg-1). The tissue metal concentration and relative efficiency of transfer of heavy metals from soil to plant (transfer factor) for various groups of crops were worked out. The uptake of Cd and Ni increased with contents in soils and the major part of taken up Cd and Ni is translocated to the floricultural crops with maximum accumulation occurred in roots. Values of translocation factor of Cd and Ni were ranged between 0.2 to 0.8 and 0.2 to 1.0 respectively for the different crops studied. The mean total root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhiza in these soils ranged from 15% for cauliflower to 76% for marigold, suggesting a certain adaptation of these indigenous to such environmental stress. Among the different crops studied marigold with highest translocation factor, mycorrhization and Cd and Ni content in root part holds considered as a potential economic crop for phytoremediation. © S. Pal et al., 2013.
Seed bio-priming of baby corn emerged as a viable strategy for reducing mineral fertilizer use and increasing productivity
(Elsevier B.V., 2018) Ranjeet Singh Yadav; Vivek Singh; Sumita Pal; Sunita Kumari Meena; Vijay Singh Meena; Birinchi Kumar Sarma; Harikesh Bahadur Singh; Amitava Rakshit
The aims of this study were to boost growth, yield and yield attributes of baby corn and reducing fertilizer application by different treatment combination of mineral fertilizers doses and various seed priming biological agents. Microbial intervention is widely accepted as one of the ways of reducing chemical fertilization. Here, we evaluated the effects of seeds bio-priming with {Trichoderma viride (TV), Frateuria aurentia (FA) and Glomus intraradices (GI)} on cultivation of baby corn (Zea mays L.) in a pot experiment under net house condition. Our results confirmed the significant positive effect of seed bio-priming (TV + GI) along with 75% recommended dose (RDF) of NPK fertilizer on vegetative growth and yield attributes as compared to rest of the treatments. Hence, the treatment combination of T. viride + G. intraradices along with 75% RDF may be used as more effective combination for baby corn production. Thus, results concluded that use of efficient microbes will reduce the dependence on chemical fertilizer to obtain potential baby corn productivity. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Toward an integrated resource management: Harnessing Trichoderma for sustainable intensification in agriculture
(Springer Singapore, 2017) Sumita Pal; H.B. Singh; Deep Ranjan Sarkar; Ranjeet Singh Yadav; Amitava Rakshit
Trichoderma has proved its diverse role in agriculture as an efficient microorganism to overcome numerous challenges associated with it. Being ubiquitous in nature, studies conducted on it are totally safe and involve low-cost implementation. Initially the research works highlighted this microbe as a suitable biocontrol agent against most phytopathogens. Many strains of Trichoderma have been successfully screened out for its beneficial effects on soil fertility and plant health aspects, but we need an environment which is free of pollution, and therefore focusing on multiple functions of Trichoderma to fight against various biotic and abiotic stresses and the hazardous pollutants which can affect our food chain is important to maintain sustainability. This mini review attempts to include the potentials of Trichoderma in present and upcoming condition of resource management. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017. All rights are reserved.
Trichoderma: A part of possible answer towards crop residue disposal
(Applied and Natural Science Foundation, 2019) O. Siva Devika; Subhadip Paul; Deepranjan Sarkar; Rahul Singh Rajput; Sonam Singh; Manoj Parihar; H.P. Parewa; Sumita Pal; H.B. Singh; Amitava Rakshit
India is one of the leading countries in agricultural production and generate large volume of crop residue. Increasing demand for food grains due to growing population leads to generation of crop residues. Due to lack of proper disposal mechanism of crop residue, farmers burn the residue which release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, and poses great threat to environment as well as human health. The residue burning causes greater carbon emission and nutrient losses which otherwise incorporated into the soil system may substantially improve the soil biodiversity. Besides several practices of crop residue management, the most feasible method for farmers is incorporation of residue into the soil with the inoculation of microbes. In soil system the ability of microbial community in degrading organic substances is well known. In the early stages of residue decomposition simple substrates like carbohydrates are degraded by bacteria, but in later stages degradation of complex constituents viz., cellulose, lignin needs microbes which are capable of secreting enzymes like cellulase, acting on complex organic substrates. In this context, cellulolytic micro organisms like Trichoderma have the potential and emerging as an important microbial inoculants to enhance the rate of decomposition as well as alleviate the effect of residue burning. © 2019, Applied and Natural Science Foundation. All rights reserved.