Browsing by Author "Mrunalini, Kancheti"

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    Legumes to reduce ecological footprints for climate-smart cropping systems
    (Elsevier, 2022) Mrunalini, Kancheti; Behera, Biswaranjan; Chandana, Pebbeti; Patnaik, Girija Prasad; Modi, Rajesh U; Saraswat, Anuj; Rathi, Neelmani; Kumar, Narender
    The ever-increasing population has intensified farming practices resulting in excessive use of farm inputs including fossil fuels and agrochemicals. Agriculture has proven to be one of the significant contributors, contributing 13.5% to the global greenhouse gases (GHGs) pool while still being a potent climate change mitigating option. Sustainable crop production keeping into account the pace of climate change will be a mammoth task to execute in the years to come. Apart from being a major source of dietary protein for humans and feed for animals, legumes play a major role in fixing atmospheric nitrogen (N), enhancing soil water retention and nutrient cycling. Legumes offer a wide array of functions including reducing dependence on N2 fertilizer, their strong influence soil organic carbon content and lowering agricultural born greenhouse gas emissions reduce ecological foot print of non-legume based cropping systems. They play pivotal roles in the food system, production system and cropping system levels. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to introduce legumes into crop rotations for the development of agroecosystem diversity, provide environmental and socio-economic benefits. � 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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    Nature-based solutions in soil restoration for improving agricultural productivity
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2022) Mrunalini, Kancheti; Behera, Biswaranjan; Jayaraman, Somasundaram; Abhilash, Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil; Dubey, Pradeep Kumar; Swamy, Gutta Narayana; Prasad, Jasti Venkata Naga Satya; Rao, Kondru Venkateswara; Krishnan, Pandian; Pratibha, Gudapaty; Srinivasa Rao, Cherukumalli
    Soil is a living and dynamic body, which is prone to degradation under conventional agricultural practices. Healthy soil is one of the most important pillars of sustainability as it delivers several ecosystem services along with its control on microbial activity, nutrient recycling, and decomposition. Nature-based solutions can play an important role in restoring soil quality for enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainability. This article discusses various nature-based options available for improving soil quality. Indigenous practices such as sheep penning, tank silt application, green manuring, and refuse from croplands and households have the potential to restore and maintain soil fertility. Biofertilizers can add nutrients (N fixers), fixe up to 300 kg N ha through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) and facilitate (nutrient solubilizer and mobilizers) nutrient availability in the soil. Biochar, a commonly used product, can increase soil moisture availability by 8%�10% and aids in mitigating climate change through C-sequestration. Biochar may have a climate change mitigation potential of 1.8 Pg CO2-C equivalent per year. When added to the soil, it not only acts as a nutrient source; but also acts as a soil amendment. Biogas slurry, the effluent from biogas reactors, contains various nutrient elements that can enrich soil fertility. The holistic approach in a farming system, through integration of different enterprises, reduces dependence on off-farm resources. Soil management through nature-based options will maintain crop productivity and sustainability in the long run without any adverse effects on the environment. � 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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    Pulse-based cropping systems for soil health restoration, resources conservation, and nutritional and environmental security in rainfed agroecosystems
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2023) Kumar, Sandeep; Gopinath, K.A.; Sheoran, Seema; Meena, Ram Swaroop; Srinivasarao, Ch.; Bedwal, Sandeep; Jangir, Chetan Kumar; Mrunalini, Kancheti; Jat, Ramdhan; Praharaj, C.S.
    Pulses are an important source of energy and protein, essential amino acids, dietary fibers, minerals, and vitamins, and play a significant role in addressing global nutritional security. The global pulse area, production, and average productivity increased from 1961 to 2020 (60 years). Pulses are usually grown under rainfed, highly unstable, and complex production environments, with substantial variability in soil and environmental factors, high year-to-year output variability, and variation in soil moisture. Since the last six decades, there is not much satisfactory improvement in the yield of pulses because of their cultivation in harsh environments, coupled with their continuous ignorance of the farmers and governments in policy planning. As a result, the global food supplies through pulses remained negligible and amounted to merely ~1.0% of the total food supply and 1.2% of the vegan food system. In this situation, protein-rich food is still a question raised at the global level to make a malnutrition-free world. Pulses are a vital component of agricultural biological diversity, essential for tackling climate change, and serve as an energy diet for vegetarians. Pulses can mitigate climate change by reducing the dependence on synthetic fertilizers that artificially introduce nitrogen (N) into the soil. The high demand and manufacture of chemical fertilizers emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), and their overuse can harm the environment. In addition, the increasing demand for the vegetal protein under most global agroecosystems has to be met with under a stressed rainfed situation. The rainfed agroecosystem is a shelter for poor people from a significant part of the globe, such as Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Nearly, 83% [over 1,260 million hectares (ha)] of cultivated land comes under rainfed agriculture, contributing significantly to global food security by supplying over 60% of the food. In rainfed areas, the limitation of natural resources with the shrinking land, continuous nutrient mining, soil fertility depletion, declining productivity factor, constantly depleting water availability, decreasing soil carbon (C) stock, augmented weed menace, ecological instability, and reduced system productivity are creating a more challenging situation. Pulses, being crops of marginal and semi-marginal soils of arid and semi-arid climates, require less input for cultivation, such as water, nutrients, tillage, labor, and energy. Furthermore, accommodation of the area for the cultivation of pulses reduces the groundwater exploitation, C and N footprints, agrochemical application in the cropping systems, and ill effects of climate change due to their inherent capacity to withstand harsh soil to exhibit phytoremediation properties and to stand well under stressed environmental condition. This article focuses on the role of pulses in ecological services, human wellbeing, soil, environmental health, and economic security for advanced sustainability. Therefore, this study will enhance the understanding of productivity improvement in a system-based approach in a rainfed agroecosystem through the involvement of pulses. Furthermore, the present study highlighted significant research findings and policy support in the direction of exploring the real yield potential of pulses. It will provide a road map to producers, researchers, policymakers, and government planners working on pulses to promote them in rainfed agroecosystems to achieve the United Nations (UN's) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Copyright � 2023 Kumar, Gopinath, Sheoran, Meena, Srinivasarao, Bedwal, Jangir, Mrunalini, Jat and Praharaj.