The constantly growing world population scenario is escalating the pressure on crop productivity. The excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, however, leads to the deterioration of the quality of soil and food crop products. This new volume, Microbial Fertilizer Technology for Sustainable Crop Production, addresses those concerns by focusing on improving soil health through sustainable practices. The use of microbial biofertilizers is a promising substitute to traditional chemical pesticides and fertilizers, providing a cost-effective practice for a sustainable environment and eco-friendly agriculture that uses soil microbes to improve the solubility of soil nutrients, leading to enhanced fertility and better crop productivity. This new book takes an in-depth look at utilizing the potential soil microorganisms of diverse genera to overcome issues instigated by the overuse of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
The book discusses the formulation, preparation, production, and applications of microbial biofertilizers for agricultural, forestry, industrial, and environmental sectors. It also provides extensive information and case studies on emerging plant growth promoters such as arbuscular mycorrhiza, rhizobia, endophytes, and cyanobacteria.
With in-depth coverage and strategic emphasis, this volume will be immensely useful and informative for microbiologists, biotechnologists, plant biologists, bioengineers, industrialists, and agronomists dealing with production and assembly methods for microbial biofertilizers. It will also be an essential guide for agriculture development executives, trainees in microbial biofertilizer industry, teachers, research scholars, and postgraduate students who are interested in understanding the science behind sustainable biofertilizer production, agroecology, and soil chemistry.
Jeyabalan Sangeetha, PhD, is Assistant Professor at Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, South India. She has edited/coedited several books in her research areas, which include environmental toxicology, environmental microbiology, environmental biotechnology, and environmental nanotechnology. She earned her BSc in Microbiology and PhD in Environmental Science from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. She holds an MSc in Environmental Science from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. She is the recipient of a Tamil Nadu Government Scholarship and a Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship of the University Grants Commission, Government of India for her doctoral studies. She served as a Dr. D.S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow and UGC Postdoctoral Fellow at Karnatak University, Dharwad, South India, during 2012-2016 with funding from the University Grants Commission, Government of India, New Delhi.
Abdel Rahman Mohammad Al-Tawaha, PhD, is full Professor of Plant Science, former Head of Department of Biological Sciences, and former Director of Planning, Information and Quality Unit at Al Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan. He was awarded his PhD from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 2006. He is author/coauthor of more than 200 publications in plant science in leading peer-reviewed journals, chapters in edited volumes, and books on a broad range of development issues. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Environmental Biology. He also participates in many international conferences as chair or member of scientific committees.
Devarajan Thangadurai, PhD, is Professor at Karnatak University in South India. He has authored/edited over 35 books with national and international publishers and has visited 24 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for academic visits, scientific meetings, and international collaborations. He received his PhD in Botany from Sri Krishnadevaraya University in South India as a CSIR Senior Research Fellow with funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Madeira, Portugal; University of Delhi, India; and ICAR National Research Centre for Banana, India. He is the recipient of a Best Young Scientist Award with a Gold Medal from Acharya Nagarjuna University, India, and the VGST-SMYSR Young Scientist Award of the Government of Karnataka, Republic of India.
