Editors :

K.L. Chadha , Deputy Director General (Hort.) and National Professor (Hort.) Retd., ICAR, New Delhi

M.S. Swaminathan , Chairman, National Commission for Farmers and
Chairman, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

In India , agriculture is the main stay of the population. A number of issues have been identified to cause degradation of the environment. If not carefully tackled, these could bring about irreversible changes in climate and depletion of natural resources like biodiversity, soil and water. The climate change is altering the concentration of atmospheric constituents leading to global warming while soil degradation, desertification, waterlogging and poor ground water quality could further damage the already fragile environment.

Agricultural inputs like fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, microbes, plastics, on mechanization of agricultural practices could also affect the environment. Recent shifts in input management through organic farming, biopesticides, mycorhhiza, bio-control can help considerably in reducing these adverse effects. Similarly various farming systems eg. crop production, vegetable production, animal production, agroforestry and aquaculture have also specific effects on the prevailing environment of a region. Quantum jump in production and processing of a number of agricultural commodities has also resulted in lot of wastes and residues which if unutilized could prove to be hazardous. Many of these wastes can be utilized for biogas or energy production or producing animal feed or other useful by products.

The book discusses in details all the above issues and also deals in the emerging areas of biosafety resulting from biotechnological advance and justifies the need of environmental education. Different topics have been covered by well known researchers, educationists and research managers employed both in public and private sector in 47 chapters. It is hoped that the book will provide an invaluable information to all those interested in Environment and Agriculture the world over.

Contents

Section 1: Natural Resource Management and Environment

1. Climate Change – Y.S. Ramakrishna, G.G.S.N. Rao, G. Srinivasa Rao and P. Vijaya Kumar

2. Biodiversity – Dhillon and Anuradha Agrawal

3. Land Degradation – V.N. Sharda

4. Desertification – Pratap Narain and Amal Kar

5. Water Logging – S.K. Gupta and S.K. Kamra

6. Watershed Management – J.S. Samra and V.N. Sharda

7. Irrigation Dams – Chetan Pandit

8. Ground Water Quality – P.S. Minhas

Section 2: Agricultural Inputs Management and Environment

9. Fertilizer Use – Anand Swarup

10. Herbicide Use – Yaduraju, M.B.B. Prasad Babu and Poonam Chandla

11. Pesticide Use – S.K. Mukerjee

12. Microbes – S. Kannaiyan

13. Biopesticides and Mycorrhiza – B.S. Parmar and S. Walia

14. Biological Control of Pests – S.P. Singh

15. Integrated Pest Management – Amerika Singh, O.P. Sharma, B.L. Jalali and D. Prasad

16. Pesticide Residues – S.K. Handa

17. Plastics in Agriculture – Ashwani Kumar

18. Automation/Mechanisation – N.S.L. Srivastava

19. Remote Sensing – Sushma Panigrahy and Shibendu S. Ray

Section 3: Farming Systems and Environment

20 Crop Production – Agarwal, S.N. Sharma and S. Nagarajan

21. Peri-urban Vegetable Production – M. Prabhakar and S.S. Hebbar

22. Botanic Gardens – Pushpangadan and K. Narayanan Nair

23. Bio-aesthetic Planning – J.S. Arora, Ramesh Kumar and B.M. Bhardwaj

24. Agro-forestry – K.R. Solanki

25. Wasteland Development – P.S. Pathak and R.K. Bhatt

26. Organic Farming – P.S. Ramakrishnan

27. Animal Production – V.K. Taneja

28. Inland Aquaculture – S. Ayyappan and J.K. Jena

29. Marine Fisheries – Mohan Joseph Modayll

30. Alternate Land Use – S.K. Sharma, Kamta Prasad, M.L. Jat and A.V.M. Subba Rao

Section 4: Biomass Utilization and Environment

31. Cotton Crop and Industry Waste – R.H. Balasubramanya, A.J. Shaikh and S. Sreenivasan

32. Jute Crop Residues and Waste – S.K. Bhattacharyya and D. Paul

33. Sugar Cane Co-products and Factory Waste – S.P. Jain

34. Soybean Products and Byproducts – Nawab Ali

35. Fruits and Vegetables – Fresh and Processing Industry Waste – V. Prakash, B.K. Lonsane and P.M. Badgujar

36. Cassava Industry Waste – C. Balagopalan

37. Plantation Crops Waste – V. Rajagopal and George V. Thomas

38. Lac Industry Waste – P.C. Sarkar and K.K. Kumar

39. Animal Farm Waste – G.S. Rajorhia

40. Meat Processing Industry Waste – K.T. Radhakrishnan

41. Slaughter House Waste – P.K. Srivastava

42. Fishery Waste – K. Gopakumar

43. Biogas Technology – M. Shyam

44. Crop Residues to Energy – B.S. Pathak

Section 5: Social Concerns and Environment

45. Modelling Agriculture - Environment Interactions – P.K. Aggarwal

46. Biotechnology and Biosafety – P. Ananda Kumar

47. Environmental Education – J.C. Katyal

Reprinted : ISBN : 81-85048-44-4

900+xx pp.; Colour & B/W photo's; Hardcover