Cherukumalli Srinivasa Rao Editor

Dr. Ram Swaroop Meena is an Agronomist working in the Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. Dr. Meena has been awarded the Raman Research Fellowship by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. He has completed his postdoctoral research on soil carbon sequestration under Padma Shri Prof. Rattan Lal, World Food Prize Laureate, Columbus, USA. Dr. Meena has completed 10 externally funded projects including, MHRD, ICAR, DST, etc. and published more than 130 international research and review papers in peer-reviewed reputed journals, and has H-index of 52 and citations over 8000 with a total impact factor is 268.35. He has published 4 books at the national level and another 20 books (Springer) at the international level and contributed to the books with 15 chapters at the national and 70 at the international levels.

Dr. Cherukumalli Srinivasa Rao acquired his Ph.D. in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from IARI, New Delhi, and Post-Doctoral (Fellow) from Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Dr. Rao worked in ICAR system in different capacities from Scientist to Director. Currently, he is serving as Director, ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad since 2017. He also served the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad for 2 years. He is the recipient of 40 national and international awards which include the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award for Outstanding Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2019. Dr. Rao is the Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences; and Member of various National and International Committees globally. Dr. Rao is specialized in Soil Carbon Sequestration, Carbon Balance, Dryland Production Systems, and Climate Policy. Dr. Rao is credited with 317 Research Papers, 49 Books authored/edited, 12 copyrights, 17 Policy/Strategy/Status Papers. He visited more than 15 countries for scientific meetings.

Prof. Arvind Kumar, a renowned educationist and researcher has been appointed two terms as a Vice Chancellor of RLBCAU, Jhansi. Prior to this assignment, Prof. Kumar worked as Deputy Director General (Education), ICAR, New Delhi from 2009 to 2014, held the additional charge of Deputy Director General (Fisheries), ICAR, New Delhi about 5 months and was the Director of Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (DRMR), Bharatpur from 2002 to 2009. Under his dynamic leadership, Education Division, ICAR took several initiatives and made policies for the improvement of agriculture education in India. Dr. Kumar has been awarded with Dr. Rajendra Prasad Purushkar (1991-93) by ICAR for the book on Crop Geography of India (In Hindi), Fellow of the Indian Society of Agronomy (1996), Fellow of the Indian Society of Oilseed Research, Fellow of the Society of Extension Education (2009), and Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2012). President of the Indian Society of Agronomy (2011 and 2012) and the Society of Rapeseed Mustard Research since its inception (2008).