Sandip Mandal Editor

Dr. Shiv Vendra Singh (M.Sc. (Ag.) in Agronomy from N.D. University of Agriculture & Technology, Ayodhya, India. doctoral degree in Agronomy from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India) is an assistant professor at Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India. He has research experience in the field of biochar based nitrogenous fertilizers production, biochar enrichment, soil quality enhancement, carbon sequestration, GHGs emission and carbon footprint mitigation under biochar-based rice-wheat production system. Besides, he has received the reputed awards and fellowships from state and national agencies (e.g., Vice-Chancellor Gold Medal, NDUAT, Ayodhya; INSPIRE Fellowship, DST, GOI; Prize in National Essay Writing on Waste to Wealth by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, GOI; Young Scientist Award, UCOST-Uttarakhand State Science & Technology Council, Uttarakhand; Student Excellence Award, GBPUAT, Pantnagar, INDIA). 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 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 external funded projects including, MHRD, ICAR, DST, etc. Dr. Sandip Mandal is a Senior Scientist in ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, India. He possesses nearly 17 years of research experience in the field of biochar and bioenergy, biochar production, biochar enrichment, carbon sequestration. He has published 61 scientific publications including 29 full-length articles, 9 book chapters, and 23 other technical and popular articles. He has been selected as NAAS Associate in the year 2021. He was also awarded with prestigious NRDC Societal Innovation Award 2018, Jawaharlal Nehru Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences in 2019 by ICAR, As a scientist, he has been associated with the development of multiple improved farm machinery and Bio-energy technologies including significant contributions towards hill agriculture and Biochar for C- sequestration and soil health improvement and enriched biochar for soil amendment. Dr Chaturvedi has over 15 years experience in research, teaching and extension education in Agronomy and Agroforestry. He is an Associate Professor in Department of Agronomy, GBPUAT, Pantnagar, and also holds administrative position such as Nodal Officer, ICAR Cell and Assistant Coordinator, Planning & Technical Cell, VC’s Office, GBPUAT. Presently, he is associated with about 20 research projects from different government and non-government agencies, notable among them are Designing controlled release fertilizer utilizing agriwaste biochar, funded by NICRA, ICAR; AICRP-IFS; AICRP-Agroforestry; Morpho-physiological and Biochemical characterization and mitigation of Terminal Heat in Wheat, USCost, Uttarakhand and FIST, DST, GoI etc. He has various awards to his credits; notable are Chancellor gold medal (1999), 4 vice-chancellor gold medal (1999), Best Oral Presentation Award, Best Editor Award (2017) in international event, Faculty Excellence Award-2017 and ISA-Indian Associateship Award (2018) and Dr P S Deshmukh Young Agronomist Award-2017 (2021) from ISA, New Delhi. Scientist E/Associate Professor Govindaraju K. works at the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology in Chennai, India.