Dr. Pradip Dey
Soil Salinity and carbon sequestration
Presently engaged in planning and monitoring of activities of ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Kolkata as well as 59 KVKs (Farm Science Centres) of Zone-V. Executed advanced research on GPS/GIS-based soil fertility mapping and developed nutrient plan of 173 districts of India covering 20 states. STCR- based nutrient application for enhancing yield and quality in dryland regions; soil quality index for different cropping system; bio- amelioration of spatially variable salt affected soil of semiarid region, waste water uses in non-food crops. Enumerated carbon sequestration in reclaimed alkali soils and sodic vertisols under horticulture-based, forestry-based, fodder-based and cereal-based systems. Developed conservation agriculture strategies for cereal, oilseed and pulse-based systems under reclaimed sodic soils. Developed integrated farming system models for six agroclimatic zones of West Bengal. The technology of Mridaparikshak was commercialized across India and generated more than 15% of Soil Health Cards (SHC) under the SHC Scheme of Govt. of India. ICAR-IISS has earned a royalty of more than Rs. 4 crores from commercialization of Mridaparikshak technology.
Patent Granted: Patent No. 347189 for Portable Soil Testing Kit for Agricultural and Horticultural Crops, granted on 21 September, 2020; the kit was commercialized also. Copyright granted: ROC no. SWl-14310/2021 dated 22 March, 2021 and Dairy no. 19250/2020-CO/SW on Soil test crop response based fertiliser recommendation system for a targeted yield in FCV tobacco and SW-18892/2024 dated 03 June 2024 on Web-based precision fertiliser recommendation system (WEB-PFRS) from Government of India.
Executed 45 projects including 10 Externally funded, 5 Contractual and 2 Consultancy projects as PI. As Project Coordinator (STCR), given emphasis and encouraged the Scientists on the creation of Inter-disciplinary programmes and mobilization of external funding. Forty externally funded projects were processed as Chairman, Consultancy Processing Cell of ICAR-IISS, Bhopal to mobilize more than 32 crores and create the advanced facilities in the frontier areas of research.
Created new infrastructure as Director, ICAR-ATARI, Kolkata in KVKs; as Project Coordinator (STCR) for soil test crop response studies in 21 Universities and 4 ICAR Research Institute. As Chairman, IPC, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal, helped in development of three new laboratories, namely Nano-tech Lab, Soil Biodiversity Lab and Soil and Produce Quality Lab. Capacity building was given impetus resulting into organization of 217 capacity building programme cum field day benefiting 12047 tribal farmers. More than 6000 FLDs were also conducted under different agro-ecological sub-regions to demonstrate beneficial effect of STCR-based nutrient management.
Providing Scientific Leadership to various Institutions/Societies/Associations viz., Lead, Biome Expert Group on Dryland, Ecosystem Services Partnership, Netherlands; Member of NICRA Review Team for KVKs; Editor, Journal of Soil Salinity and Water Quality, India and International Journal of Scientific and Engineer Research, USA; President (Elect) of Indian Science Congress Association (Agriculture & Forestry Sciences); Vice President, Indian Society of Soil Science, New Delhi (2020-2021); Vice President, Indian Society of Agro Physics (2014-2016); Adjunct Professor, UBKV, Cooch Behar; Member Secretary, RAC, ICAR-CSSRI (2010-12) and ICAR-IISS, Bhopal (2014-17); Member, IMC of ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal (2015-18) and CCARI, Goa (2017-20); Member Secretary, IRC of ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal. Instrumental in developing the CSSRI Vision-2030; reviewer of Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, UK; SAARC Focal Point Expert of IPNS; Soil Science Expert of Knowledge Exchange programme in Kenya sponsored by GIZ, Germany. Visited 5 countries, viz., Australia (2006), USA (2010), Kenya (2016, 2017, 2019), Bangladesh (2017) and Germany (2017).
Contributed more than 400 publications including 193 research papers, 14 books, 30 book chapters, 33 technical bulletins, 94 extension bulletins; 98 popular articles and other publications with major emphasis in soil and crop production sustainability.
Salient awards and honours include two Gold Medals, six scholarship/fellowships and 40 professional honours/recognition. Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology, Kolkata; Fellow of Indian Society of Soil Science, New Delhi; Fellow of Indian Society of Agrophysics, New Delhi; Fellow of Indian Society of Soil Salinity and Water Quality, Karnal; Fellow of Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences, New Delhi; Fellow of Indian Association of Soil & Water Conservationists, Dehradun; recipient of 12th International Congress Commemoration Award of Indian Society of Soil Science; delivered 7th Dr. B. Ramamoorthy Memorial Lecture, instituted by TNAU, Coimbatore; Biome Expert Group Lead, ESP (IUCN), The Netherlands; Soil Science Expert of Knowledge Exchange programme in soil conservation and rehabilitation for study visit to Kenya sponsored by GIZ, Germany. Recipient of Social Innovator Award by the World Bank (UN) for sustained commitment to fostering a culture of research-led performance by bringing critical international scholarship on social justice.
Dr. Pradip Dey
Esteemed HLPE Panelists & Dear FSN Members,
Greetings!
I think it is important to harnessing the indigenous technical knowledge in nutrient management, which is given below:
As defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 8 (j), traditional knowledge refers to the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities around the world; traditional knowledge is mainly of a practical nature, particularly in such fields as agriculture, fisheries, health, horticulture, and forestry. Farmers in different parts of the world especially in poor and marginal indigenous groups of south Asia and Africa are experimenting with the agricultural adaptation measures in response to climatic variability for centuries. There is a wealth of knowledge for a range of measures that can help in developing agri-technologies to overcome climate vulnerabilities. Research works from plateau region clearly demonstrate that indigenous people and their knowledge are central to the adaptive changes for sustainable agriculture using available natural resources essential to face the world’s changing climate (Dey and Sarkar, 2011). In one such practice for direct seeded rice, cowdung is powdered and mixed thoroughly with the soil after broadcasting of rice seeds and then planking (leveling the land surface after cultivation with wood log) is done. This helps in, since nitrogen mineralization is essentially a microbial mediated process and with powdering and mixing, the process occurs faster. Research has shown that such practice helps better nutrient uptake by the young plants due to better mineralization of nitrogen from the manure under improved water holding capacity of the soil. There is a need to harness and manage such knowledge and fine-tune them to suit the modern needs.
Reference:
Dey, P. and Sarkar, A.K. (2011). Revisiting indigenous farming knowledge of Jharkhand (India) for conservation of natural resources and combating climate change. Indian J. Traditional Knowledge 10(1): 71-79.
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