Soil Fertility Degradation, and Soil Health Restoration and Management

Professor Ram C Dalal, AM graduated from the Punjab Agricultural University (1964) with University Gold Medal, completed his master’s and PhD from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (1969), New Delhi. Presently he is a Professor /Adjunct Professor in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and Adjunct Professor at Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidalya, Pundibari, Coochbehar, India. During the last five decades of research and teaching experience, he has contributed significantly to create awareness in the farming, scientific and general community to the seriousness and insidious nature of soil/land degradation. For the last 30 years, landscape restoration, soil organic matter management, carbon sequestration and nitrogen management, site-specific management for soil and subsoil and other constraints, sustainable crop and pasture rotations, and vegetation management have been the central research platforms across cropping, rangelands, and forestry ecosystems. Policy makers and politicians now internationally recognize that land degradation, carbon loss and landscape degradation processes lead to deteriorating water and air quality, and that sustainable land, vegetation and water use, and greenhouse gas mitigation and climate change are the national and international priorities. In addition, he is recipient of several awards and honours and also mentored 30 PhD Scholars in the span of 5 decades; published more than 450 publications with more than 23000 citations.  He is recipient of several awards/recognitions including National Landcare Award, Hermitage (1994) and JA Prescott Award, Australian Society of Soil Science (2008); Professor Dalal was made a member in the general division of the ‘Order of Australia (AM)’ in 2018 and also awarded ‘Medal of Agriculture’ by Ag Institute Australia in 2021 for outstanding service to science, and to farming community through research and sustainable farming practices. Somasundaram Jayaraman, graduated from Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University (1995), and post-graduation (1998) and Doctorate (2001) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, and Post-Doctorate Fellow (2015) at DSITI, Ecosciences Precinct, Brisbane, Australia. Earlier, he worked in the capacity of Senior Scientist & Principal Scientist at the Division of Soil Physics, ICAR–Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India (2008-2023) and since July 2023, he is serving as Head & Principal Scientist, ICAR-IISWC, Research Centre, Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu, India.  He has more than 2 decades of experience in research and training in the field of natural resource management/conservation agriculture on soil properties & carbon sequestration vis-à-vis sustainable soil management. He has developed conservation agricultural practices for enhancing soil health and crop productivity in Western and Central India.  In addition, farmers in rainfed regions of Central India were also made aware of soil health and developed low-cost farmer-friendly tools for assessing soil health in a participatory mode through field demonstrations. He has published more than 100 research papers in national and international peer-reviewed, high impact journals with > 2400 citations.   In addition, he has authored/edited 10 books and published more than 50 book chapters. Besides, he has mentored post-graduate students (10), PhD scholars (4), and young scientists (5). He received two Gold Medals for PhD research work, Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2015 (by Australian Government), Australian Awards Ambassador in 2018 (by Australian High Commissioner to India), Scientist Award (2019), Leadership Award (2019) and Dr JSP Yadav Award for Excellence in Soil Science (2021). Fellow of National Academy of Biological Sciences (2022) and Fellow of Indian Association of Soil & Water Conservationists (2022), Associate Editor of Soil Research (CSIRO), Editor (Farming System), Discover Soil (Springer Nature) and other national journals.