| Biography | |
|---|---|
 Prof. M.M.R. Jahangir Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh |
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| Title: Conservation agriculture in rice ecosystem: A holistic approach to enhance crop productivity and soil health | |
| Abstract: When evaluating an agricultural management system for sustainability, the central focus should ensure that the system will not exhaust the resource base, will optimize soil conditions and will reduce food production vulnerability, while at the same time maintaining or enhancing productivity.Soil protection needs judicious and prudent use of conservation agriculture to prove its potential as a conservation effective technology, climate resilient agriculture, and a viable option for sustainable intensification of agroecosystems for advancing food security and for adaptation to/ mitigation of climate change.Conceptually conservation agriculture consists of four basic principles: i) retaining crop residues as surface mulch, ii) including cover crops in the rotation cycle, iii) improving soil fertility by integrated nutrient management for healthy crop growth and biochemical transformation of biomass carbon into soil organic matter or humus and iv) causing minimal or no soil manipulation. Two experiments with conservation agriculture practices were conducted in the field laboratory of Department of Soil Science at Bangladesh Agricultural University having a silt loam soil with low organic matter content. Experiment 1, being in practice since 2016, comprises two tillage (minimum soil disturbance with 20% crop residue retention and conventional tillage) and three cropping patterns (mustard – rice – green manure – rice, wheat – rice – rice, and lentil – rice – rice). Experiment 2, being in practice since 2012, comprised of two tillage (strip tillage and conventional tillage), two residue retention (20% and 60% of crop residue) and five nitrogen fertilizer doses in wheat – rice – rice pattern. Soil quality indicators e.g. bulk density, moisture content, aggregate formation and stability, easily oxidizable C, SOC, potentially mineralizable C and N, basal respiration rate and system productivity were examined. Conservation soil management practices significantly reduced (p<0.05) soil bulk density, enhanced soil aggregation and aggregate protected C and N, sequestered SOC without compromising crop production. Soil aggregation and aggregate protected C and N significantly responded to cropping patterns indicating that individual crop has significant impacts on soil quality. Different rates of N showed varying effects on crop productivity but not on soil health. | |
| Biography: Dr. Jahangir began his research and teaching career in 2003. He held his Bachelor in Agriculture in 1998 and Master of Science in Soil Science in 2003 from Bangladesh Agricultural University. He obtained another Master’s degree: Master of Science in Physical Land Resources from Ghent University, Belgium in 2008 and subsequently he obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from The University of Dublin, Trinity College in 2012. Dr. Jahangir accomplished his Post-doctoral research during 2013-2015 in the Dept. of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. Currently he has been serving as a Professor of Soil Science at Bangladesh Agricultural University since January 2017. Dr. Jahangir is involved with number of national and international research projects, professional societies and editorial boards of some reputed journals. | |
