This book comprises 31 chapters on advances in soil-plant systems for improving nutrient use efficiency with four major themes viz. 1. Introduction and Fundamentals of Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum and nutrient use efficiency 2. Soil physical, chemical, biological and agronomic management for improving NUE 3. Plant physiological, genetic & molecular biological basis for improving nutrient uptake & use efficiency 4. Climate change aspects related to soil and plant systems for improving NUE. Besides the book also include few chapters on analytical techniques and instrumentation for the study of nutrient use efficiency with respect to physico-chemical and biological parameters.

This book comprises 31 chapters on advances in soil-plant systems for improving nutrient use efficiency with four major themes viz. 1. Introduction and Fundamentals of Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum and nutrient use efficiency 2. Soil physical, chemical, biological and agronomic management for improving NUE 3. Plant physiological, genetic & molecular biological basis for improving nutrient uptake & use efficiency 4. Climate change aspects related to soil and plant systems for improving NUE. Besides the book also include few chapters on analytical techniques and instrumentation for the study of nutrient use efficiency with respect to physico-chemical and biological parameters.

This book addresses in detail multifaceted approaches to boosting nutrient use efficiency (NUE) that are modified by plant interactions with environmental variables and combine physiological, microbial, biotechnological and agronomic aspects. Conveying an in-depth understanding of the topic will spark the development of new cultivars and strains to induce NUE, coupled with best management practices that will immensely benefit agricultural systems, safeguarding their soil, water, and air quality. Written by recognized experts in the field, the book is intended to provide students, scientists and policymakers with essential insights into holistic approaches to NUE, as well as an overview of some successful case studies. In the present understanding of agriculture, NUE represents a question of process optimization in response to the increasing fragility of our natural resources base and threats to food grain security across the globe. Further improving nutrient use efficiency is a prerequisite to reducing production costs, expanding crop acreage into non-competitive marginal lands with low nutrient resources, and preventing environmental contamination. The nutrients most commonly limiting plant growth are N, P, K, S and micronutrients like Fe, Zn, B and Mo. NUE depends on the ability to efficiently take up the nutrient from the soil, but also on transport, storage, mobilization, usage within the plant and the environment. A number of approaches can help us to understand NUE as a whole. One involves adopting best crop management practices that take into account root-induced rhizosphere processes, which play a pivotal role in controlling nutrient dynamics in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. New technologies, from basic tools like leaf color charts to sophisticated sensor-based systems and laser land leveling, can reduce the dependency on laboratory assistance and manual labor. Another approach concerns the development of crop plants through genetic manipulations that allow them to take up and assimilate nutrients more efficiently, as well as identifying processes of plant responses to nutrient deficiency stress and exploring natural genetic variation. Though only recently introduced, the ability of microbial inoculants to induce NUE is gaining in importance, as the loss, immobilization, release and availability of nutrients are mediated by soil microbial processes.

Nutrient use efficiency is a measure of how efficiently plants use the available mineral nutrients to produce economic produce. Improving nutrient use efficiency is very much essential under current scenario besides an understanding of the nutrient dynamics in soil-plant system."Enhancing nutrient use efficiency: Concepts, methods, and management interventions" is a comprehensive book which has a compilation of topics related to enhancement of nutrient use efficiency of various crops and cropping systems. Although it depends on the ability to plants to take up the nutrients from the soil, management practices have a key role to intervene the use efficiency. This book has 27 chapters written by eminent researchers in the field and addresses multifaceted approaches to enhance the nutrient use efficiency. Improving nutrient use efficiency is a prerequisite to reducing production costs in the wake of escalating cost of agricultural inputs in farming besides minimizing environmental contamination. Soil physical management is the foremost strategy to enhance the nutrient use efficiency. Hand held devices are popular among the farmers for nitrogen management in rice in several parts of the country, besides slow release nitrogenous fertilizers. Experiences from Long term fertilizer experiments and soil test crop response correlation are of immense use to understand the nutrient dynamics in soil and in turn designing practices for higher use efficiency.

The cropping system is one of the important components of sustainable agriculture, since it provides more efficient nutrient cycling. As such, balanced fertilization must be based on the concept of sustainable crop production. Feeding the rapidly growing world population using environmentally sustainable production systems is a major challenge, especially in developing countries. A number of studies have highlighted the fact that degradation of the world's cultivated soils is largely responsible for low and plateauing yields. Soil is lost rapidly but only formed over millennia, and this represents the greatest global threat to nutrient dynamics in agriculture. This means that nutrient management is essential to provide food and nutritional security for current and future generations. Nutrient dynamics and soil sustainability imply the maintenance of the desired ecological balance, the enhancement and preservation of soil functions, and the protection of biodiversity above and below ground. Understanding the role of nutrient management as a tool for soil sustainability and nutritional security requires a holistic approach to a wide range of soil parameters (biological, physical, and chemical) to assess the soil functions and nutrient dynamics of a crop management system within the desired timescale. Further, best nutrient management approaches are important to advance soil sustainability and food and nutritional security without compromising the soil quality and productive potential. Sustainable management practices must allow environmentally and economically sustainable yields and restore soil health and sustainability. This book presents soil management approaches that can provide a wide range of benefits, including improved fertility, with a focus on the importance of nutrient dynamics. Discussing the broad impacts of nutrients cycling on the sustainability of soil and the cropping systems that it supports, it also addresses nutrient application to allow environmentally and economically sustainable agroecosystems that restore soil health. Arguing that balanced fertilization must be based on the concept of INM for a cropping system rather than a crop, it provides a roadmap to nutrient management for sustainability. This richly illustrated book features tables, figures and photographs and includes extensive up-to-date references, making it a valuable resource for policymakers and researchers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students of Soil Science, Agronomy, Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

Nutrient use efficiency is a measure of how efficiently plants use the available mineral nutrients to produce economic produce. Improving nutrient use efficiency is very much essential under current scenario besides an understanding of the nutrient dynamics in soil-plant system.”Enhancing nutrient use efficiency: Concepts, methods, and management interventions” is a comprehensive book which has a compilation of topics related to enhancement of nutrient use efficiency of various crops and cropping systems. Although it depends on the ability to plants to take up the nutrients from the soil, management practices have a key role to intervene the use efficiency. This book has 27 chapters written by eminent researchers in the field and addresses multifaceted approaches to enhance the nutrient use efficiency. Improving nutrient use efficiency is a prerequisite to reducing production costs in the wake of escalating cost of agricultural inputs in farming besides minimizing environmental contamination. Soil physical management is the foremost strategy to enhance the nutrient use efficiency. Hand held devices are popular among the farmers for nitrogen management in rice in several parts of the country, besides slow release nitrogenous fertilizers. Experiences from Long term fertilizer experiments and soil test crop response correlation are of immense use to understand the nutrient dynamics in soil and in turn designing practices for higher use efficiency. Besides describing the concepts and methods of nutrient use efficiency, management practices for dry land crops and cropping systems, cereal based cropping systems, rainfed pulses based cropping systems, soybean based cropping systems, sugarcane based cropping systems, cotton based cropping systems, tobacoo and oil seed based cropping systems, rapeseed mustard based cropping systems and spices based cropping systems are also dealt in this book and would serve as a resource guide for enhancing nutrient use efficiency in various crops and cropping systems