EJournal

Foreword India’s success in enhancing food production towards food security is one of the major technologicalachievements. The resounding success of improved technologies has made India, which ranks in the topfive nations of the world as one of largest producers of foodgrains, vegetables, spices, plantation crops,milk and meat. The country is poised on the cusp of achieving a similar success in pulses and oilseedproduction which, for various hurdles, has been slow to arrive. The phenomenal success of green revolutionin the country has also had its negative impacts in terms of environmental degradation, loss of forestcover and biodiversity, land use changes, desertification and depletion of natural resources. If India hasto support its burgeoning billions the farm productivity has to grow at the rate of three per cent – somethingthat has never been achieved. Sustaining this growth over the next three decades will be even moredifficult given the rapid loss of arable land to urbanization. The scenario appears even more grim if weview it against the spectre of global climate change. Karnataka has already faced three successive failures of monsoons and 2016 has been the worst yearin the last four decades or more with respect to water shortage. The decline in farm productivity in thelast two years is already posing a serious threat to the food and nutritional security of the state. Climatechange models have established that the average global temperature has increased by 0.85 0C in the lastthirty years. We are witness to the devastating effect of this ‘marginal’ increase on agriculture andhuman health. The extreme weather events, in both space and time, over the last three years have left theirscars on the farm lands and farmers. It is hard to imagine the catastrophic impact of climate change if theprojected increase in average global temperature of about 3.0 0C in the next twenty years is realized. Theurgency of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies has never been felt acutely as it is now. Immediatesteps are needed to develop strategies, policies and actions for Climate-Smart Agriculture. We at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru have taken steps to develop tools andtechnologies, strategies and policies to meet the challenges of climate change to make farming climate-smart in the state. Several technologies, ranging from rain water harvesting, moisture conservation,microbial inoculants, crop improvement for climate resilient varieties of major crops, improving stresstolerance in plants through use of endophytic fungi, identification of climate resilient crops, improvedirrigation and crop nutrition, changes in agro-biodiversity etc., are being developed by the scientists atthe university. The Mysore Journal of Agricultural Sciences, one of the oldest journals devoted toagricultural sciences in the country is pleased to bring out this special issue on the occasion of theXIIIAgricultural Science Congress being held at UASB, GKVK, Bengaluru, from 21 to 24 February2017 to showcase and highlight the contributions of the university towards climate-smart agriculture. (H. Shivanna) Vice-Chancellor University of Agricultural Sciences Bengaluru



Mysore J. Agric. Sci., 51 (1) : 1- 200, 2017 CONTENTSSl. No. Particulars Page No. PART I : REVIEW PAPERS OF XIII AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE CONGRESS1. EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP NUTRITION –– 1 - V. R. Ramakrishna Parama2. GRAIN AMARANTH (Amaranthus sp.) - AN UNDERUTILIZED CROP SPECIES FOR –– 12 NUTRITIONAL SECURITY AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE - Niranjana Murthy and J. S. Arun Kumar3. MUNGBEAN PRODUCTION UNDER A CHANGING CLIMATE - INSIGHTS FROM GROWTH –– 21 PHYSIOLOGY - H. Bindumadhava, R. M. Nair, H. Nayyar, J. J. Riley and W. Easdown4. MICROBIAL INOCULANTS FOR AGRICULTURE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATE –– 27 - Sneha S. Nair, Pramod Kumar Sahu and G. P. Brahmaprakash5. FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE : AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE –– 45 - A. N. Arunkumar, Geeta Joshi and K. N. Nataraja6. SMALL MILLETS : CLIMATE RESILIENT CROPS FOR FOOD AND NUTRITIONAL SECURITY –– 52 - Prabhakar7. ENHANCING CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF CROP PLANTS : AN APPROACH USING ENDOPHYTES –– 63 - G. Ravikanth, M. M. Vasantha Kumari, K. N. Nataraja and R. Uma Shaanker8. DRIP IRRIGATION : A CLIMATE SMART IRRIGATION PRACTICE FOR SUSTAINING CROP –– 72 PRODUCTIVITY, WATER SAVING AND MITIGATING GREEN HOUSE GASES (GHG’S) IN RICE - Nagaraju, Gururaj Kombali, S. Anusha, D. S. Prabhudev, H. P. Dileepkumar, K. S. Somashekar, V. Bhaskar and D. C. Hanumanthappa PART II : RESEARCH PAPERSPLANT SCIENCE1. TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF INSECT DIVERSITY IN BENGALURU - –– 78 A STUDY USING LIGHT TRAPS –– 85 - Joshua Matata Kimondiu, Gyneshwar Jha, A. R. V. Kumar –– 89 and K. N. Ganeshaiah2. INFLUENCE OF FARM PONDS IN IMPARTING CLIMATE RESILIENCE TO RAINFED FARMING : SUCCESS FROM NICRA VILLAGES - D. V. Srinivasa Reddy, Sreenath Dixit, N. Loganandhan, Manjunath Gowda, B. Mohan, S. Sheeba, B. O. Mallikarjuna and M. Anitha3. STUDIES ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF MAIZE AS INFLUENCED BY DRIP FERTIGATION - J. S. Venkata Shiva Reddy and R. Krishna Murthy

Sl. No. Particulars Page No.4. RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF SILKWORM BREEDS BOMBYX MORI L. TO LATE LARVAL –– 93 FLACHERIE AS INFLUENCED BY LIGHT INTENSITY - Malashree Mankani, C. Doreswamy, K. G. Banuprakash and R. N. Bhaskar5. AMMI MODEL FOR STABILITY AND ADAPTABILITY OF FINGER MILLET –– 98 (Eleusine coracana) GENOTYPES - H. R. Chaithra, K. N. Krishnamurthy, P. Ravishankar and G. B. Mallikarjuna6. EFFECT OF NSKE AND IPM MODULE TREATED LEAVES ON REARING PERFORMANCE OF –– 102 THE SILKWORM, Bombyx Mori L. - K. C. Narayanaswamy, S. Harish Babu and K. S. Jagadish7. EFFECT OF SEED FILM COATING POLYMERS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF MAIZE –– 108 HYBRID HEMA - B. Sumalata, Parashivamurthy and R. SiddarajuFOOD SCIENCE –– 1131. QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF RAGI FOR DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIPURPOSE MIX - D. Shobha and C. R. RavishankarSOCIAL SCIENCE –– 1201. CONSEQUENCES OF INVOLVING CHILDREN IN LABOUR ACTIVITIES : A STUDY IN –– 126 –– 133 MAHABUBNAGAR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH –– 139 - M. Prasuna and M. Sudarshan Reddy2. GENDER PARTICIPATION IN SUGARCANE CULTIVATION ACTIVITIES - K. Nishitha, M. T. Lakshminarayan and B. Krishnamurthy3. LIVELIHOOD STATUS OF VILLAGE FOREST COMMITTEE (VFC) MEMBERS IN KARNATAKA STATE - Abdullah Faiz and N. R. Gangadharappa4. PERCEPTION OF FARM YOUTH TOWARDS AGRICULTURE - Preethi, M. S. Nataraju and M. T. Lakshminarayan PART III : ABSTRACT OF THESIS — 145 ABSTRACTS OF PH. D. THESIS — 157 ABSTRACTS OF M. SC. THESIS — 198Instructions to Authors

Mysore J. Agric. Sci., 51 (1) : 1-11, 2017 Review PaperEffect of Climate Changes on Soil Properties and Crop Nutrition V. R. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMADepartment of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru-560 065 E-mail : [email protected] ABSTRACT Soil response to climate change is a slow multifaceted and complicated process affecting physical, chemicaland biological properties and thus its productivity. Components of climate change vis a vis enhanced CO2 levels,elevated temperature, altered precipitation and atmospheric nitrogen are important consideration. Theseparameters will shift the equilibrium both directly and indirectly of numerous soil processes which includecarbon and nitrogen cycling, acidification, risk of erosion, salinization, all of which will impact soil health.Climate change affected soil would directly impact nutrient availability to plants and hence a decline in soilproductivity. Adoption of climate smart agriculture would transform and reorient agricultural development underthe new realities of climate change.WITH progressing earth history, the parameters of the climate heats up, reductions in the amount of waterclimate such as temperatures and precipitation have available may be made up initially by irrigation.globally, regionally and locally changed. Unravelling However, scarcity of water may prevent water beingthe likely extent and impact of climate change on soils used for irrigation. Increasing damage to the land, oris a complex process and progress has been slow. It is land degradation, will occur in the form of soil erosion,made all the more complicated by the fact that not desertification, salinisation, or loss of peat soils, furtheronly can soils be strongly affected by climate change impacting the capability of soils to support the needsdirectly, for example effect of temperature on soil of agriculture.organic matter decomposition, and indirectly, forexample changes in soil moisture via changes in plant The unique balance between the soils of the worldrelated evapotranspiration, but soils themselves can and the climate affects the nature and distribution ofact as a source of greenhouse gases and thus contribute the world’s natural and semi-natural ecosystems,to the gases responsible for climate change. In addition providing water, nutrients and a growing medium. Aschanges in the functions and uses of soils may be driven climate changes, so too will the soil’s ability to supportmore by socio-economic factors than environmental current ecosystems – this will lead to changes in theones. The lack of specificity of the global circulation communities of plants growing in different parts ofmodels (GCMs) at present, combined with the the world. For example, in certain places plants suitedcomplexity of the interaction of various soil forming to wetter conditions may lose out to plants able to copeprocesses and the fact that there is still a limited with drier conditions.knowledge of many of them, particularly biologicalones, makes it difficult to quantify the changes that Soil response to climate change is expected towill ensue. On the basis of current knowledge, it is be multifaceted and rather complicated because ofonly possible to describe the likely impacts of climate 1) The presence of an intricate network of sequential,change on soils in a qualitative or semi-quantitative simultaneous and / or coupled (often, time-dependent)way and highlight the key changes, their direction and, chemical, biological and hydrological reactions andwhere there is adequate climate change information processes; 2) Chemical elements, nutrients, andand their implications for management. contaminants involved in these reactions and processes are distributed in the soil solid, liquid, and gas Climate change can have a very big impact on phases; 3) The scale-dependent effects related tosoils and the functions that soil performs. In agriculture, minera-logical, chemical, and physical heterogeneitiesclimate change will affect crop production as changes and 4) Climate extremes (e.g., heat waves and dryin soil, air temperature and rainfall affect the ability of spells) induce interconnected short and long-lastingcrops to reach maturity and their potential harvest. As effects in soils that currently are not well understood (Qafoku, 2014).

2 V. R. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMA Since soil has a major role in supplying macro structure, stability, topsoil water holding capacity,and micro nutrients to all kinds of crops grown on it, nutrient availability and erosion. The loss of soil carbonstudies on change of its physical, chemical and is also accelerated by the increase in temperature.biological properties with respect to climate change is However, these effects could be counteracted byimportant. enhanced nutrient release resulting in increased plant productivity vis-a-vis litter inputs. Increased rainfall Defining soil properties in relation to climate could expect increased peat formation and methanechange should consider the impacts of a range of release, whilst areas experiencing decreased rainfallpredicted global climate change such as rising could undergo peat, CO2 loss, increased moistureatmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, elevated deficit for arable crops (especially on shallow soils)temperature, altered precipitation (rainfall) and and for forest soils thereby affecting foraging patterns,atmospheric nitrogen (N2) deposition on soil chemical, reproduction and survivability of the soil invertebratesphysical and biological functions. Many studies have (Chander, 2012) of the food web and natural plantprogressed our understanding of relationships between pathogens. Increased droughts will increase theparticular soil properties and climate change, e.g., likelihood of shrink-swell in clay soils. Increased rainfallresponses to temperature, CO2 level or rainfall. could increase atmospheric N deposition to soils, may promote soil disturbances, flooding and subsidence This paper describes the impact of climate which changes in wetland and waterlogged habitatschange on different soil properties, their mitigation or and also enhance soil erosion, potentially leading toadaptation strategies and thereby deriving a solution the pollution of surface waters.to the impact of climate change on physical, chemicaland biological properties of soil. Indirect impacts of climate change on soils: The integrated impact of climate change isImpact of Climate Change on Soil Functions expected to generally increase crop yields (with winter wheat, sunflower and sugar beet) as a result of the The impact of climate change on soils is a slow combined effects of CO2 fertilisation, radiation usecomplex process because soils not only are strongly efficiency and longer growing seasons which mostlyaffected by climate change directly (for example effect applies to species with the C3 photosynthetic pathwayof temperature on soil organic matter decomposition (Pathak et al., 2012; Mihra and Rakshit, 2008) andand indirectly, for example changes in soil moisture not necessarily to species with the C4 pathway (Allen,via changes in plant related evapotranspiration) but et al., 1996) Elevated CO2 increases the size and dryalso can act as a source of greenhouse gases and weight of most C3 plants and plant components.thus contribute to the gases responsible for climatechange. In addition changes in the functions and uses Relatively more photo assimilate is partitionedsoils may be driven more by socio-economic factors into structural components (stems and petioles) duringthan environmental ones. However the interaction of vegetative development in order to support the light-the various soil forming processes, particularly harvesting apparatus (leaves) (Allen et al., 1996). Thebiological ones, makes it difficult to quantify the harvest index tends to decrease with increasingchanges. CO2 concentration and temperature. Increased yields were expected for sunflower, whereas, smaller Direct impacts of climate change on soil increases in yield or possible decreases in yield forfunctions: Soil-climate models assuming constant potatoes, oilseed rape and high quality horticulturalinputs of carbon to soils from vegetation predicts the crops was expected when grown under water stressedexpected changes in temperature, precipitation and light textured soils. Increases in grass yields are alsoevaporation with a concomitant increase in organic generally expected. Both climatic warming and risingmatter turnover facilitating increased losses of CO2 in CO2 levels in the atmosphere will enhance tree growthmineral and organic soils. These losses of soil carbon in the short termwill also affect other soil functions like poorer soil

EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP NUTRITIO 3Soil physical parameters the type of vegetation occurring at its surface, which may change itself as a result of climate change or Soil Water: Water content in soils of semi-arid adaptation management (Defra, 2005).grassland systems is expected to be higher underelevated atmospheric CO2, a condition attributed to Soil structure and texture differentiation: Soilreduced transpiration due to increased stomatal structure is an important property which indicates howresistance (Kirkham, 2011). In short, different parts the soil particles combine together. Soil structure isof the world will be impacted differently in terms of responsible for the movement of gases, water,soil water (Kang et al., 2009). pollutants/contaminants, seepage, nutrients, maintenance of water quality, building foundations, soil Doubling atmospheric CO2 has been shown to fauna and the emergence of crops. The nature andreduce seasonal evapo-transpiration by 8 per cent in quality of the structure is strongly influenced by thewheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and cotton and by 9 amount and quality of organic matter present, inorganicper cent in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] grown constituents of the soil matrix, cultivation methods andunder day / night temperatures of 28 / 18°C (Hatfield, natural physical processes such as shrink-swell (soils2011). However, the reduction in transpiration by with high clay contents, particularly smectiticsoybeans was eliminated if the plants were mineralogy) and freeze-thaw behaviour. A decline ingrown under temperatures of 40 / 30°C (Hatfield, soil organic matter levels lead to a decrease in soil2011). In a study on rice doubling CO2 decreased aggregate stability, infiltration rates and increase inevapotranspiration by 15 per cent at 26°C, but, susceptibility to compaction, run-off, furthermore,increased evapotranspiration at 29.5°C (Hatfield, susceptibility to erosion (Bot and Benites, 2005).2011). Elevated CO2 levels increase the water useefficiency and decrease evapotransporation rates of In some areas there could be an increase in flashmany plants. However, evapo-transpiration rates flooding as a result of increased cracking and changeappear to be temperature dependent, meaning the in structure. Texture is the differentiation of sand siltwater benefits of increased atmospheric CO2 could clay percentages is soil. It has direct impact of climatebe reduced or lost in areas where temperatures rise change.too high. Soil biological parameters Soil temperature: Trends in soil temperature areimportant but rarely reported, indicators of climate Soil organic matter : Soil organic matter is thechange. There is a close relationship between air most important soil component, influencing as it doestemperature and soil temperature and a general soil structure, water holding capacity, soil stability,increase in air temperature will inevitably lead to an nutrient storage and turnover and oxygen-holdingincrease in soil temperature. The temperature regime capacity, properties that are fundamental in maintainingof the soil is governed by gains and losses of radiation and improving soil quality. A decline in organic matterat the surface, the process of evaporation, heat content increases the susceptibility to soil erosion.conduction through the soil profile and convective Organic matter is particularly important as the primetransfer via the movement of gas and water (Qian habitat for immense numbers and variety of soil faunaet al., 2011). and microflora, which play a critical role in the health and productivity of soils. It is highly susceptible to As with soil moisture, soil temperature is a prime changes in land use and management and to changesmover in most soil processes. Warmer soil temperature in soil temperature and moisture. In the last decadeswill accelerate soil processes, rapid decomposition of changes in land use and management have alreadyorganic matter, increased microbiological activity, led to a significant decline in organic matter levels inquicker nutrients release, increase nitrification rate and many soils.generally accentuate chemical weathering of minerals.However, soil temperatures will also be affected by Soil organic matter is one of the major pools of carbon in the biosphere and unlike most other soil

4 V. R. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAproperties is important both as a driver of climate an important role in the evolution of the global C cyclechange and as a response variable to climate change, over the next century (Beaulieu et al., 2012), whencapable of acting both as a source and sink of carbon climate change is expected to be significant.during climate change. How climate change will impactsoil organic matter is a matter of considerable debate. Accelerated weathering of the rocks and mineralsOn the one hand, it is recognized that global warmingand increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere can in soils will be promoted by higher atmospheric CO2favour increased plant growth, which in turn could concentrations and temperature (whichprovide more organic matter for the soil. On the other ( 400 ppm)hand a rise in air temperature and that of the soil wouldbe consistent with an increase in decomposition and increase the extent and rates of weathering), intensiveloss of soil organic matter. There is thus, significantinterest in the fate of such carbon, particularly the extent rainfall (which facilitates the removal of reactionto which soils and land use can be used to regulate thesequestration of carbon from the atmosphere or the products either by surface runoff or percolating water),loss of soil organic carbon to the atmosphere. Theopinion currently is that in the absence of mitigating and heat waves and extended periods of drought (whichaction, losses through organic matter decompositionare likely to exceed levels gained from increased plant promote physical alteration of rocks and minerals). Thegrowth, thus adding to atmospheric CO2 levels andthe greenhouse gas effect and to lower levels of soil results from a 44-year field study show that weatheringorganic matter. rates are already increasing because of global A group of soils that are particularly vulnerableto climate change are the peat soils. These are soils warming. However, the spatial patterns, temporalthat are dominantly composed of organic matterthroughout their whole depth. Already they have been trends, and controlling factors of the processes andunder threat because of drainage for use in cropproduction. Further drying out of the soils in a warmer reactions and their effects on different scales,drier climate with concomitant oxidation could lead tolosses of this important, highly productive soil type especially regional, continental, and global scales, are(Brinkman and Sombroek, 1996) so incurring largelosses of carbon and therefore contributing to a not fully understood at this time (Moosdorf et al., 2011).potential positive climate feedback. The most rapid processes of chemical orSoil Chemical Parameters mineralogical change under changing external conditions would be loss of salts and nutrient cations Climate – change induced accelerated soil- where leaching increases and salinization where netmineral weathering : Interest in soil-mineral upward water movement occurs because of increasedweathering has increased over recent years because evapotranspiration or decreased rainfall or irrigationof the possible effects of climate change on soil water supply. The clay mineral composition perproperties and environmental quality and food security; mineralogy of the coarser fractions would generallythe role soils play in controlling global C cycle; and change little, even over centuries but exceptions foundthe positive or negative feedback to a warming climate. regarding the transformation of halloysite formed underThe weathering of alkaline rocks, such as alkaline or perennially moist conditions subjected to periodic dryingalkaline earth silicates, is thought to have played an or the gradual dehydration of goethite to haematiteimportant role in the historical reduction of the under higher temperatures or severe drying, conditionatmospheric CO2 (Kojima et al., 1997), and will have or both. Changes in the surface properties of the clay fraction is generally slower than salt movement which take place much faster than changes in bulk composition or crystal structure. Such surface changes have a dominant influence on soil physical and chemical properties. Changes in the clay mineral surfaces or the bulk composition of the clay fraction of soils are brought about by a small number of transformation processes, listed below. Each of these processes can be accelerated or inhibited by changes in external conditions due to global change as: * Hydrolysis by water containing carbon dioxide, which removes silica and basic cations, may be accelerated by increased leaching rates

EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP NUTRITIO 5* Cheluviation, which dissolves and removes pressure of CO2 in the soil; this range is maintained especially aluminium and iron by chelating organic against leaching of basic cations by the different soil acids, may be accelerated by increased leaching processes as long as a few percent of finely distributed rates lime remain. Buffering in non-calcareous soils is less strong, but depends on the cation exchange capacity* Ferrolysis, a cyclic process of clay transformation at soil pH. In soils with variable-charge surfaces of and dissolution mediated by alternating iron the clay fraction, this decreases with acidification. reduction and oxidation, which decreases the cation exchange capacity by aluminium interlayering in It should be noted that the simple modeling of swelling clay minerals, may occur where soils are accelerated CaCO3 leaching under a doubled subject to reduction and leaching in alternation with atmospheric CO2 concentration generally does not hold oxidation: In a warmer world, this may happen over true. In most soils, the ongoing decomposition of larger areas than at present, especially in high organic matter maintains CO2 concentrations in the latitudes and in monsoon climates soil air far above atmospheric concentration even now, and CaCO3 solubility is determined by the partial* Dissolution of clay minerals by strong mineral pressure of CO2 in soil air and its activity in soil water, acids, producing acid aluminium salts and rather than in the atmosphere. Leaching of lime is thus amorphous silica e.g., where sulphidic materials positively related to rate of organic matter in coastal plains are oxidized with an improvement decomposition, negatively to gas diffusion rate, and of drainage; however, a rise in sea level would positively to amount of water percolating through the reduce the likelihood of this occurring naturally soil.* Reverse weathering, i.e., clay formation and In conditions where leaching is accelerated by transformation under neutral to strongly alkaline climate change, it would be possible to find relatively conditions, which may create, e.g., montmorillonite, rapid soil acidification after a long period with little palygorskite or analcime; it could begin in areas apparent change. The soil might in fact be steadily drying out during global warming and would depleted of basic cations, but, a pH change may start, continue in most presently arid areas. or may become more rapid, once certain buffering pools are nearly exhausted.Soil reaction (pH) Acidification, salinization and sodicity as related Most soils would not be subject to rapid pH to climate changechanges resulting from climate change. Exceptionsmight be found in potential acid sulphate soils, extensive While temperature increases are forecast forin some coastal plains and estuaries, if they become most parts, there is less certainty about precipitationsubject to increasingly long dry seasons. Eventhough, changes. Significant increases in rainfall will lead tomost of such soils are clays with moderate or high increases in leaching, loss of nutrients and increasingcation exchange capacity, the amounts of acid liberated acidification, depending on buffering pools existing inin such soils upon oxidation generally exceed this rapid soils. Direction of change towards increased leachingbuffering capacity. Therefore, pH values may or increased evaporation will depend on extent totemporarily reach 2.5 to 3.5 and a small part of the which rainfall and temperature change and consequentclay fraction may be decomposed. This then buffers changes to land use and its management. Inthe pH generally between 3.5 and 4 in the long run. either case, situation could lead to important changesDepending on the efficiency with which the excess in soils.acid formed can be leached out, the period of extremeacidity and aluminium toxicity may last between less Increased salinization and alkalization wouldthan a year and several decades. occur in areas where evaporation increased or rainfall decreased (Varallyay, 1994). Transient salinity In calcareous soils, soil reaction may range increases as capillary rise dominates, bringing saltsbetween about 8.5 and 7 depending on the partial

6 V. R. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAinto root zone on sodic soils. Leaching during episodic of soil. In most cases it determines agro-ecologicalrainfall events may be limited due to surface sealing. potential, biomass production of various natural andIncreased subsoil drying increases concentration of agro-ecosystems and hazard of soil and/or watersalts in soil solution. pollution. Conversely, severity of saline scalds due to Crop yields on soils in developing countriessecondary salinisation may abate as groundwater decrease exponentially with increasing aridity (Lal,levels fall in line with reduced rainfall; this development 2004). Soil moisture deficit directly impacts cropcould have significant impacts on large areas semi- productivity but also reduces yields through influencearid zones. In areas where salinity is a result of on availability and transport of soil nutrients. Droughtrecharge processes, salinization would increase if increases vulnerability to nutrient losses from rootingupstream recharging rainfall increased (Peck and zone through erosion (Gupta, 1993). Because nutrientsAllison, 1988). Increasing atmospheric CO2 are carried to roots by water, soil moisture deficitconcentration can reduce impact of salinity on plant decreases nutrient diffusion over short distances andgrowth (Nicolas et al., 1993). mass flow of water-soluble nutrients such as nitrate, sulfate, Ca, Mg and Si over longer distances (Mackay Anticipated impacts of climate change are and Barber, 1985; Barber, 1995).warmer conditions, increasing proportion of rainfall tooccur from heavy falls, increasing occurrence of Roots extend their length, increase their surfacedrought in many regions, increasing frequency of area and alter their architecture in an effort to captureintense tropical cyclones, rising sea levels and less mobile nutrients such as P (Lynch and Brown,frequency of extreme high seas. All these predicted 2001.). Reduction of root growth and impairment ofimpacts have direct relevance to coastal acid sulfate root function under drought conditions thus reducessoils landscapes, through either exacerbating sulfide the nutrient acquisition capacity of root systems.oxidation by drought, re-instating reductive Reductions in both carbon and oxygen fluxes and Ngeochemical processes or changing the export and accumulation in root nodules under drought conditionsmobilisation of contaminants. inhibit N fixation in legume crops (Gonzalez et al., 2001; Ladrera et al., 2007; Athar and Ashraf, 2008). Interaction of specific land management factors Drought alters composition and activity of soilsuch as man-made drainage will have a significant microbial communities like reduction of soil nitrifyingrole in how predicted impacts of climate change affect bacteria.these landscapes. Understanding potential impacts ofclimate change for coastal lowland acid sulfate soils Excessive precipitation causes significant sourceis particularly important, given utility of these areas of soil nutrient loss in developing countries (Tangfor agriculture and urban communities, their et al., 2008 and Zougmore et al., 2009.) like nitrateunique capacity to cause extreme environmental leaching (Sun et al., 2007). Agricultural areas withdegradation and sensitivity to climatic factors such as poorly drained soils or that experience frequent and /temperature and hydrology and susceptibility to sea- or intense rainfall events can have waterlogged soilslevel inundation. that become hypoxic. The change in soil redox status under low oxygen can lead to elemental toxicities ofSoil fertility and nutrient acquisition Mn, Fe,Al and B that reduce crop yields and production of phytotoxic organic solutes that impair root growth Climate change may have stronger or weaker, and function.permanent or periodical, favourable or unfavourable,harmful (sometimes catastrophic), primary (direct) or Hypoxia can also result in nutrient deficiencysecondary (indirect) impact on soil processes. Soil since active transport of ions into root cells is drivenmoisture regime plays a distinguished role. It by ATP synthesized through oxygen dependentdetermines water supply of plants, influences air and mitochondrial electron transport chain (Drew, 1988;heat regimes, biological activity and plant nutrient status

EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP NUTRITIO 7Atwell and Steer, 1990). Significant N losses can also climatic factors influencing soil erosion are rainfalloccur under hypoxic conditions through denitrification (amount, frequency, duration and intensity) and windas nitrate is used as an alternative electron acceptor (direction, strength and frequency of high intensityby microorganisms in the absence of oxygen (Prade winds), coupled with drying out of the soil. Land use,and Trolldenier, 1990). soil type and topography are other key factors. Soil warming can increase nutrient uptake from Increased rainfall processes, amounts and100-300 per cent by enlarging root surface area and intensities due to climate change lead to greater ratesincreasing rates of nutrient diffusion and water influx of erosion. Erosion will increase approximately 1.7 per(Ching and Barbers, 1979; Mackay and Barber, 1984). cent for each 1 per cent change in annual rainfall.Since warmer temperatures increase rates of The dominant factor related to change in erosion ratetranspiration, plants tend to acquire water soluble is amount and intensity of rainfall that falls in storm,nutrients (nitrate, sulfate, Ca, Mg primarily move rather than number of days of precipitation in a year.towards roots through transpiration-driven massflow) more readily as temperature increases. Linear relationship exists between precipitation volume and runoff like between precipitation and soil Temperature increases in rhizosphere can also erosion. A - 20 to 20 per cent increase in precipitationstimulate nutrient acquisition by increasing nutrient resulted in an estimated - 40 to 40 per cent change inuptake via faster ion diffusion rates and increased root runoff. From relationship between runoff andmetabolism (Bassirirad, 2000). However, any positive precipitation intensity and frequency, rainfall intensityeffects of warmer temperature on nutrient capture had greater effect than rainfall frequency on runoff.are dependent on adequate soil moisture. If under dry Each 1per cent change in precipitation amount resultedconditions higher temperatures result in extreme vapor in 2.5 per cent change in runoff if a change in intensitypressure deficits that trigger stomatal closure accounted for all change in amount; 1.28 per cent(reducing water diffusion pathway in leaves) change in runoff occurred if a change in frequency(Abbate et al., 2004), then nutrient acquisition driven accounted for all of the change in precipitation amountby mass flow will decrease (Cramer et al., 2009). and an average 1.97 per cent change in runoff occurred if a combination of change in intensity and frequency Emerging evidence suggests that warmer accounted for the change in precipitation volume.temperatures have the potential to significantly affectnutrient status (especially reduced P acquisition) The second dominant process related to erosionby altering plant phenology (Nord and Lynch, 2009). and climate change is biomass production. BiomassBesides, higher temperature accelerates SOC losses levels ill change under climate change due to changesfrom soil. in temperature, moisture and atmospheric CO2 levels and biomass ranks next to rainfall in terms of its impactOther soil degradative parameters on erosion rates (Nearing et al., 2004). Soil erosion and degradation : Soil erosion is The third major process of erosion rate changesmovement and transport of soil by various agents, under climate change and the wild card is land use.water, wind and mass movement; hence climate is a Detailed land use changes as a function of futurekey factor. Increase in soil erosion is strongly linked climates (both weather related and economicwith clearance of natural vegetation, to enable land climates) are nearly impossible to predict with anyused for arable agriculture and use of farming practices degree of accuracy.unsuited to land on which they are practised. Soil erosion by water is more widespread and its This, combined with climatic variation and a impact greater than that by wind. Climate change ispredicted increase in extreme weather events, has likely to affect soil erosion by water through its effectcreated ideal conditions for soil erosion. The main on rainfall intensity, soil erodability, vegetative cover and patterns of land use. General circulation models

8 V. R. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAindicate marked change in soil moisture regime for macro-organisms) indicators. Of the range of potentialsome areas and therefore changes also in soil indicators used to infer soil health status, soil carbonerodability, vegetation and land use. For many areas, is particularly important (Bruke et al., 1989) (Dalalthey also predict seasonally more intense drying out and Chan, 2001). Organic matter is vital because itcoupled with increased amounts and intensity of supports many soil processes that are associated withprecipitation at other times, conditions that could lead fertility and physical stability of soil across the variousto a large increase in rates of erosion by water. ecosystem services. In particular organic matter provides an energy source for microbes structurally Soil erosion occurs by wind transport of soil stabilizes soil particles, stores and supplied plantparticles by suspension, surface creep or saltation over essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus anddistances ranging from few centimetres to hundreds sulphur and provides cation / anion exchange forof kilometres. Wind erosion is particularly a problem retention of ions and nutrients. Carbon within theon sandy and organic soils where they are subject to terrestrial biosphere can also behave as either a sourceintermittent low moisture contents and periodic winds. or sink for atmospheric CO2 depending on landThose areas where climate change is predicted to lead management, thus potentially mitigating or acceleratingto more droughty soils under increasing temperatures the greenhouse effect. Cycling of soil organic carbonwill become increasingly vulnerable. is also strongly influenced by moisture and temperature, two factors which are predicted to Although, general circulation models have in the change under global warming. Overall, climate changepast have been unable to predict changes in wind speed will shift the equilibrium, both directly and indirectlyand frequency with any certainty, the latest models of numerous soil processes. These include carbon andare predicting increased summer continental drying nitrogen cycling, acidification, risk of erosion,and risk of drought in mid-latitude areas and an increase salinisation, all of which will impact on soil health.in tropical cyclone peak intensities in some areas, bothsets of conditions favouring an increase in soil erosion Climate change adaption measures related toby wind. agriculture soils Erosion is site-specific and different permutation To equip against any negative effect of climateof conditions can increase or decrease it. Regarding change, or against other extremes in externalsoil degradation through climate change, potential circumstances such as nutrient depletion or excessimpact of four main plausible climate scenarios on most (pollution), or drought or high-intensity rains, the bestimportant soil degradation process are summarized, that land users could do, would be:indicating their determining natural and anthropogenicfactors (Szabolcs, 1990; Varallyay, 1990; Varallyay,  To manage their soils to give them maximum2002; Varallyay, 1994). physical resilience through a stable, hetero- geneous pore system by maintaining a closed Overall impact of climate change on soil ground cover as much as possible;health: Soil quality could, in part, be viewed as a static(qualitative) measure of the capability of soil, whereas  To use an integrated plant nutrient management‘Soil health’ infers a dynamic state, where human system to balance the input and offtake ofimpact causes a shift in quality. There are numerous nutrients over a cropping cycle or over the years,potential indicators of soil quality / health. These while maintaining soil nutrient levels low enoughindicators can be categorised broadly as visual (e.g., to minimize losses and high enough to bufferrunoff, plant response, weed species), physical (e.g., occasional high demands.topsoil depth, bulk density, aggregate stability, crusting,compaction), chemical (e.g., pH, salinity, organic  Decision making regarding timing and type ofmatter action exchange capacity, contaminant agricultural operations used (minimum tillage)concentrations) and biological (e.g., activity of micro- and erosion control measures such as buffer strips could help reduce negative impacts on soil structure, erosion and runoff

EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP NUTRITIO 9 Soil moisture conservation measures such as understanding the complex interactions that take place mulching and minimum tillage could help minimise in the natural environment. increased crop irrigation needs in summer REFERENCES: Careful planning of amounts and timing of applications of fertilisers and pesticides ABBATE, P. E., DARDANELLI, J. L., CANTARERO, M. G., MATURANO, M., MELCHIORI, R. J. M. AND SUERO, E. E., Land management practices to increase SOM 2004. Climatic and water availability effects on water- content (addition of cereal straw, animal use efficiency in wheat. Crop Sci., 44: 474-483. manure, rotations) could help maintain SOM contents and avoid increased CO2 fluxes from ALLEN, J. R. L. H., BARKER, J. T. AND BOOTE, K. J., 1996. The soils. Correct farming techniques can sequester CO2 fertilization effect: higher carbohydrate carbon into soil and reverse GHGs created by production and retention as biomass and seed yield. agriculture. Processes to increase soil carbon can In: global climate change and agricultural production. be divided into three steps. direct and indirect effects of changing hydrological, pedological and plant physiological processes, Food The Earth’s climate system is changing – of that and Agricultural Organization of the Unitedwe are certain. Climate Change poses challenges in Nations, Rome, Italy .times to come with reference to scale and scope. Howclimate change will affect the nitrogen cycle and, in ATHAR, H. R. AND ASHRAF, M., 2008, Strategies for cropturn, how the nitrogen cycle will affect carbon improvement against salinity and drought stress : ansequestration in soils constitute a major research needs, overview. In: salinity and water stress: Improving cropas is a better understanding of soil water- CO2 level- efficiency, Ashraf, M., M.A. Ozturk and H.R. Athartemperature relationships. Knowledge of the response (Eds.). Springer, New York, USA.of plants to elevated atmospheric CO2 given potentiallimitations in nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus ATWELL, B. J. AND STEER, B. T., 1990, The effect of oxygenand how that affects soil organic matter dynamics is a deficiency on uptake and distribution of nutrients incritical need. There is also a great need for a better maize plants. Plant Soil, 122: 1-8.understanding of how soil organisms will respond toclimate change because those organisms are incredibly BARBER, S. A., 1995, Soil nutrient bioavailability: Aimportant in a number of soil processes, including the mechanistic approach. 2nd Edn., John Wiley and Sons,carbon and nitrogen cycles. All of these questions New York, USA.involved highly complex and interconnected systemsthat make it difficult to isolate a single variable, such BASSIRIRAD, H., 2000, Kinetics of nutrient uptake byas temperature or precipitation patterns, to reach roots: Responses to global change. New Phytol., 147:meaningful conclusions about how a change in that 155-169.single variable affects the system being studied.However, we do know that there is the potential for BEAULIUS, E., GODDERIS, Y., DONNADIEU, Y., LABAT, D.some undesirable things to occur as a result of climate AND ROELANDT, C., 2012, Nature Climate Change.change. There is the possibility that soils could 2: 346-349.contribute increasing amounts of greenhouse gases tothe atmosphere, losing their ability to act as a sink for BOT, A. AND BENITES, J. , 2005, The importance of soil organiccarbon as global temperatures increase, and there is matter Key to drought-resistant soil and sustainedthe chance that we will see negative impacts on the food and production. FAO Soils Bulletin 80, Foodphysical and chemical properties of our soils that are and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,essential for the production of food and fiber products. Rome.Therefore, it is critical that continued research intothese areas be supported, with the particular goal of BRINKMAN, R. AND SOMBROEK, W. G., 1996, The effects of global change on soil conditions in relation to plant growth and food production. In: Global climate Change and agricultural production: Direct and indirect effects of changing hydrological, pedological and

10 V. R. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMA plant physiological processes, Bazzaz, F. A. and In: Hatfield, J. L., and Sauer, T. J., editors, Soil W. G. Sombroek (Eds.). Food and Agriculture management: Building a stable base for agriculture. Organization, Rome, Italy. SSSA, Madison, WI. pp. 161–173.BRUKE, I. C., YONKAR, C. M., PARTON, W. J., COLE, C. V., KANG, Y., KHAN, S., MA, X., 2009, Climate change impacts FLACH, K. AND SCHIMEL, D. S., 1989, Texture, climate on crop yield, crop water productivity and food and cultivation effects on soil organic matter security - A review. Prog. Nat. Sci., 19, pp: 1665– content in US grassland soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 1674. 53: 800-805 KIRKHAM, M. B., 2011, Elevated Carbon Dioxide. CRC Press,CHANDER, S., 2012, Impact of climate change on insects. In: Boca Raton, FL. climate change impact, adaptation and mitigation in agriculture: methodology for assessment and KOJIMA, T., NAGAMANI, A., UENO, N. AND UEMIYA, S., 1997, application, Pathak, H. and P. K. Aggarwal (Eds.). Energy Convers Mgmt. Vol. 38, Supp. pp S4612-S466 Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. LADRERA, R., MARINO, D., LARRAINZAR, E., GONZALEZ , E. M. AND ARRESE-IGOR, C., 2007, Reduced carbonCHING, P. C. AND BARBERS, S. A., 1979, Evaluation of availability to bacteroids and elevated ureides in temperature effects on K uptake by corn. Agron. J., nodules, but not in shoots, are involved in the 71: 1040-1044. nitrogen fixation response to early drought in soybean. Plant Physiol., 145: 539-546CRAMER, M. D., HAWKINS, H. J. AND VERBOOM, G. A., 2009, The importance of nutritional regulation of plant LYNCH, J. P. AND BROWN, K. M., 2001, Topsoil foraging-an water flux. Oecologia, 161: 15-24. architectural adaptation of plants to low phosphorus availability. Plant Soil, 237: 225-237DALAL, R. C. AND CHAN, K. Y., 2001, Soil organic matter in rainfed cropping systems of the Australian cereal belt. MACKAY, A. D. AND BARBER, S. A., 1984, Soil temperature Aust. J. Soil Res., 39: 435-464. effects on root growth and phosphorus uptake by corn. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 48: 818-823DEFRA., 2005, Impact of climate change on soil functions. Final Project Report, Research and Development, MACKAY, A. D. AND BARBER, S. A., 1985, Soil moisture effect London, UK. on potassium uptake by corn. Agron. J., 77: 524-527DREW, M., 1988, Effects of flooding and oxygen deficiency MIHRA, P. K. AND RAKSHIT, A., 2008, Conequence of climate on the plant mineral nutrition. In: advances in plant change for Indian agricultural productivity and land nutrition, Tinker, E., P. B. Tinker and A. Lauchli (Eds.). use. Int. J. Agric. Environ. Biotechnol., 1: 160-162. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, Connecticut. MOOSDORF, N. J., HARTMANN, R., LAUERWALD, B., HAGEDORN, AND KEMPE, S., 2011, Atmospheric CO2 consumptionGONZALEZ, E. M., GALVEZ, L., ROYUELA, M., APARICIO-TEJO, P. by chemical weathering in North America. Geochimica M. AD ARRESE-IGOR, C., 2001, Insights into the Et Cosmochimica Acta, 75: 7829- 54. regulation of nitrogen fixation in pea nodules: Lessons from drought, abscisic acid and increased NEARING, M. A., PRUSKI, F. F., AND O’NEAL, M. R., 2004, photoassimilate availability. Agronomie, 21: 607-613. Expected climate change impacts on soil erosion rates: A review. J. Soil Water Conserv., 59: 43-50GUPTA, J. P., 1993, Wind erosion of soil in drought-prone areas. In: desertification and its control in the Thar, NICOLAS, M. E., MUNNS, R., SAMARAKOON, A. B. AND GIFFORD, Sahara and Sahel regions, Sen, A. and A. Kar (Eds.). R. M., 1993, Elevated CO2 improves the growth of Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur. wheat under salinity. Aust. J. Plant Physiol., 20: 349-360.HATFIELD, J. L., 2011, Soil management for increasing water use efficiency in field crops under changing climates. NORD, E. A. AND LYNCH, J. P., 2009, Plant phenology:Acritical controller of soil resource acquisition. J. Exp. Bot., 60: 1927-1937.

EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGES ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP NUTRITIO 11PATHAK, H., AGGARWAL , P. K. AND SINGH, S. D., 2012, Climate SZABOLCS, I., 1990, Impact of climate change on soil change impact, adaptation and mitigation in attributes: Influence on alinization and alkalization. agriculture: Methodology for assessment and In: Soils on a warmer earth: Effects of expected climate application. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, change on soil processes with emphasis on the tropics New Delhi, India. and sub-tropics, Scharpenseel, H.W., M. Schomaker and A. Ayoub (Eds.). Elsevier, Amsterdam, ThePECK, A. J. ANDALLISON, G. B., 1988, Groundwater and Salinity Netherlands. Response to Climate Change. In: Greenhouse: Planning for Climate Change, Pearman, G.I. (Ed.). TANG, J. L., ZHANG, B., GAO, C. AND ZEPP, H., 2008, Brill Archive, Melbourne, Australia. Hydrological pathway and source area of nutrient losses identified by a multi-scale monitoring in anPRADE, K. AND TROLLDENIER, G., 1990, Denitrification in the agricultural catchment. Catena, 72: 374-385 rhizosphere of rice and wheat seedlings as influenced by Plant K Status, air-filled porosity and substrate VARALLYAY, G., 1990, Consequences of climate induced organic matter. Soil Biol. Biochem., 22: 769-773 changes in soil degradation processes. Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Soil Science,QAFOKU, N. P., 2014, Overview of different aspects of climate August 12-18 1990, Kyoto, Japan. change effects on soils. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington. VARALLYAY, G., 1994, Climate change, soil salinity and alkalinity. In: Soil responses to climate change,QIAN, B., GREGORICH, E. G., GAMEDA, S., HOPKINS, D. W. AND rounsevell, M.D.A. and P.J. Loveland (Eds.). WANG, X. L., 2011, Observed soil temperature trends Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany. associated with climate change in Canada. J. Geophys. Res.: Atmos., (116).,10.1029/2010JD015012. VARALLYAY, G., 2002, Climate change and soil processes. Idojaras, 106: 113-121SUN, Y., SOLOMON, S., DAI , A. G. AND PORTMANN, R. W., 2007, How often will it rain? J. Clim., 20: 4801-4818 ZOUGMORE, R., MANDO, A. AND STROOSNIJDER, L., 2009, Soil nutrient and sediment loss as affected by erosion barriers and nutrient source in semi-arid Burkina Faso.(Received : January, 2017 Accepted : February, 2017)

Mysore J. Agric. Sci., 51 (1) : 12-20, 2017Grain Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.) - An Underutilized Crop Species for Nutritional Security and Climate Resilience NIRANJANA MURTHY AND J. S. ARUN KUMAR AICRN on Potential Crops, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru - 560 065 E-mail : [email protected] ABSTRACT Grain amaranth (Amaranthus sp.) belongs to the family Amaranthaceae and is categorized as pseudocerealin the list of underutilized crops. Sixty species of the genus Amaranthus are reported native to the New Worldand about 15 to the Old World and Australia. Grain amaranth was an ancient staple food crop for the nativeAztecs of South America till Spanish invasion, when maize was introduced which replaced grain amaranthgradually. With the awareness about its nutritional qualities, especially its higher protein and lysine content,grain amaranth started gaining importance and reemerged as one of the heath care crops in many countriesincluding India. In India, it is cultivated sporadically both in the hills as well as in plains covering states ofJammu and Kashmir in the north to Tamil Nadu in south. The Amaranth grain contains higher protein (14-16%)the common cereals like Rice, Wheat and Maize. The protein is also of higher quality due to the presence ofhigher lysine, an essential amino acid. In addition, Amaranth grain contains Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron andBeta-carotene, 6 to 10 per cent oil which is predominantly unsaturated (76%) and is high in linoleic acid.Amaranth oil was found to have 7 per cent squalene, a high priced material which is used in cosmetics. Being aC4 crop species, grain amaranth can produce higher biomass and is suited to survive and thrive in an environmentaffected by climate change. The potentiality of this underutilized crop for higher nutrition qualities and climateresilience is yet to be utilized to fuller extent.BY the year 2050, agriculture will have to meet the health consequences. At the same time, overweightfood and nutrition requirements of about 9 billion and obesity is becoming a recognized problem, evenpeople. Moreover, to maintain that level of productivity in low income countries. Around 43 million childrenindefinitely it must do so using environmentally under five years of age are overweight and more thansustainable production systems (Kahane et al., 2013). a billion adults, almost equal to the number of peopleModern agricultural systems that promote cultivation suffering from undernourishment worldwide, areof a very limited number of crop species have overweight, of which 300 million are obese. Therefore,relegated indigenous crops to the status of ‘neglected there is a need to enlarge our food basket withand underutilized crop species’ (NUS). From a total alternative food crops with high nutritive value and toof 352,000 known plant species, approximately 7,000 diversify our agricultural system with lesser known,have been used for human food since the origin of under-exploited species which are also adapted toagriculture. Out of these, only three crops viz., Rice, stressed environments and provide food and nutritionalWheat and Maize provide nearly 50-60 per cent of security to the ever growing population which is ofthe world’s plant-derived calories.This narrow level global concern. In this context, grain amaranth aof food crop cultivation and consumption may be a traditional underutilized crop species can play a crucialdisaster in terms of climate resilience, food and role to achieve food and nutritional security, sustainablenutritional security in the future. According to an FAO income generation and food culture of the rural poor.report, 925 million people were undernourished in 2010(FAO, 2010). Around 162 million children under the What are these Underutilized crop species?age of five in developing countries exhibit stuntedgrowth due to chronic under-nutrition and 148 million Underutilized is commonly applied to refer to thechildren are under weight. Micronutrient malnutrition species that have not been fully exploited. Plantis indeed affecting around 2 billion people (over 30 biodiversity represents the primary source for food,per cent of the world population) with serious public feed, shelter, medicines and many other products and means that make life on earth possible and enjoyable

GRAIN AMARANTH - AN UNDERUTILIZED CROP SPECIES FOR NUTRITIONAL SECURITY AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE 13(WCMC, 1992 ; UNEP, 1995). The term ‘underutilized Amongst these, only a few have been prioritized forspecies’ has been defined in a number of ways. scientific exploitation in a phased manner in India forThe Global Facilitation Unit (GFU) for Underutilized which an All India Coordinated Research ProjectSpecies defined UU species as those crop species (AICRP) on Underutilized and Underexploited Plants,with a potential, not fully exploited, to contribute to now rechristened as All India Coordinated Researchfood security and poverty alleviation and that tend to Network (AICRN) on Potential Crops, was initiatedhave common features like a strong link to cultural in 1982 under ICAR umbrella with the main objectiveheritage, poorly documented and researched, adapted of generating improved technology in selected cropsto specific agro-ecological niches, weak or non- of minor economic importance for food, fodder andexistent seed supply systems, traditional uses and industrial use. The Network Coordinating Unitproduced with little or no external inputs. This variation is located at the National Bureau of Plant Geneticin definitions suggests that the perception of utility of Resources, New Delhi. At present, the networkunderutilized species is not uniform. A species that is is conducting research on 17 crops of food, foddernot fully exploited today may be highly useful later, and industrial value through 13 main, 5 cooperatingsome time in the future. Underutilized species are and 5 voluntary centers located in diverse agro-climaticprobably best understood when they are considered zones of the country. The listed crops have beenwithin a specific locality and over a specific period of categorized in six groups which are 1) Pseudocerealstime. Hence, it is difficult to define just what qualifies (Grain Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), Buckwheatas an ‘underutilized species’. The terms such as (Fagopyrum esculentum) and Grain Chenopods /‘underutilized’, ‘neglected’, ‘orphan’, ‘minor’, Quinoa (Fagopyrum esculentum); 2) Minor Cereal‘promising’, ‘niche’ and ‘traditional’ are often used (Job’s Tears (Coix lacryma-jobi); 3) Food Legumesinterchangeably to characterize the range of plant (Rice Bean (Vigna umbellate), Faba Bean (Viciaspecies with under-exploited potential for contributing faba), Adzuki Bean (Vigna angularis) and Wingedto food security, health (nutritional / medicinal), income Bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus);4) Vegetablesgeneration and environmental services. A more diverse (Kankoda (Momordia dioca) and Kalingada; 5) Oilfarming system can facilitate more climate resilience, Seed Crops Perilla (Perilla frutescens), Simaroubaovercoming the loss due to biotic and abiotic stresses (Simarouba glauca), Tumba (Leucas spp.), Jatrophaand to improve food and nutrition security. (Jatropha curcas) and Ojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) and 6) Industrial Crop (Rubber (Hevea sp.). Agriculture production must be increased torespond to the demands of a growing world population The University of Agricultural Sciences,and the challenges posed by climate change. Higher Bengaluru Center was started in 1986 to work on threetemperatures, unpredictable rainfall and weather underutilized crops viz., Grain Amaranth, Rice Beanpatterns, changes in growing seasons, increased and Winged Bean. Quinoa was added to the list fromoccurrences of drought and extreme weather events last two years. Though, these crops have highwill exert a greater strain on agriculture. Emerging nutritional potentiality, still they are not grown by theevidence suggests that climate change will cause shifts farmers of Karnataka to a desired extent. The researchin food production and yield loss due to more on these crops is very limited. Apart from these,unpredictable and hostile weather patterns. A key research work on biofuel crops like, Jatropha andstrategy to adapt to a changing climate is the Simarouba is carried out through externally fundeddevelopment and promotion of underutilized crop projects both in UAS, Bengaluru and UAS, Dharwad.species. The accomplishments made with regard to these four underutilized crops viz, Grain amaranth, rice bean,Research network for underutilized crop species winged bean and Quinoa under AICRN on Potentialin India crops scheme are presented and the potential and importance grain amaranth as an underutilized crop About 70 species of underutilized, neglected and for nutritional security is discussed in detail.minor crops have been identified which may holdpromise in the Asia - Pacific region (Arora, 2002).

14 NIRANJANA MURTHY AND J. S. ARUN KUMAR For the last three decades, the University has pockets of Belgaum, Bagalkote, Bijapur and Bidardeveloped two varieties in Grain Amaranth viz., districts.‘Suvarna’ and ‘KBGA-1’of which ‘Suvarna’ is verypotential high yielding variety which is used as national Rebirth of Grain Amaranth as a Health Carecheck in All India Coordinated Varietal Trials. CropIn Rice Bean, one variety ‘KBR-1’ has beendeveloped and is due for release. As a minor pulse, The word “amaranth” in Greek meansRice Bean has multiple utility which can go very well “everlasting” and in fact, the crop has endured. Thein rice fallows and is an ideal crop for fodder and distinctly beautiful appearance of amaranth has helpedgreen manure purpose. In Winged Bean, variety to prevent the crop from slipping into obscurity.‘KBWB-1’has been developed. Though, Winged Bean The enchanting beauty of the vividly coloured leaves,has got high nutritive value and all parts of the plant stems and seed heads in an amaranth field is a sightcan be used, more efforts are required to popularize which evokes emotions that other crops cannot stirthis nutritive underutilized species. (Kauffman and Weber, 1990). Though, grain amaranth was an ancient staple food crop for the native AztecsGrain Amaranth of South America, its cultivation vanished after Spanish invasion who introduced maize crop which replaced Grain Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) belongs to grain amaranth gradually. However, after knowing thethe family Amaranthaceae and is categorized as biochemistry in the middle of the 20th century, thepsuedocereal in the list of underutilized crops. nutritional qualities, especially the higher protein andAmaranths are widely distributed throughout the old lysine content of Grain Amaranth was known andand new world. In India, these are cultivated both in the crop started gaining importance and re-emergedhills as well as plains covering states of Jammu and as one of the heath care crops in many countriesKashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, including India.Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland,Tripura, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Grain Amaranth as nutritionally potential cropOrissa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.The exactinformation about the statistics on area and production Amaranth has very high nutritional valuein India is lacking. However, as a grain crop it is (Saunders and Becker, 1983 ; Joshi and Paroda, 1991)estimated to be grown in about 30 - 40 thousand due to its protein quality and other nutrients.hectares. Amaranth has great potential to combat The nutritional composition of Grain Amaranth inclimate change and malnutrition. It is receiving attention comparison with other cereals is presented in thenow-a-days because of its high nutritional value, rapid Table I. It is also an excellent source of iron and betagrowth, adaptability to a wide range of climatic and carotene and thus can help in circumventing iron andsoil conditions (Chitra et al., 2016). Though, Grain vitamin A deficiency. Presence of higher amount ofAmaranth is grown in many states in India with varied folic acid also helps in increasing the blood hemoglobinproportions, the area under this crop in Gujarat is level. Amaranth can be an ideal crop with C4increasing, particularly in Banaskantha district where metabolism suited to survive and thrive in anthis crop competes with wheat and potato on account environment affected by climate change. The proteinof water scarcity. In Karnataka, the crop is grown as in amaranth seeds being of high quality, AMA-1’ geneAkkadi crop with other cereals sporadically in limited has been isolated from this crop and efforts were madeareas of Tumkur, Kolar, Chitradurga districts and in to introduce this AMA-1 gene into other important foodTribal hilly areas of Biligiriranagana Hills, Male crops like rice and potato.Mahadeshwara Hills of Chamarajanagar district ofsouthern Karnataka (Niranjana Murthy, 2013; Amaranth has multiple uses. Its tender leavesNiranjana Murthy et al., 2011). In northern Karnataka, are used as vegetable. The grains are used in variousit is grown as mixed crop with other cereals in few culinary preparations. Popped grains are used in the form of puddings or mixed with sugar syrup to make sweet balls (laddu), with honey to make flat round bread and with milk and sugar to make porridge. Its

GRAIN AMARANTH - AN UNDERUTILIZED CROP SPECIES FOR NUTRITIONAL SECURITY AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE 15 TABLE INutritional composition (per 100 gram) of grain amaranth in comparison with other cereals Food grain Protein Carbohydrates Lipid Crude Mineral Ca (mg) P (mg) Fe (mg) (g) (g) (g) fibre matterGrain Amaranth (g) 490 600 17.5Buckwheat 16.0 62.0 8.0 2.43 (g)Chenopodium 13.0 72.9 7.4 3.0 120 280 15.5Job’s tear 14.0 65.0 7.0 10.5Foxtail millet 11.4 73.5 3.5 7.0 2.1 47 457 4.5Maize 12.3 60.9 4.3 3.0 -- -Barley 11.0 66.0 3.5 -Wheat 11.0 69.0 1.3 8.0 0.8 31 290 5.0Rice 12.0 69.0 1.7 3.3 6.7 78.0 0.3 - 10 - - - 1.1 -- - 1.9 1.2 41 306 5.3 0.2 2.7 0.3 45 160 3.5 (Source : Joshi and Paroda, 1991) TABLE IIEssential amino acid composition (g/100g protein) in grain amaranth in comparison to other cereals and milk Food grain Lysine Methionine Cystine Isoleucine LeucineGrain Amaranth 5.0 4.0 4.0Buckwheat 6.2 1.6 1.6 3.0 4.7Foxtail millet 2.2 2.8 1.6Proso millet 3.0 2.6 1.0 3.7 6.2Wheat 2.8 1.5 2.2Rice 3.8 2.3 1.4 7.6 16.7Maize 2.9 3.4 3.4Barley 3.0 3.2 3.7 8.1 12.2Milk 5.8 3.7 2.1 3.3 6.7 3.8 3.2 4.1 13.0 4.0 7.5 5.0 7.3 (Source : Bhagmal, 1994)flour can be used for making chapattis when mixed alegria (happiness). A traditional Mexican drink calledwith maize and finger millet flour. Amaranth oil, atole is made from milled and roasted amaranth seed.containing ‘squalene’ a cosmetic ingredient and skin In India, A. hypochondriacus L. is known aspenetrant, is also used as lubricant for computer discs. rajgeera (the King’s grain) and is often popped to be used in confections called laddu, which are very The food value of grain amaranth was recognized similar to Mexican alegria. In Nepal, amaranth seedsby people from Mexico to Peru to Nepal long before are eaten as a gruel called sattoo or milled into a flourany, nutritional analyses had been conducted. Because to make chapattis (Singhal and Kulkarni, 1988).it is easy to digest, amaranth is traditionally given tothose who are recovering from an illness or a fasting During the last three decades, number ofperiod. In Mexico, grain amaranth is popped and mixed overviews have been published which provide a widewith a sugar solution to make a confection called

16 NIRANJANA MURTHY AND J. S. ARUN KUMARrange of information on the nutritional components, amaranth starch as a result of its distinctivedigestibility and potential problems that will be characteristics.encountered by those who intend to use grain amaranthas a food product (Becker et al., 1981; Teutonics and Amaranth grain contains 6 to 10 per cent oil, whichKnorr, 1985; Bressani et al., 1987a; Saunders and is found mostly within the germ (Betschart et al., 1981;Becker, 1984 and Pedersen et al., 1987). The most Lorenz and Hwang, 1985 and Garcia et al., 1987a). Itstudied nutritional aspect concerning the food value is predominantly unsaturated oil (76%) and is high inof grain amaranth is the identification of the limiting linoleic acid, which is necessary for human nutrition.amino acids of the protein component. The crude In analyses conducted at the USDA Western Regionalprotein content of selected light-seeded grain Research Center, amaranth oil was found to haveamaranths has been reported to range from 12.5 to 7 per cent squalene, which is much higher than the17.6 (Teutonico and Knorr, 1985, Becker et al., 1981, amounts found in other common vegetable oils.Lorenz and Gross, 1984, Sanchez Marroquin et al., Squalene, a high priced material, is usually extracted1986, Pedersen et al., 1987, Correa et al., 1986). from shark livers and used in cosmetics (Lyon andAmaranth grain is reported to have high levels of lysine, Becker, 1987).a nutritionally critical amino acid, ranging from 0.73 to0.84 per cent of the total protein content (Bressani Due to the fact that grain amaranth has high1987a). The limiting amino acid is usually reported to protein, as well as a high fat content, there is thebe leucine (Singhal and Kulkarni, 1988). Underutilized potential to use it as an energy food. Using milled andcrops (also known as understudied, neglected, orphan, toasted amaranth products, digestion and absorptionlost or disadvantaged crops) play an important role in was found to be high in human feeding studies (Moralesfood security, nutrition, and income generation of many et al., 1988). The balance of carbohydrates, fats, andresource-poor farmers and consumers especially in protein, allow amaranth the opportunity to achieve athe developing world (Massawe et al., 2015). balanced nutrient uptake with lower amounts of consumption than with other cereals. It has been noted The potential complimentary nature of amaranth (Morales et al., 1988) that high protein rice is the onlyprotein has been studied by combining amaranth with other cereal which has been cited to satisfy proteinwheat (Pant, 1985), sorghum (Pedersen, 1987) and and energy needs.maize (Tovar and Carpenter 1982 ; Sanchez Marroquinand Maya, 1985). Ordinary maize meal supplemented Animal feeding studies (Betschart et al., 1981;with as little as 12.7 per cent (by weight) of toasted Saunders and Becker, 1984) indicate relatively highamaranth flour provides a nutritionally superior source protein qualities. However, in some studies, weightof protein that can satisfy a good portion of the protein gains were much lower than would have beenrequirement of young children, and provide expected (Cheeke and Bronson,1980; Afolabi and Oke,approximately 70 per cent of diet energy (Morales 1981) for reasons that are not clear.et al., 1988). A combination of rice and amaranth in a1:1 ratio has been reported to approach the The digestibility and protein efficiency ratio areFAO / WHO protein specifications (Singhal and improved if the grain is heat processed (BressaniKulkarni, 1988). et al., 1987b; Garcia et al., 1987b; Mendoza and Bressani, 1987; Pant 1985 and Sanchez-Marroquin The starch component of amaranth is distinctive. et al., 1985). The removal of lectins by heat processingThe starch granules are polygonal, measure 1 to 3 has been reported to improve the protein efficiencymm in diameter, and have a high swelling power(Stone ratio of the amaranth flour (Singhal and Kulkarni,and Lorenz, 1984). There is a distinctive gel 1988). There are a number of viable methods forcharacteristic to the starch (Yanez et al., 1986). Waxy processing, including popping, flours milled fromand non-waxy starch granules have been identified toasted grain, heat-rolled flakes, extrusion, and wet(Konishi et al., 1985). Interest has been expressed in cooking as a gruel. Excessive thermal processing hasspecialized food and industrial applications for been shown to reduce the quality of amaranth grain (Bressani and Elias, 1986). The potential for reducing

GRAIN AMARANTH - AN UNDERUTILIZED CROP SPECIES FOR NUTRITIONAL SECURITY AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE 17nutritional quality is most evident when amaranth grain Amaranth which produces a large amount of biomassis processed using hot dry heat (as in toasting or in a short period of time, can be used as a forage croppopping). An interesting application for amaranth is to for domesticated animals. In China, amaranth has beenuse it as a food for people with allergies to other grains. cultivated expressly for use as forage for cattle. ThereThe seed of grain amaranth is not a grain from a cereal are several cuttings made per growing season. Littleplant, but is rather a pseudocereal from a is known about actual water requirements of graindicotyledonous plant. It is unrelated to any other food amaranth. Observations in many test plots and farmers’crops that are commonly consumed, which makes it fields suggest that grain amaranth is drought tolerantless likely to cause problems to people who have built at later stages of growth. Residual soil moisture isup allergies due to repeated consumption of the same needed to assure that emergence occurs. Researchersfoods. Grain-free recipes which include amaranth flour in China have reported that the water requirement forhave been published (Jones, 1984). In the USA, many growing grain amaranth is 42 - 47 per cent that ofamaranth products are being produced by specially wheat, 51 - 62 per cent that of maize and 79 per centcompanies which cater to the health-conscious market. that of cotton. Kenyan farmers in regions with marginalAmaranth has been successfully processed in rainfall plant amaranth rather than maize because theycombination with other grains to produce cold, believe there is less risk of a crop failure (Gupta, 1986)breakfast cereals. It is also being used for mixes that Observations indicate that amaranth in the coastalare used to prepare hot breakfast cereals and pancakes. desert of Peru requires half the irrigation required byIn addition, there are breads, crackers and pastes on corn (Sumar, 1986).the market. Popped amaranth grain continues to attractconsiderable attention. The popped grain provides Modern prospects for Grain Amaranthopportunities for processors to develop innovativeproducts. The cultivation of grain amaranth is now in the process of expanding in a number of countries. Over Grain amaranth is a new crop that is in its the past 25 years, there have been some well-executedadolescence. The cultivation and utilization of grain projects in which researchers, farmers and foodamaranth will continue to increase as more information processors have invested imagination, time and moneyis developed to exploit the market niches for high on this crop in China (Sun and Hongliang, 1987). Therequality protein foods. has been increasing interest in grain amaranth in the international community. A number of conferences forAmaranth as a crop for sustainable development the promotion of the crop have been held in 1977, 1979.of agriculture Conferences were hosted in Mexico in 1984 and 1986, with presentation of papers from individuals The search for new crops, which produce both representing 19 different Mexican institutions. In 1987,food and energy, together with the development of an annual amaranth conference was initiated in theappropriate technology, is becoming a matter of People’s Republic of China to bring togetherparamount importance. Amaranth could be researchers in over 22 provinces (Sun, 1987). Also incharacterized as a high-energy multipurpose C4 plant, 1987, The University of La Pampa in Argentina hostedfits the bill as a true 4F crop (Food, Feed, Fuel and a national conference on amaranth, with papersFiber) as well as being a short cycle, drought and salinity presented by 17 researchers (Actas de lastolerant crop. The amaranth agro-environmental system Primerasjornadas Nacionales Sobre Amarantos, 1987).is a key link in the sustainable production of agriculture.It will play an important role in healthy food as well as The American Amaranth Institute (AAI), whichenvironmental protection in the next century. Amaranth has been organized to help promote research andis one of few plants, which becomes a model plant development, is working closely with many of theand of great interest for many researchers around the research institutions. The AAI is also working withworld. Crop husbandry methods for amaranth have Crop Improvement Associations to develop standardsbeen researched in many countries, where its several for amaranth seed certification. The synergism of thespecies have been cultivated from many centuries.

18 NIRANJANA MURTHY AND J. S. ARUN KUMARcompleted and on-going projects at RRC, the domestic In grain amaranth, harvest and postharvestand international institutions, and the AAI has provided handling is very difficult because of small sized seeds.a wealth of information and experiences for modern There is high degree of seed shattering and lodgingfarmers to draw on as they initiate commercial occurs at maturity. This makes the crop lessproduction. Farmers are developing innovative productive. Hence, there is need to develop genotypestechniques to find ways to produce grain amaranth with bold sized seeds, non-shattering, dwarf and non-economically. As a result of their ingenuity, the supply lodging types. There is a major problem in grindingof commercially available amaranth has increased to amaranth grains in normal grinders and non-availabilitythe point where several food companies are producing of popping machine restrict full utilization of grainamaranth products which can be purchased in many amaranth as food and value added products. There isstores in the USA. The cultivation of grain amaranth need to address these issues to popularize the use ofis now in the process of expanding in a number of grain amaranth.countries. In USA, it is considered as one of the HealthCare Crops. The drought tolerant characteristics of Strategies to promote underutilized crop speciesamaranth make it a prospective dryland crop for including grain amaranthfarmers in semi-arid areas. The rising demand foramaranth food products will require a substantial The work on underutilized species is perhaps theincrease in amaranth production during the coming most challenging endeavour in the history of plantyears. genetic resources since the early 1970s, a period that witnessed a world race to rescue of landraces of majorResearch issues to be addressed in grain crops. Such a chain of actors, which is needed at local,amaranth regional, national and international level, will allow covering research aspects but also marketing and Neglected and underutilized crops are essential policy issues usually dealt with in isolated fashion. Theto the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers throughout Networking concept for plant genetic resources basedthe globe. They are part of the biological assets of the on more efficient partnership and participatoryrural poor. In identifying research and development approaches is needed. At local level, the first andissues, it is essential to approach the problem from foremost task is to create awareness with consumersthis perspective. Strengthened community involvement on the nutritional potential of UU Crops to promotein the management of underutilized crops and a the regular consumption in different value added forms.deliberate attention to resourcing their needs for new Though, the cultivation of UU crops is simple the cropsmaterials and securing access to existing ones will need to be made more remunerative. It is necessaryprovide a basis for some more work on key production to work out the stability of UU crops in differentissues. The first of these is obviously that of the cropping systems. The key strategic element for largedevelopment of improved materials. Participatory plant scale promotion of UU crops is linking cultivation andbreeding approaches may not only be an important use, in order to secure the resource base of theseelement of the work on these crops; it may be the crops. For this, linkages are to be established amongonly feasible approach to obtain improved materials. producers, traders, processors, consumers and otherSimilarly, participatory approaches may be essential formal and informal sectors. The food processingto resolve other production and marketing constraints. industries, Millers and Bakers should come forwardUltimately, we have to recognize that underutilized to promote the blend the products of UU Crops socrops present their own range of problems and that market link can be established. From the point ofopportunities. New technologies like molecular genetics crop improvement, the UU crops need better attentionand GIS will certainly play their part in the process of from the researchers and funding agencies.There aredeveloping conservation and use strategies. There is many underutilized food and non-food plant species,also much work to be done on the development of having good potential to contribute to the income ofsustainable linkages between organizations, farmers farmers (Hegde, 2007). There are many underutilizedand consumers. crops that have potential to consider for promoting

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20 NIRANJANA MURTHY AND J. S. ARUN KUMARKAHANE, R., HODGKIN, T., JAENICKE, H., HOOGENDOORN, C., SANCHEZ-MARROQUIN, A. AND MAYA, S.,1985, Industrial corn HERMANN, M., KEATINGE, J. D. H., ARROS, J., PADULOSI, flour enrichment with whole amaranth flour and milling S. AND LOONEY, N., 2013, Agrobiodiversity for food fractions in corn-based products. Archives security, health and income. Agron. Sustain. Dev., Latinoamericanos de Nutricion., 35(3) : 518 - 535. 33(4) : 671-693. SANCHEZ-MARROQUIN, A., DOMINGO, M. V., MAYA, S. ANDKAUFFMAN, C. S. AND WEBER, L. E., 1990, Grain amaranth. SALDANA, C., 1985, Amaranth flour blends and In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.), Advances in new fractions for baking applications. J. Food Sci. crops. Timber Press, Portland. 50 : 789 - 794.KONISHI, Y., NOJIMA, H., OKUNO, K., ASAOKA, M. AND SANCHEZ-MARROQUIN, A., F. R. DEL VALLE, ESCOBEDO, FUWA, H.,1985, Characterization of starch granules M., AVITIA, R., MAYA, S. AND VEGA, M., 1986, Evaluation from waxy, nonwaxy, and hybrid seeds of Amaranthus of whole amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) flour, its hypocyondriacus L. Agric. Biol. Chem. 49(7) : air-classified fractions, and blends of these with wheat 1965 - 1971. and oats as possible components for infant formulas. J. Food Sci., 51 : 1231 - 1234, 1238.LORENZ, K. AND GROSS, M.,1984, Saccharides of amaranth. Nutrition Reports International., 29 : 721 - 726. SAUER, J. D., 1967, New Crops. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 54 : 103 - 137.LORENZ, K. AND HWANG, Y. S.,1985, Lipids in amaranths. Nutrition Reports International, 31 : 83 - 89. SAUNDERS, R. M. AND BECKER, R. 1983, Amaranthus, In: Advances in cereal science and Technology [(ed.)LYON, C. K. AND BECKER, R.,1987, Extraction and refining of Y. Permerenj], American Association of Cereal oil from amaranth seed. J. Amer. Oil Chem. Soc., 64 : Chemistry, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. 233 - 236. SAUNDERS, R. M. AND BECKER, R.,1984, Amaranthus: AMASSAWEA, F. J., MAYESA, B. S., CHENGA, A., CHAIA, H. H., potential food and feed resource. In:Adv. Cereal Sci. CLEASBYA, P., SYMONDSA, R., HOA,B, W. K., Tech. 6 : 357 - 396. SIISEA, A., WONGA, Q. N., KENDABIEC, P., YANUSAA, Y., JAMALLUDDINA, N., SINGHA, A., AZMANB R. AND AZAM- SINGHAL, R. S. AND KULKARNI, P. R., 1988, Review : ALIA, S. N., 2015, The Potential for Underutilized Crops Amaranths-an underutilized resource. Int. J. Food Sci. to Improve Food Security inthe Face of Climate Tech., 23 : 125 - 139. Change. Procedia Environmental Sci., 29: 140 – 141. STONE, L. AAND LORENZ, K.,1984, The starch of Amaranthus:MENDOZA, C. AND BRESSANI, R., 1987. Nutritional and Physics-chemical propertiesand functional functional characteristics of extrusion-cooked characteristics (Amaranthus cruentus, Amaranthus amaranth flour. Cereal Chem., 64 : 218 - 222. hypochondriacus). Starke, 36(7) : 232 - 237.MORALES, E., LEMBCKE, J. AND GRAHAM, G. G., 1988, Nutritional SUMAR K., PACHECO, N. AND AQUIRRE, J., 1986, Chemical vs. value for young children of grain amaranth and organic fertilization of grain amaranth. In: Proc. maize-amaranth mixtures: effect of processing. J. Nutr. Third Amaranth Conf, Rodale Press, Inc., 118 : 78 - 85. Emmaus, PA.NIRANJANA MURTHY, 2013, GrainAmaranth – AWonder Grain SUN AND HONGLIANG, 1987, Amaranth cultivation for better Nutrition andHealth. Vatika from the Seed technologies (in Chinese). Chinese Acad. Ag. Sci. and Plant People, 2 : 2 - 7. Beijing.NIRANJANA MURTHY, CHIKKADEVAIAH AND SHIVANNA, H., 2011, TEUTONICS, R. A. AND KNORR, D.,1985, Amaranth : Prospects, status and future breeding strategies for Composition, properties, and applications of a crop improvement of Underutilized crops in Karnataka. rediscovered food crop. Food Tech., 39(4) : 49 - 61. In Souvenir of National Seminar on Contemporary Approaches to Crop Improvement held from 22nd – TOVAR, L. R. AND CARPENTER, K. J., 1982, The effect of alkali 23rd. 68 - 73. cooking of corn and supplementation with amaranth seed on its deficiencies in lysine andPANT, K. C., 1985, Effect of heat processing (popping) on tryptophan. Archives Latino americanos protein nutritional quality of grain amaranth. Nutrition deNutricion, 32 : 961 - 972. Reports International., 32 : 1089 - 1098. YANEZ, G. A., MESSINGER, J. K., WALKER, C. E. AND RUPNOW,PEDERSEN, B., KALINOWSKI, L. S. AND EGGUM, B. O.,1987, J. H., 1986, Amaranthus hypochondriacus: Starch The nutritive value of amaranth grain (Amaranthus isolation and partial characterization. Cereal Chem. caudatus). 1. Protein and minerals of raw 63: 273 - 276. and processed grain. Qualitas Plantarum., 36(4) : 309 - 324.(Received : January, 2017 Accepted : February, 2017)

Mysore J. Agric. Sci., 51 (1) : 21-26, 2017Mungbean Production under a Changing Climate - Insights from Growth PhysiologyH. BINDUMADHAVA, R. M. NAIR, H. NAYYAR, J. J. RILEY AND W. EASDOWN World Vegetable Center, South Asia, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru-502 324 E-mail : [email protected] ABSTRACT Global climate change may result in reducing available water and a rise in air temperatures. All thesechanges will be major limiting factors to future sustainable food and vegetable production largely in the tropicsand subtropics. These changes impact the overall growth and development dynamics of crop species andunderstanding the physiological responses involved holds the key to estimating ‘cause-effect’ relationshipsbetween environment and yields. To address this critical challenge, the World Vegetable Center, South Asia, isexploring physiology based screening approaches for identifying elite mungbean accessions for high temperaturetolerance under field and controlled growth conditions. Promising selections have been further subjected toelevated CO2 environments to determine their physiological responses, growth and yield abilities to help selectlines with greater adaptability to the likely climates of the future.THE threat of global warming may pose significant resilient crops. The reproductive stage includesadverse challenges for present vegetable production flowering through to seed and pod set. Heat stresssystems (Peet and Wolfe, 2000). There is mounting disrupts this process mainly due to the loss of pollenevidence that smaller farmers in developing countries viability, pollen germination, poor anther dehiscence,are experiencing increased climate change variability the landing of pollen on the stigma surface and(indeed linked to higher greenhouse gas emissions). subsequent germination through the style. Heat stressShifts in ecological and agro-economic zones, land also causes stigmatic surfaces to lose receptivity alongdegradation, reduced water availability, rises in sea with poor ovule viability. However, the malelevels and increased soil salinization will pose threats components of the pollination process are affectedfor cultivating traditional vegetables in tropical and more than the female components (Kaushal et al.,subtropical parts of the world (Johkan et al., 2011). 2013). Therefore, targeting the superior functioningDeveloping countries in these parts will be particularly of pollen grains to achieve a successful seed and podvulnerable and India is no exception (Chatterjee and set in heat stressed plants appears to be a vital trait toSolankey, 2015; Bhardwaj, 2012). The yields of many develop heat tolerant crops (Kumar et al., 2013).vegetables are sensitive to higher temperatures and Oxidative damage to leaves also increases manifoldwater deficits, but their vulnerability to yield under heat stress in chickpea (Kumar et al., 2013)depressions would be further compounded by climate resulting in damage to leaf tissue and photosyntheticchange. Rising temperatures are going to be a critical ability. High temperatures accelerate seed filling, whichfuture issue for agriculture. Various food crops results in reduced seed size and weight, and reducedincluding legumes are likely to be adversely affected yields (Awasthi et al., 2014). A reduction in carbonby elevated temperatures (Gaur et al., 2015). fixation coupled with decreased sucrose productionTherefore, it becomes imperative to screen the existing and its transport to the developing flowers and seedsgermplasm of food legumes such as chickpea, lentil was found to be a critical limiting factor under heatand mungbean for their responses to high temperature stress in chickpea (Awasthi et al., 2014). The nitrogenstress to explore the sources and mechanisms of heat fixation ability of legumes has considerable agriculturaltolerance. and ecological significance, which can be influenced by heat stress. The soil surface heats up markedly, The reproductive stage is the most sensitive to which may influence the nodulation process directlyrising temperatures resulting in loss of buds, flowers by affecting the rhizosphere. The maintenance of theand pods that impact seed yield. Hence, heat tolerance photosynthetic function of the leaves is vital under heatat the reproductive stage is crucial to developing stress- stress to sustain the synthesis and transport of sucrose

22 H. BINDUMADHAVA et al.and other molecules to these organs (Awasthi et al., (Anon., 2014). As increasing CO2 concentrations in2014). The flowers, seeds and roots depend upon the the atmosphere are known to be the principal driverleaves to import sucrose, amino acids and other of climate change (Bhardwaj, 2012), it is important tomolecules for the reproductive function, seed fillingand nodulation. More work is required to identify assess their effects on plant growth and developmentlegume genotypes with superior nodulation ability underheat stress. (Sigut et al., 2015; Peet and Wolfe, 2000). Carbohydrates synthesized during photosynthesis There may be several reasons for impairedreproductive growth and inhibited seed yield due to provide the necessary energy source for plant growth,heat stress. A loss of chlorophyll concentrations andphotosynthetic functions in leaves appear to occur and but, the photosynthetic function under highthese effects are exacerbated in combination with temperatures and light intensities is limited by thedrought stress (Kaushal et al., 2013; Awasthi et al.,2014). While, the production of flowers in different ambient CO2 concentration. Increated photosynthesisgenotypes varies under heat stress, a reduction in pod under elivated CO2 can increas dry matter productionset occurs in all studied cases. Impaired reproductive (Taiz and Zieger, 2015).function leads to poor pod set, directly due to theinhibited development of microspores and megaspores This CO2 fertilizer effect is used commerciallyor indirectly due to inhibited sucrose availability to to stimulate crop growth in greenhouses and othergametes, or both (Kaushal et al., 2013). controlled environments using elevated CO2 In this review, an attempt has been made by the concentrations (Lobell and Gourdji, 2012). This effectWorld Vegetable Center (World Veg) to assess the is more pronounced in C3 crops, such as rice, wheat,possible impact of climate change on the plant legumes (e.g., soybean, mungbean etc.) but, less sometabolism and associated physiology of mungbean.WorldVeg maintains the world’s largest collection of in C4 crops (e.g., maize, millet and sugarcane). While,mungbean germplasm and the crop is cultivated on the present CO2atmospheric level limits photosynthesisover 6 million hectares in warmer regions of the world. in C3 plants, higher CO2 levels will activate the rateIt is one of the most important high protein food limiting enzyme RuBisCO, for carboxylation, leadinglegumes in South and Southeast Asia, particularly in to accelerated biochemical reactions (Bindumadhavathe Indian sub-continent which accounts for almost45 per cent of global production. As a short duration et al., 2011; Sheshshayee et al., 1996). This initial(60-65 days) legume, it has wide adaptability with lowinput requirements (Nair et al., 2012). However, its jump is temporary, due to feedback inhibition andproductivity is very low in India, Bangladesh and incompetent functional sinks. However, C4 plantsPakistan. Poor crop management is exuberated by a avoid this effect with a built-in CO2 concentrationharsh growing climate and abiotic stresses such as ability in the vascular bundles of mesophyll cells (Taizhigh temperatures at flowering and increasing soil and Zieger, 2015). Thus, if the CO2 level is doubled,salinity (Kaur et al., 2015; Bindumadhava et al., 2016). the photosynthesis of only C3 plants increase by 35- 50 per cent (Johkan et al., 2011). However, thisPhysiological responses to changing CO2 response may be only short-term, and the responseconcentration in the environment under long-term exposure to elevated CO2 may be Global climate models predict that by 2100 there less which is often the case when photosyntheticwill be a gradual increase in atmospheric CO2 production exceeds plant growth (Nakano et al., 1997;concentration from current levels of around 400 ppmCO2 to a maximum of as much as 550 ppm and an Sigut et al., 2015).increase in average global temperatures of 2.2oC In most crops, increased CO2 improves water use efficiency due to the higher carbon fixation function triggered by photosynthesis and declining stomatal conductance, potentially decreasing drought susceptibility and reducing water requirements. When substrate CO2 is high, it prevents stomatal control of its diffusivity between outside and inside the leaves (Bindumadhava et al., 2011). However, the effect of decreased transpiration on vegetable crop yields is unlikely to be large since vegetables are irrigated in

MUNGBEAN PRODUCTION UNDER A CHANGING CLIMATE - INSIGHTS FROM GROWTH PHYSIOLOGY 23most production areas (Anon., 2004). However, It results in a scorching effect leading to mild to severephysiological disorders such as tip-burn in lettuce, browning of leaves. Leaf damage intensifies due toblossom-end rot in tomato and bell-pepper, are oxidative damage and a reduction in anti-oxidativesometimes associated with excessive transpiration and defenses (Kumar et al., 2013). The roots, flowers andtissue water deficits (Rogers and Dahlman, 1993). seeds depend on the leaves to supply sucrose, and other molecules for nodulation growth, reproductive Temperature increases will occur concurrently function and seed filling. Hence, maintenance of thewith a CO2 increase and both interact closely (Idso photosynthetic function of the leaves is vital under heatet al., 1987). High temperature affects the stress to sustain synthesis and the transport of sucrosephotosynthetic functions and causes irregularities in to these organs (Awasthi et al., 2014). Sucrose, is setCO2 physiological processes. For instance, in tomato, to decrease in leaves and seeds owing to heat stressoverall productivity is reduced by high temperatures conditions, which may be linked to reduced RuBisCOdue to bud drop, abnormal flower development, activity and sucrose synthesizing enzymes. Heat stressdehiscence and viability, ovule abortion, poor viability affects sucrose production in leaves and impairs itsand reduced carbohydrate availability (De La Peña transport to developing reproductive sinks (Kaurand Hughes, 2007). Some universal strategies to et al., 2015). It also reduces nitrogen fixation, byameliorate the effects of global warming on food heating up the soil surface hampering nodulation andproduction include the development and use of heat- affecting rhizosphere activity, thus, reducing thetolerant varieties, appropriate nutrient and water nodules in mungbean roots (Kumar et al., 2013).management, coordination of growing periods, and the Photosynthesis may be inhibited as a result of loss ofcontrol of pests/diseases. In particular, the use of heat- chlorophyll, disruption of electron flow and reducedtolerant crops and pest/disease control are perhaps CO2 assimilation (Sinsawat et al., 2004). At a cellularthe most promising approaches (Johkan et al., 2011). level, heat stress leads to membrane damage, enzymeAny useful effect of elevated CO2 might be offset by inactivation in mitochondria and chloroplasts, impairedthe adverse global warming effect. Increased protein synthesis and carbon metabolismtemperatures accelerate many physiological processes (Hasanuzzaman et al., 2013).viz., photosynthesis to an upper limit. Extremetemperatures can be harmful beyond the physiological Mungbean physiology efforts at WorldVeg, Southlimits of a plant (Lynch and Lande, 1993). Temperature Asia, Indiadistresses vegetable crops in several ways byinfluencing crop duration, flowering, fruit growth, Starting in February, 2015 WorldVeg initiated aripening and quality. Since vegetables are basically study on mungbean to explore the dual effect of highsucculent and usually consist > 90 per cent of water, temperature with elevated CO2 levels. A total of 45drought stress, mostly at critical periods of growth, elite mungbean accessions representing genotypeswill drastically reduce productivity and quality from different sources in India were used. Agronomic(Chatterjee and Solankey, 2015). Nonetheless, it is and physiological traits were assessed along with finalsuggested that indeterminate types are less sensitive pod and seed yields in both a walk-in growth houseto periods of heat stress since the time of flowering and in field conditions. Sets of accessions were sowncould be extended compared with determinate types at two planting times, in the last week of March(Hall and Allen, 1993). Under heat stress, the reported (normal-sowing) and the last week of April (lateeffect of elevated CO2 on photosynthesis and growth sowing) when day / night temperatures during mostare however highly variable and differ among functional of the reproductive phase were >40 / 25°C (producinggroups of plants (Wang et al., 2012; Sigut et al., 2015; heat stress for the later sowings). The response ofBindumadhava et al., 2017. these accessions to higher temperatures (during peak growth and the reproductive stages in the late sowing) Heat stress has detrimental effects at several was determined over the whole growth and productionplant levels leading to drastic reductions in growth and cycle. Change in growth behaviour (reduced leaf area,yield (Bindumadhava et al., 2016; Wahid et al., 2007). tip burning, accelerated chlorosis) was noticed in late

24 H. BINDUMADHAVA et al.sown plants. Further a change in pattern of both pod Container-grown plants of 10 mungbean accessionsand seed size and morphology was also observed(Fig. 1). However, we found the effect of heat stress were placed randomly inside OTCs for growth and Normal sown genotypes yield assays (maintained at three CO2 concentrations; 390 ppm, 550 ppm and 700 ppm). Changes in growth VC6173 B-10 EC 693369 VC6372(45-8-1) EC 693370 ML 818 rates and yield traits were measured regularly up toLate sown genotypes final harvest. Among the accessions, an appreciable increase in growth traits (plant height ~ 45 %, leaf area ~ 52%, total dry matter ~ 78%) in both elevated levels of CO2 (550 and 700 ppm) was observed along with increased yield traits (pod yield ~ 78% & seed yield ~ 45%) (Fig. 2). Among the two CO2 levels, 550 ppm had more pronounced effect on growth and yieldabVC6173-B10 EC 693369 VC6372 (45-8-1) EC 693370 ML 818Fig. 1. Pod (a) and seed (b) morphology of a few selected Fig. 2. Per cent increase in growth and yield traits of CO2 mungbean accessions from normal and late sown enriched plants over ambient CO2 (control) across season (see the heat induced changes in pod shape, all mungbean accessions [(PH- Plant Height, LA – size and length in late-sown genotypes; for details Leaf Area, TDW – Total Dry Weight, Pod yield (pod refer Sharma et al., 2016) weight/plant) and Seed yield (seed weigh/plant)].was more pronounced on pod morphology than the attributes than 700 ppm. Exposure to 550 ppm CO2seed, which needs to be confirmed in subsequent resulted in 12-13 days early maturity in a fewexperiments. Similar pattern was reported in chickpe accessions. Subsequent assays are underway toas (Kumar et al., 2013; Kaushal et al., 2013). Based examine the physio-biochemical efficiencieson sustained growth, physiology (photosynthetic contributing to the differential response of CO2efficiency, chlorophyll function, stomatal & fertigation in heat tolerant accessions. This is perhapstranspiration efficiency, functional water relations), the first information in mungbean on assessing thereproductive status (flowering initiation, effective growth and yield responses of promising heat tolerantnumber of flowering clusters, resistance of flower accessions to elevated CO2 conditions. It offers usefulabortion, pollen germination & viability, stigma clues towards developing a growth model to addressreceptivity) and final yield traits (number of pods, pod future climate challenges.setting, pod and seed yield/plant), ten putative hightemperature tolerance accessions were identified for Climate change is predicted to have a majorfurther investigation (Sharma et al., 2016). impact on agriculture and horticulture. Knowing the possible effects of increasing air temperatures and CO2 To simulate future climate change scenarios, on annual vegetables and legume crops can help tothese selected accessions were exposed to elevated select lines that will be more adapted to theseCO2 environments to determine their growth and yield conditions. In this study, it was found that 9-10responses. They were grown in Open Top Chambers(OTC) at the controlled climate management facilityat the ICRISAT campus in Hyderabad, India.

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26 H. BINDUMADHAVA et al.KUMAR, S., THAKUR, P., KAUSHAL, N., MALIK, J.A., GAUR, P. SHARMA, L., MANU PRIYA, BINDUMADHAVA, H., NAIR, R. M. AND NAYYAR H., 2013, Effect of varying high temperatures during reproductive growth on AND HARSH NAYYAR, 2016, Influence of high temperature reproductive function, oxidative stress and seed yield in chickpea genotypes differing in heat sensitivity. stress on growth, phenology and yield performance of Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science, 59: 823-843. mungbean [Vignaradiata (L.) Wilczek] under managedLOBELL, D. B. AND GOURDJI, S. M. 2012, The influence of growth conditions. Scientia Horticulture, 213: 379-391. climate change on global crop productivity. Plant Physiology. 160: 1686-1697. SHESHSHAYEE, M. S., KRISHNAPRASAD, B. T., NATARAJ, K. N.,LYNCH, M. AND LANDE, R.,1993, Evolution and extinction in SHANKAR, A. G., PRASAD, T. G. AND UDAYAKUMAR, M., 1996, response to environmental change. In huey, raymond B: Kareiva, Peter M: Kingsolver, Joel G. Biotic Ratio of intercellular CO2 concentration to stomatal Interactions and global change sunderland, mass: conductance is a reflection of mesophyll efficiency. sinauer associates. Current Science, 70 (7): 672-675.NAIR, R. M., SCHAFLEITNER, R., KENYON, L., SRINIVASAN, R., SIGUT L. PETRA, H., OVA´, KLEM, K. MIRKA, S. CARLO, C. EASDOWN, W., EBERT, R.W. AND HANSON, P., 2012, Genetic improvement of mungbean. SABRAO J. Breed. Genet, MICHAL V. M., VLADIMİ, R. S. AND URBAN, O., 2015, Does 44: 177-190. long-term cultivation of saplings under elevated CO2NAKANO, H., MAKINO, A. AND MAE, T., 1997, The effect of concentration influence their photosynthetic response elevated partial pressures of CO2 on the relationship to temperature? Annals of Botany, 43:1-11. between photosynthetic apacity and N content in rice leaves. Plant Physiology, 115 (1): 191-198. SINSAWAT, V., LEIPNER, J., STAMP, P. AND FRACHEBOUD, Y., 2004,PEET, M. M. AND WOLFE, D.W., 2000, Crop ecosystem Effect of heat stress on the photosynthetic apparatus responses to climate change: Vegetable crops. CAB International. Climate change and Global crop in maize (Zea mays L.) grown at control or high productivity (Eds. K. R. Reddy and H. F. Hodges). temperature. Environmental and Experimental Botany,ROGERS, H. H. AND DAHLMAN, R.C., 1993, Crop responses to 52: 123–129. CO2 enrichment. Vegetation, 104. 105: 117-31. TAIZ, L. AND ZEIGER, E., 2015, Plant physiology (6th edition). Sinauer associates press, sunderland, MA, USA. WANG, D., HECKATHORN, S. A, WANG, X. AND PHILPOTT, S. M., 2012, A meta-analysis of plant physiological and growth responses to temperature and elevated CO2. Oecologia, 169: 1-13. WAHID, A., GELANI, S., ASHRAF, M. AND FOOLAD, M. R., 2007, Heat tolerance in plants: an overview. Environ. Exp. Bot., 61:199-223.(Received : January, 2017 Accepted : February, 2017)

Mysore J. Agric. Sci., 51 (1) : 27-44, 2017 Microbial Inoculants for Agriculture under Changing Climate SNEHA S. NAIR, PRAMOD KUMAR SAHU AND G. P. BRAHMAPRAKASH Department of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Agriculture, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru - 560 065 E-mail : [email protected] ABSTRACT Risk in agriculture has been extended manifolds due to climate change. Small and medium scale farming aremuch affected by unpredictable weather conditions arising from climate change. Various strategies are beingdeveloped to face this challenge such as developing varieties with flexible sowing time, short duration crops,anti-transpirants, new tolerant varieties, etc. Among these, microorganisms too have a significant role in mitigatingstresses arising out of climatic change. Upon inoculation, these microbes confer benefits to the plants for withstanding the adverse climatic conditions. The benefit can be easily extended to small and large scale farmers byinoculation. Microorganisms are known to confer protection against draught, heat, flood, frost, salinity, etc.Inoculation of effective micro organisms in sufficient quantity with good survival and rhizo competence maximizesthe crop success in adverse climate. Several formulations of microorganisms are reported to confer protectionagainst adverse conditions of storage and field. This review deals with such biofertilizer formulations which arehaving potential to contribute to climate smart agriculture along with various stress alleviation by microorganisms.Liquid and alginate based inoculant formulations have been discussed in detail with its ability to perform inadverse climate. This review also covers novel inoculant formulations which can perform under unpredictableweather conditions.AGRICULTURE is one of the most vulnerable sectors to (Deangelis et al., 2015) etc. One such example is theclimate change as it may accentuate the vulnerability second year mortality of subterranean clover inin food security. Alterations of atmospheric carbon western Australia (Chatel et al., 1968) which resulteddioxide concentration, temperature, water scarcity, primarily from the number of Rhizobium trifolii TA1salinity and other biotic stresses have led to altered falling off in the second and subsequent years. Theplant growth rates, yields and productivity. Most major cause of this die off was traced to a water solublestudies fail to address the ability of associated soil microbial toxin found in soils drying out after a lightmicro-organisms to shift their range to maintain their rain. The problem was solved by re inoculating therelationship with plant (Van Der Putten, 2012). fields with survived strains of R. trifoli.Relative to above ground plant structures, soils arebuffered to changes in climate which invariantly affects Nearly all tissues within a plant are inhabited bythe soil biota. For this reason, the direct stress plants a variety of microorganisms. They not only deployare facing may be different from what their associated many mechanisms to survive stress conditions but alsosoil community is experiencing. Over the due course confer the same benefits to crop productivity and hostof time plants have developed several mechanisms to stress resistance. These associations can alter thecombat abiotic stresses, but it eventually leads to crop expression of plant traits such as leaf area and nutrientloss. One globally available adaptive opportunity found content (Harris et al., 1985; Bishop et al., 2011;in the soil is its microbial component. Microorganisms Friesen et al., 2011). Root symbionts such as rhizobiaoften have close associations with plant roots (Bais (De Bello et al., 2010) and mycorrhizal fungi (Johnsonet al., 2006). Microbial mutualists influence its host et al., 1997) also affect plant productivity by alteringperformance. plant nutrient status. Microbial communities respond to climate change Eventhough, the direct effects of climate changethrough resistance or resilience (Allison and Martiny, on soil community call for concern, the indirect effect2008). The direct effects of climate change includes mediated by plant community shifts are consideredaltering microbial soil respiration rates (Bradford, 2013), more important as they may cause the soilincreased bacterial to fungal ratio of the community communities to change their distribution in the soil

28 SNEHA S. NAIR et al.profile which can ultimately lead to change in Mechanisms of bacteria-mediated stressecosystem functions such as nitrification, tolerance in plantsdenitrification etc. (Isobe et al., 2011; Bakken et al.,2012). Changes in the relative abundance of organisms Stress limits crop growth and productivity.that regulate specific processes can have direct impact Microorganisms may deploy certain mechanisms toon rate of that process. Therefore it is essential to alleviate plant stress. Table 1 summarizes the studiesmonitor and maintain the microbial properties of soil published, to date, on bacterial effects on plants underto enhance host stress tolerance. abiotic stress in relation to stress type, bacteria involved and the plant species to which they were The rhizosphere, with its high microbial diversity, applied.is a vital source of beneficial plant growth-promotingrhizobacteria that could be screened and developed Plants exposed to environmental stresses, showinto potential microbial inoculants for sustainable an altered change in root morphology which may beagriculture. One of the most important problems due to the production of phytohormones. Lowhowever is the inconsistency in the field performance concentration of these hormones may promote rootof Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) growth but in excess lead to inhibitory effect. Forinoculants under stress conditions. Therefore it is example under stress conditions, the plant hormoneessential that we develop novel strain specific ethylene endogenously regulates plant homoeostasismicrobial inoculants that can withstand extremes of and results in reduced root and shoot growth. In theclimate change, thereby contributing to mitigation of presence of ACC deaminase producing bacteria, plantstress in host plants. ACC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate), the immediate precursor of ethylene, is sequestered andMicrobes in mitigating climate stress degraded by rhizospheric bacterial cells to supply nitrogen and energy. Thereby the bacteria reduce the Microorganisms are known to survive in extremes deleterious effect of ethylene, ameliorating plant stressof temperature, drought, pH, salinity, heavy metal and promote plant growth (Glick et al., 2007).toxicity etc. by deploying various adaptive featuresthrough complex regulatory processes. These Yet, another mechanism of bacterial stressmicroorganisms may exist as free-living in soils or tolerance is by altering the cell envelope composition.attached to the surface of roots or phyllosphere, and Microbial polysaccharides (EPS) can bind soil particlesmay establish symbiotic relations with plants to form aggregates. Plants treated with EPS producing(endophytes), wherein, they colonize various plant bacteria have shown to display an increased resistancetissues. to water stress due to improved soil structure (Sandhya et al., 2009). EPS can also bind to cations including Wellstudied of these symbionts include the sodium thus making it unavailable to plants under salinemycorrhizal fungi and root-nodulating bacteria and conditions.plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPM).These organisms confer stress resistance via diverse It is reported that proline produced by PGPR alsomechanisms. These may include production of protects higher plants against salt / osmotic stresses,osmoprotectants (glutamate, trehalose, proline) to not only by adjusting osmotic pressure but also bymodulate cytoplasmic osmolarity; production of stabilising many functional units such as complex IIexopolysaccharides, production of heat shock proteins electron transport and enzymes (Makela et al., 2000).and cryoprotective protectants. Investigations have Proline also helps the plant cell by stabilising subcellularshown that certain microbial species and / or strains structures such as membranes and proteins,specifically, rhizospheric microorganisms enhance plant scavenging free radicals and buffering cellular redoxtolerance to abiotic stresses by triggering some potential under salt stress to alleviate salt stressmechanisms that help the plant to tolerate stress (Yang (Ashraf and Foolad, 2007; Kohler et al., 2009).et al., 2009). PGPR also mitigate the impact of stress on plants through the production of cytokinins, which causes the

MICROBIAL INOCULANTS FOR AGRICULTURE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATES 29 TABLE I Reference Microorganisms involved in stress mitigationType of stress Crop Microorganism Mechanism involved Sunflower Pseudomonas putida P45 Improved soil aggregation Sandhya et al. (2009) due to EPS production Grover et al. (2010) Naveed et al. (2014)Drought Clover Bacillus megaterium Production of indole acetic Juan et al. (2016)Salinity and Glomus sp. acid and proline Bano and Fatima (2009)Temperature Maize Burkholderia IAA production, Qurashi and phytofirmans PsJN and Sabri (2011) Enterobacter sp. FD17 Chang et al., (2014) Tomato and Pseudomonas putida Trehalose biosynthesis Shaik et al. (2011) pepper KT2440 Grover et al. (2010) Maize Rhizobium, Pseudomonas Decreased electrolyte leakage, increase in proline production, maintenance of relative water content of leaves, and selective uptake of K ion Lens Oceanobacillus biofilm formation, esculenta profundus (Pmt2) and exopolysaccharide Var. masoor 93 Staphylococcus production and endogenous saprophyticus (ST1) osmolyte (proline and glycine betaine) Barley and oats Acinetobacter spp. and Production of ACC deaminase Pseudomonas sp. and IAA Wheat Pseudomonas putida Reduced membrane injury AKMP7 and the activity of several antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, APX and CAT Grape wine Burkholderia Increase in the levels of phytofirmans PSJN starch, proline and phenols.accumulation of abscisic acid (ABA) in leaves, which mutualistic fungi including Arbuscular Mycorrhizain turn results in the closing of stomata (Figueiredo (AM), may confer tolerance to drought, metals,et al., 2008). Similarly, trehalose metabolism in rhizobia disease, heat and / or promote growth and nutrientis also important for improving plant growth, yield and acquisition. Thus mycorrhizae-plants symbiosis can beadaptation to abiotic stress of leguminous plants harnessed for climate smart agriculture as it provides(Suarez et al., 2008). plant nutrients and improves soil properties (Mukhongo et al., 2016). It is also known to improveFungal endophytes phosphate nutrition by mobilizing it from distant parts to the roots. Similarly, it enhances zinc, ammonium, Fungal symbionts have been found to be calcium, iron, sulfur, manganese and copper availabilityassociated with most plants in the ecosystem, where to the plants (Harikumar and Potty, 2007; Hu andthey colonize and reside entirely or partially in the Rufty, 2007).internal tissues of their host plant. Collectively,

30 SNEHA S. NAIR et al. Drought affected areas are especially benefitted enhance plant heat stress tolerance of Arabidopsisfrom mycorrhizal symbiosis as it improves water thaliana through induction of HSP101 and HSP70absorption from soil and mitigates negative effects of (McLellan et al., 2007).draught in plants growth (Smith et al., 2010; Jayneand Quigley, 2014). It also improves soil structure by B. Drought toleranceparticle binding (Rilling and Mummey, 2006) and thus,very important in stabilizing degraded soils in both Drought stress limits crop growth andsubsistence and commercial farming. Arbuscular productivity, especially in semi arid regions. As amycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis provides excellent response to water deficit, plants increase the synthesisbiocontrol of many plant pathogens (Elsen et al., 2001; of osmolytes (proline), thus increasing the osmoticForge et al., 2001; Harrier and Watson, 2004). AM potential within cells (Farooq et al., 2009). Similarly,fungi inoculation were also shown to decrease the compounds exudated by root zone bacteria also includeleaf content of malondialdehyde and soluble protein such osmolyte which can act synergistically withand enhance activities of superoxide dismutases plant produced osmolytes in response to the stress,(SOD), peroxidasse (POD) and catalase (CAT) and this way, increase drought tolerance. Elevatedresulting in improved osmotic adjustment and drought proline levels have been reported to confer drought intolerance of mycorrhizal citrus grafting seedlings (Wu plants. Sandhyaet al. (2011) screened Bacillus sp.and Xia, 2005). (B amyloliquefaciens, B. licheniformis, B. thuringiensis, Paenibacillus favisporus, B. subtilis) AM colonization by Glomus intraradices has for drought tolerance and plants inoculated with thesebeen shown to contribute substantially to the flood bacteria showed reduced activity of antioxidanttolerance of Pterocarpus officinalis seedlings by enzymes concluding that Bacillus spp.inoculated maizeimproving plant growth and phosphorus acquisition in could alleviate drought stress negative effects.leaves. Salt resistance was improved by AMcolonization in maize (Feng et al., 2002), mung bean Pseudomonas sp, a very common PGPR has(Jindal et al., 1993) and clover (Ben Khaled et al., also been extensively used for mitigating stress in2003) due to improved osmoregulation or proline plants. Physiological modifications in soybean plantsaccumulation. AM inoculation has also shown to inoculated by the gibberellins secreting rhizobacteriumimprove NaCl resistance in tomato, with extent of Pseudomonas putida H-2–3 was shown to improveimprovement related to salt sensitivity of the cultivar plant growth under drought conditions (Kang et al.,(Al-Karaki et al., 2001). 2014). The stress hormonal analysis revealed a lower level of abscisic acid and salicylic acid and a higher Besides AMF, endophytic symbiont dark septate level of jasmonic acid content in plants with microbialfungi (DSF) are also found in plants growing under application. Under stress condition the bio-stressed environments. Piriformospora indica, a inoculant, P. putida H-2-3 was also shown to modulatebiotrophic mutualistic root endosymbiont has been plant antioxidants by declining superoxide dismutase,reported to mimic capabilities of typical arbuscular flavonoids and radical scavengingactivity. P. putidamycorrhizal (AM) fungi. This fungus can colonize roots H-2-3 induced tolerance against abiotic stress wasof a wide range of higher plants and help plants in confirmed by a reduction of sodium content in abioticnutrient uptake, disease resistance, stress tolerance stressed plants.and growth-promotion (Unnikumar et al., 2013).P. indica has been reported to modulate major AM fungi are yet another important candidatesantioxidant defense enzymes monodehydroascorbate of plant growth promotion under stress conditions.reductase and dehydroascorbate reductase (Hamilton Inoculation of Glomus versiforme in citrus plants wereet al., 2012) and the other components of shown to improve the osmotic adjustment of the plantROS-scavenging system (Waller et al., 2005; Sun under drought stress through enhanced levels of non-et al., 2010) Another rhizosphere fungus structural carbohydrates, K, Ca and Mg ions resultingParaphaeosphaeria quadrisept ata was shown to in the enhancement of drought tolerance (Wu and Xia, 2006).

MICROBIAL INOCULANTS FOR AGRICULTURE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATES 31C. Tolerance to high soil salinity leading to poor yield and productivity. When plants are exposed to below-freezing temperatures (-2 and Plant exposure to salinity stress causes increase -5oC), the majority of frost-sensitive plants usuallyin water stress, ionic influx, oxidant imbalance, suffer from damage. When water gets this cold, watermembrane disintegration, cell division impairment, and turns into ice inter and intracellularly. Pseudomonasfruit development. syringae expresses a particular type of surface protein, ice-nucleation protein (INP), which increases Endophytic symbiosis with host plants especially temperatures at which water freezes (Burke et al.,in roots can regulate and change the uptake of mineral 1976). The introduction of an ice-minus strain ofnutrients, balance of plant hormones, exudation of P. syringae to the surface of plants would reduce thedefensive metabolites from root (Khan et al.,2013; amount of ice nucleate present and thereby protectBashan et al., 2014). Nadeem et al. (2007) found that plants from frost injury up to a certain extent.inoculation of salt-stressed maize with ACC deaminasecontaining Pseudomonas syringae, Enterobacter Under chilling temperatures bacteria produceaerogenes and P. fluorescens resulted in higher K+ / cold shock proteins (CSP) which has nucleic acidNa+ ratios in combination with high relative water, binding activity, sufficient for their function as RNAchlorophyll and low proline contents. Increased total chaperones. The expression of these bacterial CSPssoluble sugar (TSS) content of plants under salinity (Csp A and Csp B) were shown to improve tolerancestress is another important defence strategy to cope of transgenic rice, maize and arabidopsis plants to awith salinity stress, and Upadhyay et al. (2012) showed number of abiotic stresses including cold, heat andthat an increased proline and total soluble sugar in the water deficit resulting in improved yields under fieldPGPR-treated wheat plants significantly contributed conditions (Castiglioni et al., 2008).to their osmotolerance. Bacteria can also survive under low temperatures Salt stress has also been shown to affect by the production of antioxidant enzymes and proline.nodulation during Phaseolus– Rhizobium interaction. Subramanian et al. (2016) selectively isolated 40However, secondary inoculation of the salt-stressed psychrotrophic bacterial isolates belonging to theplants with Azospirillum caused an extended genera Arthrobacter, Flavimonas, Flavobacterium,exudation of plant flavonoids compared to Rhizobium Massilia, Pedobacter and Pseudomonas and treatedalone, implying an induction of flavonoid genes in the tomato plants with the selected isolates which exhibitedpresence of Azospirillum (Dardanelli et al., 2008). significant tolerance to chilling as observed throughThus, the co-inoculation of plants with different reduction in membrane damage and activation ofbacterial species may contribute to relieving abiotic antioxidant enzymes along with proline synthesis instress. the leaves when exposed to chilling temperature conditions (15°C). They concluded that psychrotolerantD. Tolerance to extreme temperatures physiology of the isolated bacteria combined with their Temperature extremes present a stress condition ability to improve germination, plant growth and induce antioxidant capacity in tomato plants could be employedfor plants. Some bacterial species and strains affect to protect plants against chilling stress.plant tolerance to high temperature. Pseudomonassp. strain NBRI0987 has shown to cause D. Other stressesthermotolerance in sorghum seedlings, throughsynthesis of high molecular weight proteins in leaves Growth and development of a plant requiresthus increasing the plant biomass (Grover et al., 2010). uptake of inorganic ions into their systems as they playInoculation of wheat seeds with Serratia an important role in their physiological and metabolicmarscescens, strain SRM, and Pantoeadispesa, strain functions. However, accumulation of heavy metals in1A increased the seedlings biomass and nutrients an undesirable proportion has shown to causeuptake at low temperatures. cytotoxic, genotoxic and mutagenic effects on plants as well as microbes. Chilling temperatures are equally hazardous tothe plant community as crop may develop frost injuries

32 SNEHA S. NAIR et al. Studies show that some rhizobateria can exude increased labor, necessity for a sterilizing unit, anda class of rhizobateria secretion, such as antibiotics aseptic procedures during packaging etc. continue to(including the antifungals), phosphate solubilization, be major drawbacks of carrier based inocula.hydrocyanic acid, indoleacetic acid (IAA), Moreover microbial population in carrier based inoculasiderophores, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid show less tolerance to stress during storage due to(ACC) deaminase which increase bioavailability and absence of stabilizing agents, which ultimately leadsfacilitate root absorption of heavy metals, such as Fe to short shelf life. Now-a-days new inoculants(Crowley et al., 1991) and Mn (Barber and Lee, 1974), technologies such as polymer entrapped inoculants andenhance tolerance of host plants by improving the P liquid inoculants are gaining popularity due to theirabsorption (Davies et al., 2001) and promote plant longer shelf life and are being replaced as angrowth. alternative to carrier based inoculants especially in this climate changing scenario. The rhizosphere, with its high microbial diversity,is a vital source of beneficial plant growth-promoting A. Polymer entrapped inoculantsrhizobacteria that could be screened and developedinto potential microbial inoculants for sustainable The concept behind polymer entrapped inoculantagriculture. However, one of the most important is encapsulating microbial cells in a polymer matrix.problems is the inconsistency in the field performance This provides protection to microbial cells from externalof PGPR inoculants under stress conditions. Therefore, stresses. Polymer entrapped inoculants are slowit is essential that we develop novel strain specific releasing, which provides slow but continuous supplymicrobial inoculants that can withstand extremes of of microbial cells to the environment (Bashan, 1986;climate change, thereby contributing to mitigation of Kitamikado et al., 1990). The microbial cells entrappedstress in host plants. in polymer matrix are released in soil after degradation by the soil microbes in presence of water. These2. Inoculants of microorganisms polymers have been demonstrated as potential carriers of bacterial cells (Deaker et al., 2004). This technique Erratic changes in climate have led to loss of soil has been used for many plant growth promoters likenutrients which call for some essential amendments Aspergillus brazilens and Pseudomonas fluorescensin soil with regard to soil health. Microorganisms (Bashan, 1986) for field inoculation. These formulationsrespond to climate change through a variety of encapsulate the living cells and protect it against manymechanisms, but, most importantly, they can positively environmental stresses. Different inert materials wereinteract with the plants and help them in mitigating evaluated as carriers like polyacrylamide gel, alginatestress. The major concern here lies in the population etc. (Singleton et al., 2002).of these beneficial microbes in soil. Soil enrichmentwith beneficial organisms paves the way to a cost Alginate is one of the most commonly usedeffective and eco-friendly approach in conserving soil polymers for microbial encapsulation. It ishealth. commercially extracted from seaweeds like giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), Ascophyllum nodosum, The success of inoculation technology depends Laminaria, etc. (Yabur et al., 2007). It is alsoon two factors such as the microbial strain and produced by bacteria like Pseudomonas andinoculants formulation. In practical terms, formulation Azotobacter (Remminghorst and Rehm, 2009).determines potential success of inoculants (Fages, Alginate is polymer of â-1,4-linked D-mannuronic acid1992). Formulation should essentially consist of viable and L-glucoronic acid. It is extracted in form of sodiumbacterial population in a suitable carrier stabilized with alginate (sodium salt of alginic acid). Qualities like slowadditives for longer shelf life (Xavier et al., 2004). releasing, bio-degradable and non-toxic nature makesInitially carrier based inocula were prepared using solid it advantageous to be used for climate smart inoculantcarrier of choice, such as, peat, lignite, talc etc. Though, formulation (Fages, 1992; Kitamikado et al., 1990).there are reviews of successful field results using Alginate formulation containing plant growth promotingcarrier based inoculum, a higher cost of production,

MICROBIAL INOCULANTS FOR AGRICULTURE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATES 33bacteria Azospirillum brasilense and Pseudomonas also, alginate formulation were found superior overfluorescens (Fages, 1992) was successfully used in other formulations like liquid and charcoal basedwheat plants under field conditions and found inoculant in maize plants (Trivedi et al., 2005).comparable with other carrier based inoculants(Bashan et al., 1987). Survival of inoculant in polymer entrapped beads depends on water activity (aw) of the product. Mugnier It has also been reported to enhance colonization and Jung (1985) had shown that water activity is oneof wheat roots by beneficial cells than that of direct of the key factor on survival of bacteria, fungi andsoil inoculation. This proves that slow releasing yeast in polymer matrix. They investigated thatmicrobial inoculants from alginate beads are more formulation shows a constant survival for a period ofefficient as the microbial cells are in protective more than three years if water activity of product isenvironment and doesn’t get killed quickly upon below 0.069. Similarly, survival decreases if waterapplication. Alginate based formulation also have been activity rises above 0.069. This result clearly indicatesprepared for encapsulating arbuscular mycorrhizal that reduced water availability in the polymer metrics(AM) fungi (Vassilev et al., 2005) ectomycorrhizal provides protective effects to the microbial cells. Usefungi (Le Tacon et al., 1985), Frankia inoculation of high molecular weight compounds in growth media(Sougoufara et al., 1989), phosphate solubilizing which doesn’t affect osmolarity of the cell givesbacteria (Bashan et al., 2002), Azospirillum sp. protective effects.(Fages, 1990), bacterial biocontrol agents (Aino et al.,1997) and fungi (Fravel et al., 1985). Dry beads of alginate are excellent in protecting microbial inoculants in dry weather. It gives anPolymer entrapped formulation and climate excellent survival of inocula over a long period. In achange long term experiment, alginate beads containing Azospirillum brasilense and Pseudomonas In tropical, low input agriculture there is always fluorescens were found live even after 14 years ofuncertainty of rainfall and prolonged dryness prevails ambient temperature storage. A significant number ofafter sowing and microbial inoculation. Rainfed areas cells (105-106 CFU g-1 beads) survived after 14 yearsare suffering from erratic rainfall due to climate (Bashan and Gonzalez, 1999). This makes a perfectchange. The conventional agricultural practice is not choice for using it for microbial inoculation in changingmatching with rainfall and moisture availability. climate where rainfall is uncertain. It can survive forProlonged dry spells after sowing and application of longer period and release inocula to the plant when itmicrobial inoculants are one of the major causes of germinates.ineffective microbial inoculation. In such conditions,alginate beads can be a formulation of choice as Notable advantages and disadvantages ofcompared to peat, lignite or other powder formulation. polymer entrapped formulation (Sahu and Brahmaprakash, 2016) Alginate based formulation found supportinghigher populations and prolonged survival of microbial Advantagesinoculants even at elevated temperature of 40°C duringstorage (Viveganandan and Jauhri, 2000). Alginate - It releases microbes gradually (Digat, 1991)entrapped inoculant formulations are desiccated anddue to reduced water activity microorganisms will be - Can be stored at ambient temperatures for longon slow metabolism rate. It protects inoculant microbes periods (Bashan, 1998)from harsh environmental condition and releases themslowly into environment upon degradation. The - Easy to produce and handle (Bashan, 1998)degradation of beads requires water, which coincideswith germination of seeds. The perfect timing of release - Non-toxic in nature (Fages, 1992)of microbes to emerging root zone is always beneficialfor an inoculant formulation. At lower temperatures - It provides consistent batch quality (Bashan and Gonzalez, 1999) · It can be manipulated easily according to the need (Bashan and Gonzalez, 1999)

34 SNEHA S. NAIR et al.- can be amended with nutrients to improve Pseudomonas putida. It had improved cell survival the survival of the bacteria upon inoculation for longer time and nitrogenase activity. Polymer (Bashan, 1998) entrapped cells of B. polymyxa were tested for viability till 160 days and found promising (Ali et al., 2005).- It temporarily protects the encapsulated Apart from increasing performance of alginate microorganisms in the harsh soil environment and formulation, some cheaply available materials were microbial competition (Bashan and Gonzalez, 1999) also used for reducing the total formulation cost. Materials like rock phosphate, bentonite clay, talc,Disadvantages gypsum, lignite, cement, granite powder, etc. which adds to bulkiness of formulation (Fages, 1990). Apart- Expensive as compared to peat based formulation from adding bulkiness to the formulation amendments (Bashan, 1998) can improve chemical, physical and nutritional aspects of formulation in prolonged storage period (Schisler- It needs more industrial handling (Fages, 1992) et al., 2004). Addition of enriching material like trehalose, maltose and sucrose help in enhancing the- Labour intensive (Bashan and Gonzalez, 1999) viability of inoculant (Brar et al., 2006).- The low oxygen transfer inside bead may limit A. Micro alginate beads the survival of inoculum. The efficiency of alginate beads has been Like every other inoculant formulation, polymer improved further by preparing micro alginate beadsentrapped formulation also has its own pros and cons. (John et al., 2011). It is powder like formulationThere is incessant research going on for improving containing small beads encapsulating a sufficientperformance of formulations with lower contamination, number of bacteria in it. Seed coating with thesehigher shelf life, higher effectiveness, economic microbeads result in a uniform coating of inocula closeproduction process, etc. to seed surface. It is especially beneficial for small seeded crops and reduces off-site drift duringAmendments in alginate based polymer application (Cassidy et al., 1996). Micro alginate beadsformulation are produced by mixing alginate solution with rich bacterial broth and its spray into slowly stirred CaCl2 Several amendments have been used with alginate solution. Spray is done by low-pressure nozzle whichfor enhancing the effectiveness of alginate beads and form mist of alginate-bacterial suspension and formreducing the cost of mass production. Addition of clay small diameter alginate beads. Chemical solidificationand skim milk were tested and found augmenting result in microbeads of diameters ranging from 50 tobacterial survival than un-amended alginate beads. 200 μm. Micro alginate beads entrap sufficiently largeMixing of alginate with perlite for entrapping number of bacteria ranging from ~108 to 1010 CFURhizobium was also useful. Two rhizobial strains of per gram (Bashan et al., 2002).groundnut were encapsulated by alginate-perlitebeads. This dry granular inoculant can be stored for Liquid formulationlonger periods without losing its viability in normaltemperature. The effects of this formulation were Liquid formulations use liquid materials as carrier,similar to that of peat (Hegde and Brahmaprakash, which is usually water, oil or some solvents in form of1992). Jung et al. (1982) used alginate formulation of suspension, concentrates or emulsions. Solid basedRhizobium with a mixture of xanthan and carobgum inoculants are too cumbersome for large-scale fieldfor legumes. Mixtures like of 5 per cent arabic gum, application and tend to plug precision air seeders used20 per cent pero - dextrin, 10 per cent starch granules on large farms. Liquid formulations can be appliedor 20 per cent gelatine were used for impregnating easily to seed as it passes through seed augers on theN2 fixing and plant growth promoting bacteria way to the planting machinery.like Azotobacter chroococcum, Enterobacteragglomerans, Klebsiella pneuomoniae,Azospirillum brasilense, Bacillus polymyxa and

MICROBIAL INOCULANTS FOR AGRICULTURE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATES 35 In the past, commercial liquid inoculants have C. Additives in Liquid inoculantsbeen marketed only sporadically, basically because ofthe difficulties which arise in maintaining biological Selection of additives is based on their ability tocontrol after the cultures leave the manufacturer protect bacterial cells in storage and on seeds at(Brockwell, 1982). Manufacturers seem to have extremes of temperature, dessication and toxicovercome the problem of deterioration by conditions. High molecular weight polymers with goodconcentrating the broth inoculant with centrifugation, water solubility, nontoxicity and complex chemicaladdition of additives to increase the shelf life etc. nature are good additives (Deaker et al., 2004). Some commonly used additives in formulations include Several compounds have been studied for their polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), methyl cellulose, polyvinylprotective function and added to liquid inoculants for alcohol, polyethylene glycol, gum Arabica, trehalose,promoting the survival of microorganisms in the glycerol, Fe-EDTA, sodium alginate, tapioca flour etc.formulation. Most popular liquid inoculant formulations (Singleton et al., 2002) (Table II).contain particular organism’s broth 10-40 per cent,suspender ingredient 1-3 per cent, dispersant 1-5 per The nature and concentration of additives affectcent, surfactant 3-8 per cent and carrier liquid (oil and the performance of the inocula. Vendan and/ or water) 35-65 per cent by weight (Table II). Thangaraju (2007) reported that the carrier based inoculants generally suffer from shortage shelf life, Shelf life is the first and foremost problem of poor quality, high contamination and low fieldbiofertilizers. Carrier based bio fertilizers are not so performance. The liquid formulations of Azospirillumtolerant to stress which is mostly unpredictable and with the amendments viz., Trehalose, Polyvinyluncertain in the crop fields, whereas, temperature pyrollidine and Glycerol enhanced and maintainedtolerance is an advantage of the liquid biofertilizers the population upto 10 months of storage. The(Mahdi et al., 2010). Liquid inoculants facilitate the liquid formulation showed better adherence andlong survival of the organism, improve quality of survival on seeds, roots of seedlings and in theinoculants by increasing the population density and rhizosphere soil than the solid carrier basedenhance the shelf life by use of additives. Azospirillum inoculants. TABLE II Additives and their functionsAdditive Function ReferencePVP high water-binding Tittabutr et al. (2007) bioadhesive capacity Singleton et al. (2002)Glycerol Singleton et al. (2002) flow characteristics appear to promote Singleton et al. (2002)Trehalose rapid and even coating on seeds Fernandes junior et al. (2012)FeEDTA stabilizing both enzymes and cellHydroxypropyl methyl cellulose- membranes, is a compatible osmoticumHPMCPEG supplement ironGlucose Soluble in water, controlled release suspension agents, adhesive in nature Denardin and Freire (2000) Singleton et al. (2002) enhances exopolysaccharide production, which could protect cells during the rapid drying they experience at inoculation

36 SNEHA S. NAIR et al. Velineni and Brahmaprakash (2011) conducted Advantage of liquid formulation (Girisha et al.,a preliminary study to determine the survival of 2006)Bacillus megaterium in liquid formulations - Achieve complete sterilization of mediumsupplemented with osmo / cell-protectants under theinfluence of high temperature, desiccation stress and - Sterilization of liquid medium is easier comparedtheir subsequent influence on P-uptake by cowpeaplants. Liquid inoculants 2 containing osmoprotectants to solid carriersviz., polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), high quantity ofglycerol (12 ml L-1) and glucose was shown to support - Any contamination occurring during storage canhigher viable population up to a storage period of fourweeks at 48ºC (log10 10.62 CFU ml-1) and desiccation be easily noticedstress (log10 10.04 CFU ml-1) as compared to liquidinoculant-1 containing osmoprotectants viz., PVP, low - Does not require any sticker material, unlike carrierquantity of glycerol (1 ml L-1), trehalose, arabinose based biofertilizer.and FeEDTA; and nutrient glucose broth without anyosmoprotectants. - Offers protection to cells against high temperature Lee et al. (2016) evaluated the effects of different - Easy to apply and can be effectively integratedliquid inoculant formulations on the survival and plant- with mechanized farming.growth-promoting efficiency of Rhodopseudomonaspalustris strain PS3, wherein, six additives (alginate, - The amount of inoculant needed for seedpolyethylene glycol [PEG], polyvinylpyrrolidone-40 inoculation is less[PVP], glycerol, glucose, and horticultural oil) wereused in liquid-based formulations, and their capacities Field response of liquid inoculantsfor maintaining PS3 cell viability during storage in low,medium, and high temperature ranges were studied. Researchers have shown that the performancesWith horticultural oil (0.5 =%) they observed that the of liquid formulations are comparable to that of carrierformulated PS3 (PS3–0.5% H.o.) inoculants produced based inocula. Sridhar et al. (2004) developed a liquidhigher levels of EPS than those without formulation at inoculant using osmoprotectants for phosphateany storage temperature. Therefore, it was chosen as solubilizing bacterium (Bacillus megaterium) anda potential additive as it could maintain a relatively studied the effect of application of Mussoorie Rockhigh population and conferred greater microbial vitality Phosphate (MRP) and inoculation with differentunder various storage conditions. formulations of B. megaterium on P- uptake of cowpea. They observed a significantly higher total-P Besides the various additives used to improve (8.14 mg/plant) and maximum total biomass (4.94 g/the shelf life of the product, specific compounds can plant) in plants treated with MRP and liquid inoculant-be introduced into the formulation to enhance the 2 (containing osmoprotectants viz., Polyvinylefficacy of biofertilizer. Legume biofertilizers containing Pyrrolidone (PVP), glycerol and glucose) andelicitors of nodulation are already marketed. Mabood concluded that the increased P- uptake by cowpeaet al. (2006) conducted field experiments to study the when inoculated with liquid inoculant-2 + MRP waseffect of preinducing Bradyrhizobium japonicum mainly due to efficient solubilization of insoluble soil-Pstrains with methyl jasmonate (MeJA), alone or in as well as added MRP which attributed to highercombination with genistein (Ge), on nodulation and N population of B. megaterium that was maintained infixation of Soybean under field conditions. Genistein liquid inoculant-2 (log 10 10.50 CFU/ml).and MeJA were shown to increase nodule number,nodule dry weight per plant, and seasonal N fixation, Brahmaprakash et al. (2007) evaluated theas compared with the control treatment, inoculated performance of liquid Rhizobium inoculants overwith un induced B. japonicum. carrier based Rhizobium inoculants through national level on farm trials.These trials were performed during kharif and rabi seasons of two successive years (2001 and 2002) in groundnut, soybean, redgram and chickpea. Trials were conducted on National Level covering 14 districts of 7 states which come under different agro climatic zones. It was found that in all the crops tested, the liquid Rhizobium inoculant gave

MICROBIAL INOCULANTS FOR AGRICULTURE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATES 37better yield than carrier based inoculant (Plate 1). The the formulation in fluidized condition in a dryer.increase in the yield of groundnut, soybean, pigeon Reducing water activity makes it more stable andpea and chickpea treated with liquid inoculants ranged resulted in low contamination rate, increased survivalfrom 4.0-27.0, 26.0 - 42.0, 2.0-19.6 and 8.1-24.5 and enhanced plant growth even if some dry spellper cent, respectively (Graph 1). prevails after sowing (Sahu, 2012; Brahmaprakash and Sahu, 2012; Sahu et al., 2013; Lavanya et al., 2015;C. Novel inoculant formulations for climate Sahu and Brahmaprakash, 2016; Sahu et al., 2016a).resilient agriculture This new approach of making bioformulation has some obvious benefits over other formulations. TheFluid bed dried inoculant formulation instability of performance and contamination are major drawbacks in bioinoculant industry. The technique, This novel formulation has many benefits in however, is in its primitive stage and much research isclimate resilient agriculture. This is prepared by drying required for its successful implementation at field level (Sahu et al., 2016b).Plate 1: Effect of liquid inoculant application. In fluid bed dryer (FBD), substrate to be dried is (Source : Brahmaprakash et al., 2007) suspended against gravity by an upward flowing air stream at terminal velocity. Suspended particles provide higher surface area for drying which causes high rate of moisture transfer. This machine was before used in food and pharmaceuticals industries different drying operations and have tremendous potential to be used in biofertilizer industry (Srivastava and Mishra 2010; Brahmaprakash and Sahu, 2012; Sahu et al., 2013).Mean Increase of seed yield over 45 42.45 Liquid Rhizobium Inoculant 34.53 Mean increase of seed yield over control (per 30 24.5 Liquid Rhizobium Inoculant control (per cent) 40 cent) 20.7 35 Carrier Based Rhizobium 25 Carrier Based Rhizobium Inoculant Inoculant 20 30 14.5 26.6 15 10.7 25 10 20 5.4 13 13 15.7 8.1 13.69 5 15 11.67 0 10 Gulbarga (9) 5 0 Seoni (2) KVKs Mean (7) Hanumanamatti (5) Sattur (10) KVKs Mean (24) Amaravati (5) Krishi Vignana Kendra Soybean - 20.8% Increase Krishi Vignana Kendra Chickpea - 11.5% Increase 30 Liquid Rhizobium Inoculant 27.41 25 Liquid Rhizobium InoculantMean Increase of pod yield over control 25 Carrier Based Rhizobium 20 Carrier Based Rhizobium 19.6 (Per cent) 20 Mean increase of seed yield over Inoculant control (Per cent) 15 13 12 14.9 15 10 8 7.5 10.95 12.3 5 6 7.18 8.5 9.21 10.5 0 4.32 7.4 Amaravati (5) KVKs Mean Chomu (5) (39) 10 8.7 7.8 3.73 1.7 Sattur (13) Randheja (5) Vridhachalam Sirohi (6) 5 4.23 (5) 2 Krishi Vignana Kendra 0 Gulbarga (5) Bidar (5) KVKs Mean (16) Sirohi (6) Krishi Vignana Kendra Groundnut -3.9% Increase Pigeonpea -4.5% IncreaseGraph 1: Performance of Liquid Rhizobium inoculants over Carrier based Rhizobium inoculants in farmer’s field. (Source : Brahmaprakash et al., 2007)

38 SNEHA S. NAIR et al.Bioflocs based bioformulation Microbial agents like endophytes, AM fungi, plant growth promoting bacteria, biocontrol agents, etc. are Bioflocs of Azotobacter and Paenibacillus were having huge potential to serve the need of agriculturaltested in various environmental stresses like higher productivity in changing climate. Bio-prospecting fortemperature, desiccation and salinity under in-vitro potential microbes and characterizing existing ones forcondition. Higher tolerance to these environmental alleviating abiotic stress will provide successfulstresses was conferred by both natural and artificial strategy to mitigate climate change. Variousbioflocs as compared to their vegetative cell complementing consortium of microbial inoculants canformulations. The natural biofloc formulation found be of great success in biotic, abiotic stresses andexhibiting higher stress tolerance as compared to nutrient management for sustainable agriculture. Theformulation made from artificial biofloc (Kalaiarasi and efficiency of formulations also needs to beDinakar, 2015). The exopolysachharides mediated reconsidered for different abiotic stresses. Novelbiofloc formulation of PGPR exhibited higher tolerance formulations and amendments in existing techniquesto various environmental stresses. are necessary for bringing inoculant formulation more competitive and successful in natural environment.A. Hydrogel based bioformulation REFERENCES Hydrogel based microbial inoculant. Hydrogelrepresents a group of polymeric materials of AINO, M., MAEKAWA, Y., MAYAMA, S. AND KATO, H., 1997,hydrophilic nature which can hold large amounts of Biocontrol of bacterial wilt of tomato by producingwater in their 3D metrics (Narjary et al., 2012). It is seedlings colonized with endophytic antagonisticfrequently used in sandy soils for improved water pseudomonads. In: Ogoshi A, Kobayashi K, Hommaavailability by increasing water retention and reducing Y, Kodama F, Kondo N, Akino S (eds.) Plant growth-drainage pores. Increased activity of microorganisms promoting Rhizobacteria - present status and futureand mycorrhiza using such super absorbent hydrogels prospects. Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaidowas reported by Degiorgi et al. (2002). University, Sapporo. Suman et al. (2016) has reported a consortium ALI, S. M., HAMZA, M. A., AMIN, G., MOHAMMED FAYEZ,of Azotobacter chroococcum, Pseudomonas MAHMOD EL-TAHAN, MOHAMMED MONIB AND HEGAZI,fluorescence and Trichoderma viride in hydrogel N. A., 2005, Production of biofertilizers using baker’sbased formulation. This formulation supported good yeast effluent and their application to wheat andmicrobial growth, higher shelf life and improved bio barley grown in north Sinai deserts. Arch. Agron.efficacy as compared to lignite and liquid formulations Soil Sci., 51 (6): 589–604.in wheat. Apart from increasing shelf life of microbes,hydrogel based bioinoculants are useful in reducing AL-KARAKI, G. N., AMMAD, R. AND RUSAN, M., 2001, Responsesoil erosion and mitigating effects of frequent droughts. of two tomato cultivars differing in salt tolerance toTherefore, hydrogel based bioformulation can be inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi under salt stress.fruitful in application of microbial inoculants in changing Mycorrhiza,11: 43–47.climate. ALLISON, S. D. AND MARTINY. J. B. H., 2008, Resistance,Future potential of microbial inoculants in resilience, and redundancy in microbial communities.mitigating climate change Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105: 11512–11519. The upcoming challenge in bioformulationindustry is to produce climate smart inoculants with ASHRAF, M. AND FOOLAD, M. R., 2007, Roles of glycinehigher microbial count, extended shelf life in storage, betaine and proline in improving plant abiotic stressimproved survival and effectiveness in changing field resistance. Environ. Exp. Bot., 59 (2): 206 216.conditions, improved resistant towards adverse soilconditions like salinity, draught, heavy metal BAIS, H. P., WEIR, T. L., PERRY, L. G., GILROY, S. AND VIVANCO,contamination and competition from native flora etc. J. M., 2006, The role of root exudates in rhizosphere interactions with plants and other organisms. Ann. Rev. Plant Biol., 57: 233–266.

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