Soil Carbon Fractionation

This textbook provides a thorough and systematic understanding of carbon fractions and the laboratory procedures for their estimation. It serves as both a practical lab manual and an educational guide, fostering knowledge dissemination and skill development in soil carbon research. It consolidates all procedures related to soil carbon fractionation, including active-, slow-, and passive-carbon pools into one document, with detailed methodologies. For complete and proper implementation, each method is provided with relevant chemical reactions, principles, and a step-by-step protocol in the form of flowcharts and calculations. This book is designed for streamlining the workflow for soil researchers and reducing preparation time. It promotes high-end carbon analyzers for sustainable, low-waste alternatives to traditional methods, aligning with modern environmental and agricultural resilience goals.

This book is exclusively for advanced graduate students and researchers working in the field of soil science and related disciplines.

Dr. Santosh Kale is an Associate Scientist at ICRISAT with 6 years of expertise in promoting waste-to-wealth practices that support regenerative agriculture techniques in a range of agro-ecologies to improve carbon build-up at various production system levels. He has a doctorate in soil science and specializes in soil carbon dynamics, nutrient management, crop production, soil fertility, biochar, and soil carbon sequestration. He completed his Ph.D. from Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, India. He has over 25 research articles, book chapters, and popular articles published. 

Dr. Rakesh S is an Associate Scientist at ICRISAT, monitoring strategic research trials of regenerative agriculture practices across diverse agro-ecologies. He has +8 years of experience in soil science research and has published over 60 research articles in reputed international and national journals. His research expertise includes conservation agriculture, carbon sequestration, carbon dynamics, soil fertility, plant nutrition, integrated nutrient management, land restoration, and climate change adaptation.

Dr. Pushpajeet L. Choudhari is serving as a Soil Scientist at ICRISAT with over 7 years of experience in managing the FAO-GLOSOLAN registered state-of-the-art laboratory. He chairs the Asian Soil Laboratory Network (FAO-SEALNET) and is known for harmonizing SOPs, ensuring quality and accuracy in soil and crop quality analysis, conforming to the international standards. His research work focuses on soil health monitoring, carbon sequestration, regenerative agriculture, and soil test–based nutrient management. He is at the forefront of leading bilateral/government-funded projects related to soil health monitoring, carbon sequestration, and sustainable soil health management. He has published research papers and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals and continues to mentor Ph.D. scholars, researchers in soil science.

Dr. Gajanan Sawargaonkar is a system agronomist with over 20 years of experience in designing, planning, and scaling up regenerative agricultural practices across different cropping systems and agroecology. Dr Sawargaonkar has steered various research initiatives, along with a consortium of international and national organizations, pertaining to cropping system designing, management, and crop diversification/intensification. His efforts are directed towards building system resilience in dryland agro-ecologies and contribute to bringing in positive impacts on soil health, system productivity, profitability, and system resilience. Dr Sawargaonkar has published more than 45 research papers, 25 technical papers/research abstracts, and 30 extension articles.

Dr. Ramesh Singh currently holds the position of Principal Scientist & Cluster Lead - ICRISAT Development Centre under the Global Research Program on Resilient Farm & Food Systems. He earned his Ph.D. from the GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India  , and has 27 years of research and development experience in the areas of landscape resource conservation, following a land resource inventory and hydrology-based approach. He has high-level expertise in designing a range of cost-effective rainwater harvesting structure considering landscape terrain.

Dr. Mangi Lal Jat is a well-recognized Systems Agronomist with over 26 years of rich experience in systems science across the developing world. Currently, Dr. Jat serves as Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), India, where he provides visionary leadership to India’s national agricultural research and education system. Previously, as Global Research Program Director for the Resilient Farm and Food Systems (RF & FS) program at ICRISAT, he led multi-disciplinary research teams across five clusters – climate adaptation and mitigation science, geo-spatial and big data sciences, digital agriculture, landscapes, soil health and water science, and the ICRISAT Development Center. His scientific, strategic, and partnership guidance has been pivotal in advancing resilience-focused agricultural innovations at global and regional scales. Dr. Jat has a PhD in agronomy with a specialization in soil moisture conservation in rainfed pearl millet from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi.