Chapter 15

Advanced and Emerging Techniques

in Soil Health Management

Sunita K. Meena, Ajeet Kumar, Khem R. Meena, Sanjeew K. Sinha,

Lalita Rana, Navnit Kumar, Anil K. Singh, Hanuman P. Parewa,
and Vijay S. Meena

15.1 Introduction

The world’s many complex issues, including resource depletion and degradation,
food and nutritional insecurity, climate change, and resource scarcity, are most
likely caused by the rise of the human population. The global agricultural system
must strike a delicate balance in order to satisfy a variety of human needs by 2050,
when the world’s population is projected to increase by 34% to 9.6 billion people.
It also needs to create more opportunities for the hundreds of millions of rural poor
people who depend on agriculture for a living while minimising negative environ-
mental effects like ecosystem degradation and high greenhouse gas emissions. The
world’s population is currently estimated to be 7.24 billion, and it is increasing by
around 80 million people annually or roughly the population of Germany. Although
this growth is anticipated to significantly slow between 2050 and 2100, the world’s
population is still forecast to increase throughout the twenty-first century (OECD
and FAO 2016).
FAO reported that by 2050, the demand for food is expected to double as a result
of population increase and economic expansion. This rate of growth will require a

S. K. Meena (*) · A. Kumar · S. K. Sinha · L. Rana · N. Kumar · A. K. Singh

Sugarcane Research Institute (SRI), Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University
(RPCAU), Samastipur, Bihar, India
e-mail: sunita.meena@rpcau.ac.in
K. R. Meena
Department of Biotechnology, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India
H. P. Parewa
College of Agriculture, Agriculture University Jodhpur, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
V. S. Meena
ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, India

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte 343
Ltd. 2024
R. K. Bhatia, A. Walia (eds.), Advancements in Microbial Biotechnology for Soil
Health, Microorganisms for Sustainability 50,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-9482-3_15