Book Description:
This text book is written keeping in mind the contents of the syllabus of the course ‘Agricultural Microbiology’ taught in BSc.(Ag) degree program  all over the country as  the syllabus is approved in Deans’ committee at ICAR level. The book will be useful for students and the teachers teaching the course. The book has five sections namely basics of microbiology which deals with fundamental principles of general microbiology. Section two covers ecology of soil biota and organisms in soil liter interfaces. Third section is biogeochemical cycles of plant nutrients discussing microbiological transformation of important plant nutrients and their movement in the soil constituents. Fourth section relates with applied aspect of agriculturally useful microorganisms dealing with biofertilizers and biocontrol agents. Fifth section discusses qualities of drinkable water and food and water borne diseases directly concerned with human hygiene.  A chapter on traditional and molecular techniques to study soil microorganisms and their activities in situ and laboratory is also incorporated. The language of the book is simple and subject matter is discussed with help of illustration such as graphs, charts, tables and pictures, keeping readers in mind. In the end of each chapter exercise in the form of questions has been incorporated to help the student to recapitulate the contents of the chapter.

Authers Details:

Dr. R.P. Pareek

Dr. R.P. Pareek, Emeritus Professor, has about forty years’ experience of research and teaching undergraduate and post graduate students at various universities. He had guided about twenty M.Sc.(Ag) and Ph.D. students for their theses research. Dr. Pareek did his graduation in Agriculture from S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Rajasthan securing 8th place among top ten students. He earned his Master’s (1968) and Doctorate (1972) Degrees from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in Microbiology. He is a gold medalist in his Master’s Program. Dr. Pareek had his first appointment (1972) as Assistant Soil Microbiologist at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. He shifted to G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand (1977) as Sr. Research Officer and later became Professor of Soil Microbiology in 1987. His area of research all through was biological nitrogen fixation. He was Visiting Scientist at International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines from 1987 to 1989. After superannuation in June 2003, he was granted Scientist Emeritus with a research project on biofertilizer production by ICAR. However, he preferred to join Birla Institute of Scientific Research (BISR) at Jaipur, Rajasthan as Principal Project Scientist with a research project financed by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. He was with BISR till 2008. Dr. Pareek also has an experience of teaching UG, PG and research scholars at some private universities.
Dr. Navneet Pareek

Navneet Pareek presently holding a post of Professor and Group Leader, Soil Quality Consortium in the Department of Soil Science at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, US Nagar, Uttarakhand, India. He was first appointed in 2001 as Assistant Professor in the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at Shere-E-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Jammu, Jammu. He is engaged in teaching and has about 18 years experience of teaching students in the universities. Presently he is teaching various Under Graduate and Post Graduate courses in Soil Science and Soil Microbiology. He is guiding research scholars of Master’s and Doctoral programmes and also advising under graduates. He has guided about 05 M.Sc. (Ag) and 02 Ph.D. students till date. His research pertains to increasing efficiency of biofertilizers of various useful soil microorganisms, namely, rhizobia and plant growth promoting rhizospheric microorganisms (PGPRM). He is also involved to seek the role of PGPRs particularly in diseases suppression. He is associated with many projects related to the nutrient management for hill and plains. Apart from teaching, right now his whole time associated with All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Pulses Improvement, a national research projecting having centers at different Agricultural Universities, and working on harnessing the potential of rhizospheric microorganisms including rhizobia of grain legumes. He is also associated in AICRP on LTFE (Long Term Fertilizer Experiments) in the university. He has published more than 40 peer reviewed papers in Journals of national and international repute in the field of soil and microbiology. He has written 13 book chapters, 03 technical bulletin and many popular scientific articles for the magazines related to agriculture field.

Table Content:
Section 1 INTRODUCTION                                                       
1. Agricultural microbiology and scope
 2. History of microbiology
Section 2  BASICS OF MICROBIOLOGY                                                                      
 3. Microbial cell: Constituents and composition
 4. Prokaryotic cell metabolism
 5. Nutrition, growth and culturing of microorganisms         
 6. Genetics of prokaryotes
 7. Bacteriophages
Section 3  SOIL BIOTA AND THEIR ECOLOGY
 8. Soil: A habitat of microorganisms
 9. Soil bacteria
 10. Soil fungi
 11. Soil green algae
 12. Soil animals
 13. Rhizosphere
 14. Phyllosphere
 15. Methods for studying soil microorganisms
Section 4  BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES OF PLANT NUTRIENTS
 16. Carbon cycle
 17. Organic matter decomposition and nutrient recycling
 18. Nitrogen cycle and transformation
 19. Nitrification and denitrification
 20. Basics of biological nitrogen fixation
 21. Non-symbiotic and associative nitrogen fixation
 22. Legume-rhizobia symbiosis
 23. Actinorhizal symbiosis (Actinorhiza)
 24. Azolla- Anabaena symbiosis
 25. Microbial transformation of soil phosphorus
 26. Mycorrhizae
 27. Microbial transformation sulfur in soil
Section 5 EXPLOITATION OF MICROORGANISMS  IN AGRICULTURE
 28. Biofertilizers
 29. Microbial insecticides and herbicides
 30. Composting
 31. Microbial interactions and biocontrol soil borne plant diseases
 32. Biogas production
 33. Microbiology of water
 34. Wastewaters
 35. Food microbiology

Book Description:
This text book is written keeping in mind the contents of the syllabus of the course ‘Agricultural Microbiology’ taught in BSc.(Ag) degree program  all over the country as  the syllabus is approved in Deans’ committee at ICAR level. The book will be useful for students and the teachers teaching the course. The book has five sections namely basics of microbiology which deals with fundamental principles of general microbiology. Section two covers ecology of soil biota and organisms in soil liter interfaces. Third section is biogeochemical cycles of plant nutrients discussing microbiological transformation of important plant nutrients and their movement in the soil constituents. Fourth section relates with applied aspect of agriculturally useful microorganisms dealing with biofertilizers and biocontrol agents. Fifth section discusses qualities of drinkable water and food and water borne diseases directly concerned with human hygiene.  A chapter on traditional and molecular techniques to study soil microorganisms and their activities in situ and laboratory is also incorporated. The language of the book is simple and subject matter is discussed with help of illustration such as graphs, charts, tables and pictures, keeping readers in mind. In the end of each chapter exercise in the form of questions has been incorporated to help the student to recapitulate the contents of the chapter.

Authers Details:

Dr. R.P. Pareek

Dr. R.P. Pareek, Emeritus Professor, has about forty years’ experience of research and teaching undergraduate and post graduate students at various universities. He had guided about twenty M.Sc.(Ag) and Ph.D. students for their theses research. Dr. Pareek did his graduation in Agriculture from S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Rajasthan securing 8th place among top ten students. He earned his Master’s (1968) and Doctorate (1972) Degrees from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in Microbiology. He is a gold medalist in his Master’s Program. Dr. Pareek had his first appointment (1972) as Assistant Soil Microbiologist at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. He shifted to G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand (1977) as Sr. Research Officer and later became Professor of Soil Microbiology in 1987. His area of research all through was biological nitrogen fixation. He was Visiting Scientist at International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines from 1987 to 1989. After superannuation in June 2003, he was granted Scientist Emeritus with a research project on biofertilizer production by ICAR. However, he preferred to join Birla Institute of Scientific Research (BISR) at Jaipur, Rajasthan as Principal Project Scientist with a research project financed by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. He was with BISR till 2008. Dr. Pareek also has an experience of teaching UG, PG and research scholars at some private universities.
Dr. Navneet Pareek

Navneet Pareek presently holding a post of Professor and Group Leader, Soil Quality Consortium in the Department of Soil Science at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, US Nagar, Uttarakhand, India. He was first appointed in 2001 as Assistant Professor in the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at Shere-E-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Jammu, Jammu. He is engaged in teaching and has about 18 years experience of teaching students in the universities. Presently he is teaching various Under Graduate and Post Graduate courses in Soil Science and Soil Microbiology. He is guiding research scholars of Master’s and Doctoral programmes and also advising under graduates. He has guided about 05 M.Sc. (Ag) and 02 Ph.D. students till date. His research pertains to increasing efficiency of biofertilizers of various useful soil microorganisms, namely, rhizobia and plant growth promoting rhizospheric microorganisms (PGPRM). He is also involved to seek the role of PGPRs particularly in diseases suppression. He is associated with many projects related to the nutrient management for hill and plains. Apart from teaching, right now his whole time associated with All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Pulses Improvement, a national research projecting having centers at different Agricultural Universities, and working on harnessing the potential of rhizospheric microorganisms including rhizobia of grain legumes. He is also associated in AICRP on LTFE (Long Term Fertilizer Experiments) in the university. He has published more than 40 peer reviewed papers in Journals of national and international repute in the field of soil and microbiology. He has written 13 book chapters, 03 technical bulletin and many popular scientific articles for the magazines related to agriculture field.

Table Content:
Section 1 INTRODUCTION                                                       
1. Agricultural microbiology and scope
 2. History of microbiology
Section 2  BASICS OF MICROBIOLOGY                                                                      
 3. Microbial cell: Constituents and composition
 4. Prokaryotic cell metabolism
 5. Nutrition, growth and culturing of microorganisms         
 6. Genetics of prokaryotes
 7. Bacteriophages
Section 3  SOIL BIOTA AND THEIR ECOLOGY
 8. Soil: A habitat of microorganisms
 9. Soil bacteria
 10. Soil fungi
 11. Soil green algae
 12. Soil animals
 13. Rhizosphere
 14. Phyllosphere
 15. Methods for studying soil microorganisms
Section 4  BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES OF PLANT NUTRIENTS
 16. Carbon cycle
 17. Organic matter decomposition and nutrient recycling
 18. Nitrogen cycle and transformation
 19. Nitrification and denitrification
 20. Basics of biological nitrogen fixation
 21. Non-symbiotic and associative nitrogen fixation
 22. Legume-rhizobia symbiosis
 23. Actinorhizal symbiosis (Actinorhiza)
 24. Azolla- Anabaena symbiosis
 25. Microbial transformation of soil phosphorus
 26. Mycorrhizae
 27. Microbial transformation sulfur in soil
Section 5 EXPLOITATION OF MICROORGANISMS  IN AGRICULTURE
 28. Biofertilizers
 29. Microbial insecticides and herbicides
 30. Composting
 31. Microbial interactions and biocontrol soil borne plant diseases
 32. Biogas production
 33. Microbiology of water
 34. Wastewaters
 35. Food microbiology