Muhammad Aamir Iqbal

By Muhammad Aamir Iqbal

Since green revolution, chemical fertilizers are deemed an indispensable input of modern crop production systems, but these have associated environmental and ecological consequences. Loss of nutrients from agricultural fields in the form of leaching and gaseous emissions has been the leading cause of environmental pollution and climate change. Ensuring the sustainability of crop production necessitates exploring other sources of nutrients and modifying prevalent nutrient sources. Nanotechnology, which utilizes nanomaterials of less than 100 nm size, may offer an unprecedented opportunity to develop concentrated sources of plant nutrients having higher-absorption rate, utilization efficacy, and minimum losses. Nanofertilizers are being prepared by encapsulating plant nutrients into nanomaterials, employing thin coating of nanomaterials on plant nutrients, and delivering in the form of nano-sized emulsions. Nano-pores and stomatal openings in plant leaves facilitate nanomaterial uptake and their penetration deep inside leaves leading to higher nutrient use efficiency (NUE). Nanofertilizers have higher transport and delivery of nutrients through plasmodesmata, which are nanosized (50–60 nm) channels between cells. The higher NUE and significantly lesser nutrient losses of nanofertilizers lead to higher productivity (6–17%) and nutritional quality of field crops. However, production and availability, their sufficient effective legislation, and associated risk management are the prime limiting factors in their general adoption as plant nutrient sources.

Part of the book: Sustainable Crop Production

By Muhammad Aamir Iqbal

Part of the book: Grasses and Grassland

By Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Sadaf Khalid, Raees Ahmed, Muhammad Zubair Khan, Nagina Rafique, Raina Ijaz, Saira Ishaq, Muhammad Jamil, Aqeel Ahmad, Amjad Shahzad Gondal, Muhammad Imran, Junaid Rahim and Umar Ayaz Aslam Sheikh

Globally, over-reliance on major food crops (wheat, rice and maize) has led to food basket’s shrinking, while climate change, environmental pollution and deteriorating soil fertility demand the cultivation of less exhaustive but nutritious grasses. Unlike neglected grasses (grass species restricted to their centres of origin and only grown at the subsistence level), many underutilized grasses (grass species whose yield or usability potential remains unrealized) are resistant and resilient to abiotic stresses and have multiple uses including food (Coix lacryma-jobi), feed (Eragrostis amabilis and Cynodon dactylon), esthetic value (Miscanthus sinensis and Imperata cylindrica), renewable energy production (Spartina pectinata and Andropogon gerardii Vitman) and contribution to ecosystem services (Saccharum spontaneum). Lack of agricultural market globalization, urbanization and prevalence of large commercial enterprises that favor major grasses trade, improved communication means that promoted specialization in favor of established crops, scant planting material of underutilized grasses and fewer research on their production technology and products development are the prime challenges posed to underutilized grasses promotion. Integration of agronomic research with novel plant protection measures and plant breeding and molecular genetics approaches for developing biotic and abiotic stresses tolerant cultivars along with the development of commercially attractive food products hold the future key for promoting underutilized grasses for supplanting food security and sustainably multiplying economic outcomes.

Part of the book: Grasses and Grassland

By Raina Ijaz, Nidaa Harun and Muhammad Aamir Iqbal

Grasslands (also known as savanna, prairie, steppe, and pampas) are natural or seminatural areas encompassing vegetation belonging to the family Poaceae as the most dominant vegetation, while, sedges and rushes may also constitute a minor proportion. These provide numerous natural products such as food feed medicinal raw material, and honey along with nonproduct-based ecosystem services. Grasslands in lowlands and mountains either in natural form or developed landscape can provide an added value in terms of ecotourism opportunities owing to having huge esthetic and recreational potential compared to uniform agricultural areas. Grasslands characterized by high species and habitat diversity-based ecotourism are nature-based tourism whereby people visit natural or developed areas for recreation, sight-seeing, permitted and controlled hunting, on-site purchase of organic products, etc., and are usually managed by adopting sustainable practices. Ecotourism generates multifaceted economic advantages for local communities such as direct sale of products to tourists. However, ecotourism may also have a variety of negative impacts when the tourists’ number multiplies which leads to overuse of resources. The most pronounced challenges confronted to the development of grasslands for ecotourism include lack of community cooperation, careless herders, need of hefty investment, and absence of trained human capital along with climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Part of the book: Grasslands

By Muhammad Aamir Iqbal

Part of the book: Grasslands

By Chunjia Li, Saima Iqbal, Serap Kizil Aydemir, Xiuqin Lin and Muhammad Aamir Iqbal

In China and Pakistan, grasslands serve as carbon sink, ecological barriers, watershed for low riparian regions, feedstock, and minerals extraction sites for drilling and mining and offer numerous associated benefits like wool, herbs for traditional medicines, tourism and leisure, and so forth. However, grassland ecosystems have been persistently degraded by anthropogenic disturbances (land use changes, tourism, intensive grazing, uncontrolled fire, vegetation clearance, invasive weeds, and climate change drivers (heat, drought, chilling, salinity, and shifting of rainfall patterns). To conserve and develop grasslands, soil nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) hold pertinence for maintaining the primary productivity of grass species. Hence, estimating the extent of numerous interventions on N and C cycling along with grass-microbe interactions has become imperative from socioeconomic and environmental perspectives. Thus, to achieve this goal, this chapter has been tailored to compile recent knowledge on the productivity status and persistent degradation of grasslands in China and Pakistan. Additionally, invasive weeds’ prevalence in grasslands, grass–microbe interactions and their influence on the growth of plant species, microclimate, and availability of nutrients have been objectively analyzed along with synthesizing the recent advances on C and N dynamics in grasslands ecosystems.

Part of the book: Grasslands