Dr. Amrit Kumar Jha is Scientist (Soil Science) and Head at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sahibganj, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. Dr. Jha completed his doctoral research in subject Soil science and Agricultural Chemistry from Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. He has more than 18 years of research experience in the field of soil chemistry, soil fertility, and soil pollution. He has published more than 40 research articles in leading international and national journals, more than 11 technical bulletins and 2 books. He has received many awards such as Young Scientist Award conferred by Society of Krishi Vigyan in 2018, Best KVK Scientist Award conferred by Indian Society of Extension Education in 2018 and Best KVK Scientist Award conferred by Society of Krishi Vigyan in 2020. Dr.

Nitish Kumar is Senior Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, Bihar, India. Dr. Kumar completed his doctoral research at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India. He has more than 12 years of research and teaching experience in the field of plant and microbial biotechnology, and heavy metal bioremediation. He has published more than 70 research articles in leading international and national journals, more than 20 book chapters and 12 books with Springer and Taylor & Francis. Dr. Kumar is a recipient of the Young Scientist Award from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) in 2014. He has received many awards/fellowships/projects from various organizations, for example, the CSIR, DBT, ICAR and SERB-DST, BRNS-BARC, among others.

He is an active reviewer for journals, including Biotechnology Reports, Aquatic Botany, Industrial Crops and Products, PLoS One, Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and 3Biotech. He also serves as an associate editor of the journal Gene (Elsevier).