Dr Ruben Sakrabani is Professor of Soil Chemistry in the Centre for Soil, Agrifood and Biosciences at Cranfield University, UK. He has an international reputation particularly for his research on the nutrient dynamics, resource use efficiency and reliability of organic amendments such as compost, manure, slurry, biosolids, biochar and digestates. He is also a Peer Review College member of the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) responsible for research funding in environmental science. He sits on the Advisory Board of Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) and is a technical committee member for the British Standard Institute CII/37 - Fertilisers and related chemicals and for the European Committee for Standardization CEN TC 260/WG 8 - Organic and organo-mineral fertilizers.

Part 1 Advances in soil amendments

• 1.The use of crop residues as soil amendments in farming: Marcelo Valadares Galdos, University of Leeds, UK; and Macdara O’Neill, Agreena, Denmark;
• 2.Optimizing cover crops for soil health: Rob L. Myers, University of Missouri, USA;
• 3.Combined use of vermicompost and biochar to enhance soil health and crop yield in sustainable agriculture: Parveen Fatemah Rupani, Cranfield University, UK; Inés María Alonso-Crespo, María Gómez-Brandón and Jorge Domínguez, University of Vigo, Spain; and Ruben Sakrabani, Cranfield University, UK;
• 4.The potential for utilising organo-mineral fertilisers in agriculture: Otobong Mfon Isong, Cranfield University, UK; Kiran Pavuluri, International Fertilizer Development Centre, USA; and Parveen Fatemeh Rupani and Ruben Sakrabani, Cranfield University, UK;
• 5.Optimizing use of anaerobic digestate as a soil amendment in agriculture: Christina van Midden, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, UK;
• 6.Optimizing poultry litter for soil improvement: Runan Yan, Chinwe Justice-Alucho and Xiuping Jiang, Clemson University, USA;
• 7.Optimising on-farm management and use of slurry to minimise its environmental impact: Lisa Norton, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK; and Emma Cardwell and Claire Waterton, Lancaster University, UK;
• 8.Optimising use of frass as a soil amendment: David Houben and Anne-Maïmiti Dulaurent, UniLaSalle, France;

Part 2 Using biostimulants and promoting beneficial microorganisms in soil

• 9.Leveraging plant growth-promoting bacteria for enhanced crop nutrient use efficiency and growth: A. S. S. Sousa, P. M. L. Castro and S. I. A. Pereira, Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF) – Catholic University of Portugal, Portugal;
• 10.Understanding and promoting existing communities of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in agricultural soils: Sajeevee S. Sarathchandra and Zakaria M. Solaiman, The University of Western Australia, Australia;
• 11.Optimising functionality of phosphate-solubilising microorganisms in promoting crop nutrient use efficiency: Nelly S. Raymond and Frederik J. T. van der Bom, University of Copenhagen, Denmark;
• 12.Understanding and optimizing the role of cyanobacteria in promoting crop health and nutrient use efficiency: Noureddine Bouaïcha, University of Paris-Saclay, France; and Mohammed Loudiki, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco;
• 13.Understanding and optimizing the use of amino acid-based biostimulants in promoting crop nutrient use efficiency and health: Wenli Sun and Mohamad Hesam Shahrajabian, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China;
• 14.Promoting soil microbial activity and soil organic matter accumulation: inorganic and organic fertilizer effects: John Havlin, North Carolina State University, USA;
• 15.Understanding and optimizing the use of algae in promoting crop nutrient use efficiency and quality: Domenico Ronga, Annamaria Di Serio and Tommaso Nappo, University of Salerno, Italy;