Natural Resource Management: Ecological Perspectives

Rajinder Peshin is professor at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu (SKUAST Jammu), India. He received his Master of Science in extension education and PhD degrees from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. He worked as agriculture extension officer in the Department of Agriculture, Government of Jammu & Kashmir, from 1989 to 1998 before joining SKUAST Jammu in 1998 as an assistant professor. His research expertise is dissemination and evaluation of issues associated with sustainable agriculture research and development programmes, especially for integrated pest management. He developed a model for predicting the adoptability of agricultural technologies when put on trial at farmers' fields, and an evaluation methodology for integrated pest management programmes. Dr Peshin published 63 scientific papers and chapters of books, and authored seven books. These include four books on integrated pest managementseries published by Springer in 2009 and 2014.

Ashok K. Dhawan is former additional director and head Department of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, India.  At present he is the President of the Indian Ecological Society. He worked for more than 37 years on integrated pest management (IPM) in cotton. He was instrumental in devising and implementing insecticides resistant management strategy, mealy bug management in cotton, and transfer of technology for management of cotton pests in more than 800 villages. He developed IPM models for rice, maize and vegetables pests and implemented these at village level.  He has authored 16 books, 430 research papers and 80 extension publications. He is a member of executive council of various scientific bodies, member of advisory of various government and private sector organizations. He was awarded the Best Team Award by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Department for International Development (DIFD-UK) for transfer of technology.