Commercial Exploitation of Various Microbes in Agriculture

Preview this chapter:

Commercial Exploitation of Various Microbes in Agriculture, Page 1 of 1

< Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/9789815124996/chapter-8-1.gif

The major global challenge in the present scenario is to provide nutritional security to the growing population without affecting the ecosystem or the environment. Crop productivity mainly suffers because of various pests, diseases, and other problems caused by the use of pesticides during the management. Pesticide residue is now being considered as more detrimental to human health. Hence to overcome these biotic problems, the use of biological organisms such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Trichoderma spp., plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and endophytes are gaining popularity to achieve sustainable agriculture. Still, many microorganisms should be identified in order to know their ecological significance. The proper selection and the application of the microbes have huge potential to safeguard our food and environment. Furthermore, novel and modern techniques like clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR/Cas), transcriptomics, proteomics, genomics, etc., can be exploited for the sustainability of the crop ecosystem. The microorganisms can be improved by gene engineering techniques, which will improve the overall health of the plants. Thus, this chapter presents a brief overview of recent trends in the application of various microbial interactions with the twenty-first century technology for crop productivity and the overall sustainability of our agricultural ecosystem for our future generation.