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Microbial Biotechnology: A Key to Sustainable Agriculture

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Phyto-Microbiome in Stress Regulation

Part of the book series: Environmental and Microbial Biotechnology ((EMB))

Abstract

The exploitive and improper agricultural practices lead to degradative processes such as nutrient depletion, loss in soil fertility, and soil organic matter. These processes contribute to a serious decline in soil productivity. The degraded soils can be restored and rehabilitated by alternative agricultural practices such as use of potential microbial inoculants to provide favorable environment for optimum crop production and protection. The use of bioinoculant is one of the important components of integrated nutrient management as they facilitate a cost-effective renewable source of plant nutrients which supplement chemical fertilizers contributing to sustainable agriculture. Several microorganisms are currently being marketed commercially as biofertilizers for crop plants. Unfortunately, these microorganisms are not always as efficient in the field as they are in laboratory or greenhouse experiments. The use of microbial biotechnology has manipulated the microorganism at their genetic level which leads to increase in their survival and efficiency in soil. The genetically modified microorganisms can be used as potent bioinoculants in agriculture, but their undesirable effects and ethical implications still remain a major problem whether they should be accepted or not. The presence of antibiotic resistance gene, horizontal transfer of genes, and unstable vector in modified microorganism made them unsuitable for environmental application as these characteristics can get transferred to indigenous microorganisms which lead to mutations. More intense research is required to assess the stability of genetically modified microorganism and their effect on indigenous microflora. These studies can open the way to the production of more effective, stable, and reliable recombinant inoculants for maintaining sustainable agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India

    S. K. Gosal, Jaspreet Kaur & Jupinder Kaur

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  1. S. K. Gosal
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  2. Jaspreet Kaur
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  3. Jupinder Kaur
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Manoj Kumar

  2. Swami Rama Himalayan University, Himalayan School of Biosciences, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Vivek Kumar

  3. Department of Botany, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari, Bihar, India

    Ram Prasad

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Gosal, S.K., Kaur, J., Kaur, J. (2020). Microbial Biotechnology: A Key to Sustainable Agriculture. In: Kumar, M., Kumar, V., Prasad, R. (eds) Phyto-Microbiome in Stress Regulation. Environmental and Microbial Biotechnology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2576-6_11

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