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Microbial Applications for Sustainable Agriculture

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Abstract

Agriculture in the current era is highly dependent on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides. Excessive applications of these chemicals on crop plants has increased the production cost, jeopardized the environment and has depleted the non-renewable resources. Potential threats to non-renewable resources and soil, water, air environments have led to seek alternative approaches for sustainable crop production and clean environment. To lessen these adversaries, not only scientific community, but industry and farmers are also continuously involved in research, development and adoption of new sustainable technologies. The tiny organisms in rhizosphere have shown their potential to play ubiquitous role in sustainable agricultural development and have been in continuous use since over the last century. In this chapter, different aspects of microbial applications for sustainable agriculture are elaborated. Applications of bacteria-containing biofertilizers, their types and benefits to crops have been discussed. Reports on plant growth promotion through phytohormones, siderophores and enzymes production by rhizobacteria are also detailed. Moreover, sustainable control of plant diseases through biocontrol and amelioration of abiotic stresses including; drought, salinity, climate change and heavy metals by using rhizobacteria are also encompassed in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan

    Aftab Afzal

  2. Centre for Climate Research and Development, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Saeed A. Asad

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  1. Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud, Oman

    Muhammad Farooq

  2. Agronomy and Crop Sciences Research and Education Center, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy

    Michele Pisante

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Afzal, A., Asad, S.A. (2019). Microbial Applications for Sustainable Agriculture. In: Farooq, M., Pisante, M. (eds) Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23169-9_3

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