Global Scenario of Natural Products for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Agronomic practices and agricultural goods can be only compete with growing populations. Better crop productivity as well as transparency in market are essential for any farmer’s business model. In modern agriculture system, the use of chemicals to fertilize soils and plants is widespread. Such compounds are also used to kill phytopathogens and several plant pests that are limiting factors to optimum productivity. There is an estimation of the increasing world population expected to be approximately 10 billion in the coming three to four decades for fulfilling the demands of growing populations; it needs to improve the agronomic products as well as agriculture practices to encounter the demand of this growing population. Apart from this, another focusing area is to increase agricultural products with high quality. Generally, significant damage to crop production is carried out by many diseases caused by several groups of phytopathogens, namely, bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc., which mutually epitomize a substantial encumbrance of the production of crops. The problem gets more aggravated with the evolution of resistant phytopathogenic microbes which causes even more severe threat to the crops as well as stored plant products and leads to severe damage to the production and storage of crops. In recent times, the use of natural entities such as plants metabolites, microbes, nanomaterials, and viruses against these pathogens reduces the loss of crop productivity and storage damage. The commonly used approach is to introduce the biological compounds to food directly or indirectly, which further shows antimicrobial activity. To avoid undesirable inactivation, application of these natural compounds in the form of fabricated nanoparticles seems to be more productive. Biologically synthesized nanoparticles can also be acceptable nowadays to control plant pathogens as antibacterial agents. These too can enhance seed germination and increase growth parameters. Bacteriophages can be used potently to control bacterial diseases. Phages are newly used to manage the pathogenic bacterial population and provide a promising tool to cope with bacterial diseases instead of antibiotics. Bacteriophages have a unique property where they feed on specific bacteria only. This specification makes them future antibacterial agents. Still, there is a need to work on several experiments regarding the use of bacteriophages as antibacterial agents. The present chapter is promising and focusing one to reveal the new options and trends in agriculture.