Role of Beneficial Soil Microbes in Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Management

Rapidly increasing human population is expected to make food security a big issue in the future. Agriculture is facing severe challenges of land degradation, lesser productivity and susceptibility towards abiotic and biotic stresses. Sustainability in the agricultural sector is proving a formidable task because the current trend involves excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Besides these, anthropogenic activities such as urbanisation and industrialisation are generating more waste, posing a severe threat to the ecosystems. Various approaches were tried to eradicate waste and restore ecosystems, but the success was limited. Beneficial soil microbes (BSMs) are identified as suitable candidates that may help in the sustainable management of the environment. These microorganisms possess several mechanisms that can be exploited at the commercial level in developing biotechnology for solving the key environmental issues. Beneficial microbe-based products currently used in agroecosystems have shown remarkable success. Their proper use in agroecosystems is changing the scenario of present-day agriculture. In the future, utilisation of such microbes in the clean-up of pollutants, waste eradication and combating climate change can provide substantial aid in on-going-greener campaign towards environmental sustainability. In this review, we have summarised the role of BSMs particularly the plant-growthpromoting bacteria and fungi in sustainable agriculture and also addressed their role in the management of environmental problems.