Potentials and Limitations of Multifunctional Microbial Stimulants in Sustainable Agriculture

Soil microbes play multiple beneficial role in rhizosphere of plants, for example, plant growth promoting microbes by fixing or solubilizing plant nutrients, by producing plant growth hormones, biodegradation of agro waste, bio-control of pest and diseases and bioremediation of toxic substances. The soil microbial biodiversity and populations are declining rapidly from the agro-ecosystems due to intensified cropping, use of toxic agrochemicals, decreasing soil moisture, increasing soil temperature, unfavorablechanges in soil pH and deposition of salts in the upper crust. Due to low soil organic matter and soil qualitydegradation the natural enrichment of nativesoil microbial population needed for multiple nutritional,disease management and other ecosystem services may not be regenerated automatically. Application of multiple strain consortia of beneficial soil microbes isolated from the soil of different conditions may help to sustain and enhance the crop productivity in a sustainable way without use of syntheticagrochemicals. The stability and ecological succession of inoculated microbes in the native and non-native agro-ecosystem have not been understood as yet which is essential to develop stable formulations of new generation bio-inoculants.