scholarly journals Potential Use of Beneficial Microorganisms for Soil Amelioration, Phytopathogen Biocontrol, and Sustainable Crop Production in Smallholder Agroecosystems

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilbert Koskey ◽  
Simon Wambui Mburu ◽  
Richard Awino ◽  
Ezekiel Mugendi Njeru ◽  
John M. Maingi
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Plant Tolerance ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Beneficial Microorganisms ◽  
Plant Growth Promoting

Smallholder agroecosystems play a key role in the world's food security providing more than 50% of the food produced globally. These unique agroecosystems face a myriad of challenges and remain largely unsupported, yet they are thought to be a critical resource for feeding the projected increasing human population in the coming years. The new challenge to increase food production through agricultural intensification in shrinking per capita arable lands, dwindling world economies, and unpredictable climate change, has led to over-dependence on agrochemical inputs that are often costly and hazardous to both human and animal health and the environment. To ensure healthy crop production approaches, the search for alternative ecofriendly strategies that best fit to the smallholder systems have been proposed. The most common and widely accepted solution that has gained a lot of interest among researchers and smallholder farmers is the use of biological agents; mainly plant growth promoting microorganisms (PGPMs) that provide essential agroecosystem services within a holistic vision of enhancing farm productivity and environmental protection. PGPMs play critical roles in agroecological cycles fundamental for soil nutrient amelioration, crop nutrient improvement, plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, biocontrol of pests and diseases, and water uptake. This review explores different research strategies involving the use of beneficial microorganisms, within the unique context of smallholder agroecosystems, to promote sustainable maintenance of plant and soil health and enhance agroecosystem resilience against unpredictable climatic perturbations.

scholarly journals Soil Health and Sustainable Agriculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monther M. Tahat ◽  
Kholoud M. Alananbeh ◽  
Yahia A. Othman ◽  
Daniel I. Leskovar
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Conservation Tillage ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
The Impact

A healthy soil acts as a dynamic living system that delivers multiple ecosystem services, such as sustaining water quality and plant productivity, controlling soil nutrient recycling decomposition, and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Soil health is closely associated with sustainable agriculture, because soil microorganism diversity and activity are the main components of soil health. Agricultural sustainability is defined as the ability of a crop production system to continuously produce food without environmental degradation. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), cyanobacteria, and beneficial nematodes enhance water use efficiency and nutrient availability to plants, phytohormones production, soil nutrient cycling, and plant resistance to environmental stresses. Farming practices have shown that organic farming and tillage improve soil health by increasing the abundance, diversity, and activity of microorganisms. Conservation tillage can potentially increase grower’s profitability by reducing inputs and labor costs as compared to conventional tillage while organic farming might add extra management costs due to high labor demands for weeding and pest control, and for fertilizer inputs (particularly N-based), which typically have less consistent uniformity and stability than synthetic fertilizers. This review will discuss the external factors controlling the abundance of rhizosphere microbiota and the impact of crop management practices on soil health and their role in sustainable crop production.

scholarly journals Halotolerant Rhizobacteria for Salinity-Stress Mitigation: Diversity, Mechanisms and Molecular Approaches

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 490
Author(s):  
Alka Sagar ◽  
Shalini Rai ◽  
Noshin Ilyas ◽  
R. Z. Sayyed ◽  
Ahmad I. Al-Turki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Salinity Stress ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Germination Rate ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Nutrient Content ◽  
Shoot Elongation ◽  
Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria ◽  
Molecular Approaches ◽  
Plant Growth Promoting

Agriculture is the best foundation for human livelihoods, and, in this respect, crop production has been forced to adopt sustainable farming practices. However, soil salinity severely affects crop growth, the degradation of soil quality, and fertility in many countries of the world. This results in the loss of profitability, the growth of agricultural yields, and the step-by-step decline of the soil nutrient content. Thus, researchers have focused on searching for halotolerant and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) to increase soil fertility and productivity. The beneficial bacteria are frequently connected with the plant rhizosphere and can alleviate plant growth under salinity stress through direct or indirect mechanisms. In this context, PGPB have attained a unique position. The responses include an increased rate of photosynthesis, high production of antioxidants, osmolyte accumulation, decreased Na+ ions, maintenance of the water balance, a high germination rate, and well-developed root and shoot elongation under salt-stress conditions. Therefore, the use of PGPB as bioformulations under salinity stress has been an emerging research avenue for the last few years, and applications of biopesticides and biofertilizers are being considered as alternative tools for sustainable agriculture, as they are ecofriendly and minimize all kinds of stresses. Halotolerant PGPB possess greater potential for use in salinity-affected soil as sustainable bioinoculants and for the bioremediation of salt-affected soil.

scholarly journals Chemical Residues in Food Grains: The Burning Health Issues in Asian Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Health Effect ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Food Grains ◽  
Soil Nutrient Depletion ◽  
Chemical Residues ◽  
Storage Area

Food security is a high-priority issue for sustainable global development both quantitatively and qualitatively. Once pesticides are applied, residues may be found in soil, on plant, on harvested product, on application equipment, in water and irrigation canals, in pesticide storage area, on cloth of applicant. Short term poisoning effects like nausea, vomiting, headache, chest pain, eye, skin and throat irritation etc. and potential long-term health effect like allergies, cancer, nervous system damage, birth defects, reproductive problem have been reported in recent decades, adverse effects of unexpected contaminants on crop quality have threatened both food security and human health. Heavy metals, metalloids (e.g., Hg, As, Pb, Cd, and Cr) from pesticides and fertilizers can jeopardize human metabolomics, contributing to morbidity and even mortality. Those during crop production include soil nutrient depletion, water depletion, soil and water contamination, and pest resistance/outbreaks and the emergence of new pests and diseases.

Rhizosphere Engineering and Soil Sustainability

2021 ◽  
pp. 583-601
Author(s):  
Samreen Nazeer ◽  
Muhammad Zubair Akram ◽  
Madad Ali
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Soil Structure ◽  
Food System ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Soil Sustainability ◽  
Plant Growth Promoting ◽  
Current Production ◽  
Growth Promoting

Soils are a vital part of agricultural production. Soil health plays a significant role in the best crop production. Nowadays, our lands are under immense pressure. This pressure may be in the form of climatic changes that affect crop productivity or may be due to population increment that forces our current food system to produce more food to meet consumer needs. Climatic changes affect soil sustainability in the wrong way. Salinity, drought, and heavy metals disturb land structure badly. As the population increases, it dramatically impacts the current production system to fulfill the present needs. In all these situations, agricultural soil sustainability is a challenging factor for soil scientists to make our agriculture sustainable because agricultural sustainability couldn't be possible without maintaining soil health. Many approaches are available to improve soil structure and health. Among these, plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium is a good option. It not only improves soil structure but also helps the plants under abiotic stress conditions.

scholarly journals Biological Control of Soil-borne Phytopathogenic Fungi and their Mycotoxins by Soil Fauna

2013 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-298
Author(s):  
Stefan SCHRADER ◽  
Friederike WOLFARTH ◽  
Elisabeth OLDENBURG
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Soil Fauna ◽  
Conservation Tillage ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Conventional Tillage ◽  
Phytopathogenic Fungi ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Run Off ◽  
Toxin Degradation

Yield loss through harmful fungi is a serious problem in crop production worldwide. Cereal residues  like  straw  are  frequently  infected  by Fusarium  fungi,  which  produce  mycotoxins  like deoxynivalenol  (DON).  Mycotoxins  lead  to  quality  losses  in  cereal-based  food  and  feed  which endangers human and animal health. Especially under conservation tillage, when mulching techniques are applied to protect soil from erosion, run-off etc., residues should be efficiently degraded to protect the currently cultivated crop from fungal infection and mycotoxin contamination. The objective of this review  is  to  give  an  overview  on  which  role  decomposing  soil  fauna  plays  in  the  fate  of Fusarium fungi  and  there main  mycotoxin  DON  in  the  soil  system.  Generally,  soil  fauna  benefits  from conservation tillage compared to conventional tillage. Results from experiments in the laboratory and field  revealed  that  earthworms  as  primary  and  secondary  decomposers  as  well  as fungivorous collembolans  and  soil  nematodes  contribute  to  the  ecosystem  services  of  pathogen  depression  and toxin degradation with respect to Fusarium and DON. Fusarium seems to be an attractive food source. Furthermore, the mycotoxin DON does not cause any harm to the soil fauna tested. Key factors for the control  of Fusarium  development  by  antagonistic  soil  fauna  are:  (1)  interaction  with  soil microorganisms; (2) interaction of soil fauna species; (3) soil texture; (4) residue exposure. Ecosystem services of antagonistic soil fauna are vital to crop production and the functioning of agroecosystems. They will be discussed in a broader context of soil health and conservation tillage.

scholarly journals Model Approach of Crop Classification Using Logistic Regression

2020 ◽  
pp. 331-333
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Testing Tools ◽  
Machine Leaning ◽  
The Stability

Relation between agriculture and the human development is very old. From the beginning era all participant of food chain in second stage depends on agriculture. At the beginning state life was natural and moving. With the stability of humans use of specific land increased and now stage is , where , humans are useable to chemical products for increasing the quantity of crop production in the land. Though the use of external chemicals result in quantitative growth of crop, but internally soil health get suffer from it and one –day it might be loss her fertility. Soil testing tools has a vital role in testing the soil for nutrient in soil and test its productivity. Easy classification of soil on the basis of its different features and also from testing the quality of soil to suggest the additional supplement to improve the health and nutrient in the soil. Key objective of this paper is to capture soil health in concern of nutrient. In this paper we have shown the classification approach of soil nutrient and detecting the soil health. We have built model using machine leaning algorithm (Logistic Regression) in Python. Results are compared with standard chart of soil health contains from the agriculture laboratory. Our detection accuracy lies between 95 to 99%.

Assessment of soil quality under maize-wheat cropping system of Milak block, district Rampur, Uttar Pradesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-80
Author(s):  
Ravindra Kumar ◽  
Manoj Singh ◽  
A. K. Mishra ◽  
Reshu Singh ◽  
N. C. Tripathi
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Organic Matter Content ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Matter Content ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
Available Nitrogen

Soil is one of the most important vital natural resource, defends the life supporting system of a country and socio-economic development of its people. More than ever before, a renewed attention is being given to soil due to rapid declining land area for agriculture, declining soil fertility and increasing soil degradation, wrong land policies and imbalance use of inputs (Kanwar, 2004). All the above factors call for a paradigm shift in research away from maximum crop production to the sustainability of crop production system without degradation of soil health and environmental quality. Soils differ greatly in their morphological, physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Since these characteristics affect the response of soil to management practices it is necessary to have information about these characteristics of each category of soil. Soil fertility is one of the important factors controlling yields of the crops. Within a soil, nutrient variability exists depending upon the hydrological properties of the soil and cropping system. In the present study 366 soil samples were collected from 21 gram panchayats and were analyzed. The soil samples were collected from rice-wheat cropping sequence. Analysis of soil samples revealed that 82 per cent samples were medium in organic matter content, 100 per cent soil samples were deficient in available nitrogen, while 92 per cent P and 100 per cent K samples were in medium range respectively. Among the micronutrients tested copper and iron were in sufficient range while manganese and zinc were deficient in soil.

scholarly journals Farmers’ production constraints, perceptions and preferences of cowpeas in Buhera district, Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 16832-16857
Author(s):  
Gabriel Vusanimuzi Nkomo ◽  
◽  
MM Sedibe ◽  
MA Mofokeng' ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Insect Pests ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Moisture Stress ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Production Constraints ◽  
Cowpea Varieties

Many smallholder farmers face crop production constraints, especially under rapidly changing climatic conditions. A survey was carried out to assess farmers’ production constraints, traits, and preferred cowpea varieties. A semi-structured questionnaire was used in a survey of Buhera District, Zimbabwe, in March and April of 2018. Women farmers dominated the survey as they were 52% of the surveyed population, while men occupied 48% of the total population. Eighty-three percent of farmers cited the shortage, unavailability, and cost of fertiliser. Sixteen per cent of farmers acknowledged that they do not have access to quality seeds, and 1% cited labour as the major constraint in cowpea production. Cowpea yield varied from 100 to 500 kg/ha. However, 48% of farmers harvested 200 kg/ha.As for abiotic factors, farmers ranked heat (86%), drought (10%), and soil fertility (4%) as the most important abiotic factors.Ninety-one percent of farmers ranked rust as the most destructive disease, while 2% ranked storage rot, 1% ranked anthracnose, and 1% ranked downy mildew. Eighty-one percent of farmers cited aphids as the main pests, while 3% ranked thrips, 3% ranked legume borers, and 2% ranked pod borers as other pests.Fifty-two percent of farmers preferred varieties that are resistant to diseases such as rust, whereas 48% were not concerned about diseases.As for qualitative traits, 50% of farmers had no specific colour preference, 32% preferred white colour, 14% preferred brown colour, 3% preferred red colour, and 1% preferred tan colour. For quantitative traits, such as grain size, pod size, plant height, and head size, the preferences of farmers varied. Ninety-nine percent of the farmers interviewed preferred cowpea varieties that are bred for drought tolerance, as Buhera District is frequented by intermittent droughts. Farmers’ experience in growing cowpeas ranged from 5 to 30 years. The top ranked accessions were CBC1, IT 18, and Chibundi Chitsvuku,while the least ranked was Kangorongondo. Identified constraints to cowpea farming included lack of education,insect pests, diseases, drought, weeds, harvesting difficulties and a lack of agriculture extension advice. The survey showed that there is a need to breed for biotic factors such as pests and diseases and abiotic factors such as drought and moisture stress.

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