Abstract
The primary objectives of modern agriculture includes the environmental sustainability, low production costs, improved plants’ resilience to various biotic and abiotic stresses, and high sowing seed value. Delayed and inconsistent field emergence poses a significant threat in the production of agri-crop, especially during drought and adverse weather conditions. To open new routes of nutrients’ acquisition and revolutionizing the adapted solutions, stewardship plans will be needed to address these questions. One approach is the identification of plant based bioactive molecules capable of altering plant metabolism pathways which may enhance plant performance in a brief period of time and in a cost-effective manner. A biostimulant is a plant material, microorganism, or any other organic compound that not only improves the nutritional aspects, vitality, general health but also enhances the seed quality performance. They may be effectively utilized in both horticultural and cereal crops. The biologically active substances in biostimulant biopreparations are protein hydrolysates (PHs), seaweed extracts, fulvic acids, humic acids, nitrogenous compounds, beneficial bacterial, and fungal agents. In this review, the state of the art and future prospects for biostimulant seedlings are reported and discussed. Biostimulants have been gaining interest as they stimulate crop physiology and biochemistry such as the ratio of leaf photosynthetic pigments (carotenoids and chlorophyll), enhanced antioxidant potential, tremendous root growth, improved nutrient use efficiency (NUE), and reduced fertilizers consumption. Thus, all these properties make the biostimulants fit for internal market operations. Furthermore, a special consideration has been given to the application of biostimulants in intensive agricultural systems that minimize the fertilizers’ usage without affecting quality and yield along with the limits imposed by European Union (EU) regulations.
Highlights
In the present scenario, the agriculture sector faces concomitant hurdles to increase the crop production to sustain the rising population and maximize resource use efficiency (RUE) while minimizing the environmental effects on the ecosystem and human health [1,2].Exponential growth in the global human population from 1.7 billion to approximately7.6 billion in 2019, has resulted in the over-consumption leading to depletion of agricultural systems, such as grasslands being used for pasture, forage, and food production [3,4,5].Overexploitation and transformation of grassland into cropland has resulted in decline in the overall agricultural output leading to excessive soil erosion, deteriorated soil structure and decreased soil fertility
Awareness of the functions and use of biostimulants which contributes to concerns of a rise in cultivation costs and a decline in plant quantity and quality affecting the crop profitability
The industrialization of biostimulants based-seedlings has reduced the amount of chemical fertilizers in the ecosystem, and proved eco-friendly, reduce soil, air, and water pollution
Summary
Mor 1 , Jayanti Tokas 2 , Himani Punia 2, * , Shweta Malik 3 , Kamla Malik 4 , Sonali Sangwan 5 , Saurabh Tomar 6 , Pradeep Singh 1 , Nirmal Singh 1 , Himangini 7 , Vikram 8 , Nidhi 1 , Gagandeep Singh 1 , Vikram 8 , Vinit Kumar 9 , Sandhya 9 and Aman Karwasra 3. J.; Punia, H.; Malik, S.; Malik, K.; Sangwan, S.; Tomar, S.; Singh, P.; Singh, N.; et al Biostimulant-Treated. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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