Chapter 1 - Tiny microbes, big yields: Microorganisms for enhancing food crop production for sustainable development

Abstract

Plant-associated microbiomes are diverse and enormous as well as can be best explored in farming sector as the potential tool to improve the plant flexibility and yields. The advent of biological technologies prefer microbes or their metabolites as the reliable and efficient tool for enhanced nutrient uptake, product yield, pests control as well as to alleviate plant stress responses. However, the potential of microbial technology followed by their effectiveness and reliability need to be improved extensively under the realistic conditions. There has been an emerging interest toward the application of optimized environmental-friendly microbial biofertilizers and biopesticides in various soils and crop varieties. During crop breeding programs, the understanding of beneficial plant-microbe interactions would be beneficial to breed ‘microbe-optimized plants.’ Further, microbiome engineering needs to be explored to select the potential microbial consortia best suited to support plant. Eventually, the integration of crop breeding programs with microbiome engineering is required to significantly improve crop yields which in turn maximize benefits and overcome the problems associated with food security.