Abstract

The rate of growth of the global population poses a risk to food security, demanding an increase in food production. Much of the world's cultivable soils also do not have ideal farming conditions such as soil health and fertility problem and increased pest attacks, which are challenges of food production. In this perspective, there is a need to increase agricultural production using a more economically and environmentally sustainable approach. As practices of agricultural production and improvement, rhizobial inoculants represent a practically effective, ecologically safe, and economically alternative means of realizing maximum agricultural production. This review addressed how rhizobial inoculation advances agricultural production through improving plant growth, nutrient availability and uptake, and yields by enhancing bio-fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and solubilization of soil nutrients. Besides, rhizobial inoculants offer biocontrol of plant diseases by providing resistance against disease-causing pathogens or suppression of diseases. Mechanisms involved in biocontrol of plant diseases include competition for infection sites and nutrients, activation of induced systemic resistance, and production of substances such as growth hormones, antibiotics, enzymes, siderophores, hydrogen cyanide, and exo-polysaccharides. Consequently, this approach is promising as sustainable agricultural practices have yet to supplement or replace chemical fertilizers, serving as a basis for future research on sustainable agricultural production. Despite the multifunctional benefits of rhizobial inoculation, there is a variation in the implementation of this practice by farmers. Therefore, researchers should work on eradicating farmers' constraints in using rhizobia, and future studies should be concentrated toward the methods of improving inoculant quality and promotion of the technology.

Highlights

  • The growth rate of the global human population increases alarmingly, demanding a substantial increase in food production

  • Rhizobia are the most widely and practically explored soil bacteria in agricultural practices due to their competence to form a symbiotic association with legume crops

  • The main objective behind the inoculation of legumes with effective species of specific rhizobia is an improvement in the infection establishment, nodulation, biomass, yield component, yield, and nutrient uptake of the crops

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Summary

Erana Kebede*

Much of the world’s cultivable soils do not have ideal farming conditions such as soil health and fertility problem and increased pest attacks, which are challenges of food production In this perspective, there is a need to increase agricultural production using a more economically and environmentally sustainable approach. Mechanisms involved in biocontrol of plant diseases include competition for infection sites and nutrients, activation of induced systemic resistance, and production of substances such as growth hormones, antibiotics, enzymes, siderophores, hydrogen cyanide, and exo-polysaccharides. This approach is promising as sustainable agricultural practices have yet to supplement or replace chemical fertilizers, serving as a basis for future research on sustainable agricultural production.

INTRODUCTION
Rhizobia Used as an Inoculant in Agriculture
Alphaproteobacteria Bradyrhizobiaceae
Arachis hypogaea Peanut
Chickpea Phaseolus vulgaris
Pueraria candollei Phaseolus vulgaris
Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia Different hosts
Common beans Cowpea Faba beans
Rhizobial Inoculation Improves Nutrient Availability and Uptake by Plants
Cicer arietinum
RHIZOBIAL INOCULANTS AS A BIOCONTROL AGENT OF PLANT DISEASES
Rhizobia as a Biocontrol Agent of Plant Diseases Caused by Fungi
Rhizobia as a Biocontrol Agent of Plant Diseases Caused by Bacteria
Rhizobia as a Biocontrol Agent of Plant Diseases Caused by Viruses
Rhizobia as a Biocontrol Agent of Plant Diseases Caused by Nematodes
FUTURE INTERVENTIONS ON RHIZOBIAL INOCULANTS
Findings
CONCLUSIONS
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