Microbial Seed Coating-An Emerging Strategy towards Organic Vegetable Production: A Review

Abstract

New revolutions have been taking place in agriculture since pre-historic times to increase agricultural production and meet the demands of rising population. The last revolution or green revolution has increased the overall production of all agricultural components but has led to several long-term environmental problems. Almost 62% of vegetables and 82% of fruits are found to have pesticide residues, which can affect our health in different ways. This have arisen the fear of eating raw fruits and vegetables and led to sublethal effects on natural enemies and pollinators. So, it is the very need of hour to look for sustainable approaches to control the plant diseases. Most of the plant pathogens are seed borne and disseminated. Thus, they affect the plants during pre-emergence stage or cause seedling damping off resulting in 100% crop loss. Under sustainable practices, microbial seed coating is an evolving precision technology. It enhances the shelf-life and activity of beneficial microbes and thereby decrease the use of harmful chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Natural products such as biochar, chitosan, peat, acacia gum, natural dyes from flowers Phutuka, Polash, Khoyar, Kodam can be used to manufacture microbial seed coats manually. Agribusiness firms Incotec, Novozymes and Monsanto have also led to developing of coated seeds laced with promising microbes. Thus, adoption of microbial seed coating can be a cost effective and efficient strategy in organic horticultural production.