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Harnessing the power of microbes for crop productivity
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Monday, 23 September, 2024, 12 : 00 PM [IST]
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Harshvardhan Bhagchandka
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Liberating carbon from the terrestrial pool and releasing it into the atmosphere has significant long- and short-term impacts, affecting several parts of the world. In addition, with the World Economic Forum forecasting a worldwide population of 9.8 billion by 2050, the subject of discovering effective ways to adapt to increasing demand for food has been on the table even before the Green Revolution. The ineffectiveness of traditional agriculture to achieve the required 70–100% hike in productivity to feed the world by 2050, is cause for concern. To address this challenge, scientists and agricultural giants have turned their focus to soil, the world's most complex ecosystem, and its humble microbes to increase crop yields.
Role of Microbes in Agriculture
Excessive chemical use and misguided agricultural techniques have a significant impact on our natural resources, as well as the quantity and quality of harvests generated by the majority of farmers today. As a result, the need for sustainable agriculture methods has increased significantly. Microbes are essential for the functioning of soils and are a valuable natural resource for adapting to and alleviating climate change.
There are around 50 billion microbes in a single spoon of soil. These microorganisms improve crop yields in several ways. They play an important role in nutrient cycling, notably phosphate, which is required by crops but cannot be generated. Some bacteria create antibiotics to protect plants from pathogenic bacteria, while others directly encourage growth via Phytohormones. Others cause epigenetic modifications, which means they affect a plant's physiology to the extent of changing gene expression, making plants more prolific and resistant to change.
How do Microbes help in enhancing Crop Production?
There are multiple ways by which microbes contribute to improve crop production. Some of them are as follows:
Three Rs of Crop Protection Resistance: Resistance, a shift in a pest population's sensitivity to a pesticide, results in the pest's inability to be controlled despite proper pesticide administration. This situation can develop when chemical pesticides or comparable ones are applied repeatedly. Microbes, however, help in such situations by creating biological pesticides that are harmful to insect pests.
Residue: Pesticide residue is any specific material that remains after the use of pesticides in food, farm goods, or animal feed. In agriculture, bacteria convert these toxic residues into harmless compounds, lowering their probability of getting accumulated in the soil.
Resurgence: Pest resurgence occurs when pests that were previously targeted and successfully suppressed using pesticides return in greater numbers than before. When treated with microbes like bacteria and protozoans, these pests are controlled by each active ingredient.
Crop Nutrition In agriculture, microbes play a significant role in maintaining soil health as it promotes nutrient uptake and crop yields. Also, various microbes produce organic compounds that help in binding soil together while creating channels that allow for water and air movement.
Environmental Benefit Microbes are responsible for both the creation and destruction of foods. They play an important role in decreasing waste from spoiling, promoting environmental sustainability. Furthermore, certain bacteria decompose plastics, chemicals and agricultural waste whereas others convert excess fertiliser into a potent greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide.
Biofertilisers: A Step Towards Sustainable Agriculture
While the world's population continues to grow at a rapid pace, agricultural land remains restricted. One approach to address this increasing challenge is to boost the total quantity of food produced on the same area of land. Previously, farmers used to apply excessive Chemical Fertilisers to their crops. These were intended to boost critical soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, and help plants produce more food. Unfortunately, the health of local water systems is negatively impacted by these toxins, affecting the ecosystem. In addition, greenhouse gases are released during the manufacture of these chemical fertilisers, contributing to climate change. Microbial communities, also known as biofertilisers, are required in agriculture as an economical way of increasing crop output.
Biofertilisers are those bacteria which when given to plants, encourage their growth through improved nutrient bioavailability. They supply nutrients naturally by boosting enzyme production, which helps the plant absorb the nutrients it requires. This further contributes to plant growth and production. They are also regarded as the most well-known kind of microbial biostimulant. Considering these benefits, MarketsAndMarkets has projected that the global biofertiliser market is expected to reach $5.2 billion by the year 2028, at a CAGR of 10.9% during the anticipation period.
Soil organic matter (SOM) contributes to a number of critical elements of soil quality and crop production, such as nutrient production, soil property enhancement, soil quality and feature influence, and the maintenance of vital biological activities. The use of Chemical Fertilisers reduces SOM in the soil, leading to devastating consequences. As a result, preserving enough amounts of organic matter is critical to provide the most significant possible foundation for sustainable agriculture. Microbial inoculants have emerged as one such valuable agricultural method to enhance soil quality and crop yield. Moreover, the buildup of SOM is essential, particularly during times of global climate crisis, since it prevents carbon from being released into the atmosphere by retaining it in the soil instead. In a nutshell, soil microbes not only increase crop yields but also improve resilience to the consequences of climate change.
(The author is president at IPL Biologicals Ltd)
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