Bacilli and Agrobiotechnology: Phytostimulation and Biocontrol

This book provides a comprehensive resource for researchers and students involved with studying the roles of Bacilli in sustainable crop production technologies. Chapters included in the book not only elaborate on beneficial traits of Bacilli, but also highlight utilization of these microbes for producing industrially important antibiotics, enzymes, probiotics and other useful biochemicals.

Feeding ever increasing world population from shrinking arable acreage led to a synthetic input (fertilizer, growth regulator, pesticide etc.) based crop production system, which has been creating both environmental and health hazards and may also make the whole production system unsustainable. Researchers, food producers and consumers alike, now realize that this world needs effective, environmentally smart agricultural technologies that are safe for people use less synthetic inputs and protect natural resources. To overcome the challenge of increasing food production with a significant reduction of agrochemicals use, a great deal of interest and research have been devoted to beneficial microorganisms/biostimulants in recent days with noteworthy positive results. Bacillus based biopesticide together with other bio-rational approaches may play a critical role in helping all the key drivers of sustainable, environmentally responsible food production with enhanced food quality. Although multiple strains of Bacillus spp. showed promise to contribute to the sustainable agriculture by making nutrients available to plants, providing additional defense to adverse abiotic and biotic stresses, research on Bacillus based product formulation, rate and crop selection, optimization of application timing are urgently needed. As crop plants are more vulnerable to abiotic and biotic stresses at the seedling stage, optimization of application timing should aid in alleviating those stresses for the successful completion of life cycle of a plant.