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Archives of Clinical Microbiology
ISSN: 1989-8436
Virology and Infectious Diseases 2019
EuroSciCon Conference on
Virology and Infectious Diseases
S
oil fertility and health is continuously declining due to removal of essential plant nutrients from the soils in the current
changing climate scenario. Low and high water and temperature stresses results in the deficiencies of essential plant
nutrients, organic matter and beneficial soil microbes that had negative impact on soil health, crop productivity and grower’s
income especially under arid and semiarid climates globally. Integrated nutrients management in arid and semiarid climates
increase soil fertility and health, increase crop productivity and grower’s income. Integrated nutrients management refers to
the maintenance of soil fertility and improvement in crop productivity with application of plant nutrients through combined
application of organic manures, inorganic/chemical fertilizers and bio-fertilizers (beneficial microbes). Beneficial microbes are
known to play several vital roles in soil fertility; crop productivity and profitability. Bio-fertilizers are the prod¬ucts containing
living cells of different types of beneficial microbes (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae and viruses). Some of the commonly
used beneficial microbes in agriculture include Rhizobia, Mycorrhizae, Azospirillum, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Trichoderma,
Streptomyces species etc. Beneficial microbes are essential for decomposing organic matter in the soil and increase essential
macro-nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium and magnesium) and micro-nutrients (boron, copper, chlorine,
iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc) availability to crop plants. Beneficial microbes also play significant role in solid wastes
and sewage management. Beneficial microbes increase plants tolerance to different environmental stresses (drought, heat,
cold, salinity etc.) and increase plant resistance to insects and diseases attacks. Beneficial microbes not only improve crop
growth and productivity by increasing photosynthesis and producing hormones and enzymes, but also improve crop quality
by controlling different insects and various plant diseases. Beneficial microbes reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and
thereby reduce environmental pollution caused by chemical fertilizers. Beneficial microbes reduce cost of production and so
increase grower’s income and profitability. Beneficial microbes are therefore very important for increasing crop productivity,
profitability and sustainability. Applications of organic manures such as crop residues, animal manures, chicken manures, green
manures, composts, farm yard manure, biochar, ash etc. increases the beneficial microbes in the soil and improves soil health
and sustainability. Our long-term field experiments on field crops e.g. cereals crops (rice, wheat & maize), oilseed crops (canola,
sunflower & soybean) and grain legumes/pulses (chickpea, mungbean & mashbean) confirmed a significant increase in yield
per unit area with integrated nutrients management under semiarid climate in Peshawar Valley. The combined application of
plant nutrients especially major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potash) along with different organic sources (farmyard
manure; animal manures: poultry manure, cattle manure, sheep manure, goat manure etc., plant residues: onion residues, garlic
residues, wheat residues, rice residues, chickpea residues, fababean residues, canola residues etc.) into the soil plus application
of beneficial microbes had significantly improved crop growth and increased productivity and profitability.
amanullah@aup.edu.pkBeneficial microbes in agriculture: Symbiosis for
sustainable soil management and crop production
in changing climates
Amanullah
The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan
Arch Clin Microbiol 2019, Volume:10
DOI: 10.4172/1989-8436-C1-018