AUTHOR=Kebede Erana 

TITLE=Competency of Rhizobial Inoculation in Sustainable Agricultural Production and Biocontrol of Plant Diseases

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.728014

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2021.728014

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=The rate of growth of global population poses a risk to food security demanding for increase of 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 more economically and environmentally sustainable approach. As practices of agricultural production improvement, rhizobia inoculants represent practically effective, ecologically safe and economically alternative means of realizing maximum agricultural production. This review addresses how rhizobia inoculation advances agricultural production through improving plant growth, nutrient availability and uptake and yields enhancing bio-fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and solubilization of soil nutrients. Besides, rhizobia inoculants offer biocontrol of plant diseases by providing resistance against disease-causing pathogens and/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, exo-polysaccharides and among others. Consequently, this approach is environmental-friendly and promising sustainable agricultural practices having 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 implementation of this practice by farmers. Therefore, researchers should work on eradicating farmers' constraints in using rhizobia and future studies should be concentrated towards the methods of improving inoculants quality and promotion of the technology.