| Popis: |
Soil contamination is becoming a major problem in many parts of the globe owing to indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, industrial effluents, microplastics, petrochemicals, waste disposal, etc. Actually, surface water which interacts with contaminated soil and goes underneath could also become contaminated. The contaminants (heavy metals and pesticides) also pass to animals feeding on vegetation grown in contaminated soil and in turn to humans. In the above scenario, biofertiliser containing different species of beneficial microbes proves to be very effective in treating contaminated soils as microbes degrade the contaminants into a less toxic form. The microbial remediation technique proved to be very effective in the treatment of hydrocarbons and pesticides. Similarly, fungal remediation also degrades contaminants, and they have the ability to alleviate the toxicity effect of certain heavy metals. As a bio-inoculant, PGPR is widely used to support survival of plants under stressed conditions, such as pesticide contamination of soil. The studies have documented that introduction of microorganisms into soil led to mineralisation of organic pollutants. Thus, introduction of biofertiliser into contaminated soils improved the supply of nutrients to crop plants for their vigorous growth as well as restricted the activity of plant pathogens. |
