Biological Interventions Towards Management of Essential Elements in Crop Plants

Autor: Dwaipayan Sinha, Pramod Tandon
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Sustainable Solutions for Elemental Deficiency and Excess in Crop Plants ISBN: 9789811586354
Popis: Nutrition plays an important role in the overall developmental process of plants. Nutrients play a vital role in the nutrition process. Plants absorb their nutrients largely based on two mechanisms, namely the autotrophic mode and the sequestration mode. The former relates to the photosynthetic process, while the latter relates to absorbing nutrients from the atmosphere. In plants the elements play an important role as nutrients and depending upon the requirement and presence within the plant body they are classified into macronutrients and micronutrients. The world is facing an increase in population since the last 300 years which can be correlated to the industrialization and modernization. This has resulted in an increase in global food demand and consequent increase in agricultural intensification. The requirement of fertilizer gradually became more relevant in order to increase the crop productivity from a comparatively limited area of arable land. However the use of chemical fertilizers also has its own limitations. On the one hand most of them are exhaustible and less likely to be recovered post-application and on the other hand excess use of those fertilizers can result in toxicity in the soil leading to elemental stress. Thus to overcome these contrivances, the scientific fraternity is presently shifting their focus from chemicals to greener approach by using the biological agents largely based on microbes. The most unique feature of the microbes is their capability to solubilize, uptake and assimilate nutrients from otherwise hardy substrates which cannot be broken down easily or require rigorous physical and chemical processes. In addition to it, there are a number of microbes which can form a symbiotic relationship with plants and deliver essential nutrients to the host plant in return of space and protection. These properties of microbes have enabled scientist to formulate a number of biofertilizers. This chapter is an attempt to overview the various microbial organisms that are beneficial to the plants with respect to the supply of nutrients. The mechanisms of action of the microbes in uptake and delivery of the nutrients have also been discussed in the process.
Databáze: OpenAIRE