Author(s):

Satyadev Prajapati, Naresh Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Lalita lakharan and Shivam Maurya

Abstract: It is estimated that diseases, insects and weeds together annually interfere with the production and destroy 36.5% crop production. In general losses of crops due to disease amount to 25% of world crop production per annum (Lugtenberg, 2015). Biological disease control is an attractive strategy for the control of plant diseases. Meanwhile, it also provides practices compatible with the goal of a sustainable agricultural system. Biological control is the suppression of disease by the application of a Biocontrol Agent (BCA) usually a fungus, bacterium, or virus. Weindling (1932) reported the parasitic nature of Trichoderma lignorum on several plant pathogens. Biological disease control is an attractive alternative strategy for the control of plant diseases. Meanwhile, it also provides practices compatible with the goal of a sustainable agricultural system. Insofar as we know, the mechanisms of bio-control may involve and be divided into (i) antibiosis, (ii) competition, (iii) mycoparasitism (iv) cell wall degrading enzymes, and (v) induced resistance. However, these mechanisms of biological control are probably never mutually exclusive. BCAs are plays an important role in controlling plant pathogens, especially soil borne fungal pathogens. The use of BCAs based products is not only safe for the farmers and consumers but it is also good for the environment. However, much more work needs to be done to develop stable, cost effective, easy to produce and easy to apply formulations. Effective biological control strategies in the future, critical to carry out more research studies on some less developed aspects of bio-control, including development of novel formulations, understanding the impact of environmental factors on bio-control agents, mass production of bio-control microorganisms and the use of biotechnology and nano-technology in improvement of bio-control mechanisms and strategies. Future outlooks of bio-control of plant diseases is bright and promising and with the growing demand for bio-control products among the growers, it is possible to use the biological control as an effective strategy to manage plant diseases, increase yield, protect the environment and biological resources and approach a sustainable agricultural system.

Pages: 1514-1523  |  2562 Views  1219 Downloads

Download (804KB)