Bacterial probiotics: A truly green revolution

Abstract

Throughout history, the evolution and progress of all human civilizations have been closely linked to the evolution and development of agriculture, since this is the basis of food production to sustain population and ensure social stability. At the beginning of the twentieth century, due to great advances in medicine, world population increased significantly. This fact was derived to a situation in which the need to significantly increase the ability to produce food was necessary in order to feed all those people. And so, the Green Revolution in the 1960s-1980s was derived in a great increase of crops yields, saving many millions of people from starvation. One of the key factors in the Green Revolution was the application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Despite obvious benefit of these products in the amount of food produced, chemical fertilizers and pesticides have many negative impacts in health and environment. Many bacterial strains have been described as plant probiotics, and, by improving availability of nutrients and plant health, they produce an increase in crops yields in an eco-friendly manner. The growing concern about protecting environment, human health, and the need to produce more food with the limited resources for an exponentially growing population in the Earth is making that many worldwide companies are increasingly producing and commercializing bacterial-based biofertilizers, and the plant probiotics market is growing all around the world - the new Green Revolution is here.