Bio-priming Mediated Nutrient Use Efficiency of Crop Species

Abstract

Soil contamination and environmental hazard from the indiscriminate and excessive application of agrochemicals on crops have been key issues for the present-day agriculture. Additionally, the risk to human health has also led to stringent regulatory framework around the use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture. Bio-inoculants have emerged as the most feasible eco-friendly solution to these issues and have been gaining considerable consumer acceptance since the time they were first introduced. Bioagents are substances containing living microorganisms which promote plant growth and maintain the soil and crop health by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant. Bio-priming which involves seed priming in combination with low dosage of beneficial microorganisms is becoming a potentially prominent technique to induce profound changes in versatility of plant performance, encourage desired attributes in crop growth, and stabilize the efficacy of biological agents in the present fragile setup of agriculture by reducing dependency on chemical inputs and offers an attractive option for resource-poor farmers being an easy and cost effective method. The most prominent contributors in fungi and bacteria which are used extensively in bio-priming include Trichoderma, Pseudomonas, Glomus, Bacillus, Agrobacterium, and Gliocladium. Here in this review, we discuss the potential of bio-priming for improving crop growth and nutrient use efficiency and provide an assessment of bioagents currently used with crop species and key limitations involved.