Role of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) as BioFertilizers in Stabilizing Agricultural Ecosystems

Abstract

Non-judicious and over applications of different toxic, synthetic chemical fertilizers lead to several environmental hazards, causing damages to human, animal, and ecosystem health and can even result in unfavorable economic turnaround. Residual chemical fertilizers in aquatic and/or rhizosphere zones could potentially disrupt the natural ecosystem balance severely hampering both agricultural productivity and initiate several critical health issues. To avoid such environmental, agricultural, and health crises, serious attention has now been shifted toward the production of environmentally friendly biofertilizers with higher economic returns and better financial gains in comparison with conventional synthetic chemical fertilizers. Under intensive agricultural practices, application of biofertilizers is of particular importance in increasing soil fertility and ensures right movement toward sustainable agriculture. To improve the agricultural productivity and yield stability, utilization of conducive terricolous microorganisms such as rhizobacteria, as biofertilizers, has been found to be of quite important under in case of modern agricultural management. The present review was aimed to elucidate firstly the main conceptions of rhizosphere and rhizobacteria, and secondly the direct/indirect functions of rhizobacteria-mediated plant growth promotion.